Boyden High School Class of ‘69 plans 50th reunion
The 1969 graduating class of Boyden High School (now Salisbury High School) is in the process of planning its 50th high school reunion. Activities are being arranged for the weekend of Oct. 18-20, including a dinner for classmates, spouses, and former teachers on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 19.
Alumni wishing to join with the reunion committee in planning the events should contact Debbie Young Carter at debbieandsummie@yahoo.com
All ‘69 classmates should send their contact information to Franklin Miller at fmiller@rsvpcomm.com

Genealogical Society of Rowan County
7 p.m. Tuesday March 19: Continued exploration of our Revolutionary War ancestors.
Meet at the Back Country Peddler, 123 N. Main St., Salisbury. All are welcome.

Loss of a Spouse seminar
MOORESVILLE — A 2-hour seminar for people grieving a spouse’s death, held on March 23 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Shearer Presbyterian Church, 684 Presbyterian Road.
The seminar features a video with practical, encouraging advice from counselors, pastors, and widowed men and women, followed by a small-group sharing time. Learn what to expect in the days ahead, how to handle the loneliness, what to do with your spouse’s belongings, and how to find the strength to go on.
For information or to register call 704-236-7570 or visit Shearerpca.com

Scrabble Scramble
The 16th Annual Scrabble Scramble benefiting the Rowan County Literacy Council will be held on Friday, April 5, at 6 p.m. at Trinity Oaks.
Guests will be offered a selection of hors d’oeuvres and desserts and will participate in three lively rounds of team Scrabble competition.
Raffle tickets for prizes can be purchased throughout the evening. Tickets are $30 for an individual or $300 for a table of up to 10 players. Participants may create their own teams or request to be assigned to a team. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners at the end of the evening.
For tickets or more information, call the Literacy Council at 704-216-8266, email info@rcliteracy.org or visit www.rcliteracy.org

Southern Piedmont Woodturners
CONCORD — Bill Stricker will speak about the Windsor style 3-legged stool on Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m. The social hour begins at 5:30 p.m.
Held at Clearwater Artist Studios 223 Crowell Drive, NW.
For those involved, bring in your maple piece for the Challenge from Ric Erkes, the club fund raiser for our club.
Turner of the Month: Cindy Boehrns
Monthly challenge: Tea light (any size > 4” wide)
With questions, call Phil at 704-796-0803.

Volunteer to assist at annual VIP Miniature Golf Tournament
On April 13 the Rowan County Parks and Recreation Department’s Therapeutic Recreation Division’s 31st Annual Statewide Visually Impaired Miniature Golf Tournament will be held at Dan Nicholas Park’s two ADA compliant miniature courses, at 6800 Bringle Ferry Road.
We expect approximately 80 golfers and 70 volunteers from across North Carolina at this year’s tournament. Volunteers will work as sighted guides to assist the participants with lining up their putts, describing the course, and pointing out obstacles.
Following the tournament trophies will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each sight division as well as for the most holes-in-one in each division.
Registration for participants and volunteers closes Friday, March 22 at 5 p.m. The entry fee is $5 per person. For more information contact the Therapeutic Recreation Division at 704-216-7780 or visit www.rowancountync.gov/1366/VIP-Mini-Golf

Deadline for March 21 ESU dinner meeting
Deadline is Monday for the March 21 English Speaking Union dinner and program featuring Dan Swartwood on cybersecurity.
Dinner and program is $32. RSVP to 704-216-2660 or gwood@gerrywoodauto.com or for more information visit https://www.esuus.org/salisbury
First visit does not require membership.

Kneeling Gardeners

Kannapolis — The Kneeling Gardeners met Feb. 25 at Trinity United Methodist Church program for a program given by Jerry and Tanya Sumerel, owners of Honeysuckle Hill Bee Farm.
Jerry is a certified NC State Beekeeper and an authorized dealer by the NC Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services to sell bees. He continues his education to stay abreast of the latest information. Jerry and Tanya volunteer at local fairs, host bee farm tours and even mentor aspiring beekeepers. They have won multiple awards for Best Comb Honey, Best Dark Honey, and Best Creamed Honey.

A beekeeper or “apiarist” is a person dedicated to a 10,000-year-old art form of housing of bees to produce honey, wax, pollen and royal jelly. hey work with the bees to produce products while maintaining a safe and healthy environment for the hard workers. Numerous hives are in various yards in the area. These out-yards support local farmers and gardeners while also providing ample resources for their bees. A healthy hive of about 55,000 bees can produce up to 100 pounds of honey. They only need about 35 pounds to live on through the winter. The first three weeks of a bee is spent working in the hive. They are called house bees and they do certain jobs like clean the cells, feed larvae build wax comb, store food and defend the hive. Each house bee goes through all the jobs predetermined according to their age. The amazing part of this is that the average worked bee lives only six weeks and makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. One field bee can visit 10 flowers a minute and may visit 600 in one trip. In order to produce one pound of raw honey, about 2 million flowers must be visited. A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey and one bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year.

The queen bee is an egg laying machine. She may lay 1200 to 2000 eggs per day. A queen may last up to 5 years, but the usual life span is about 2 years. The worker bees feed her royal jelly and groom her. Male bees are called drones and they mate with the queen. After mating only once, they fall to the ground dead. Drones may float around between hives. If a queen delivers a male, she will not mate with him. In the fall of the year the queen will lay winter bees. The worker bees are all female. They may raise another queen if they see the queen is failing. During periods of bad weather, bees do not use the bathroom in the hive. They can hold it 3 to 4 months and then come out on a clear day to use the bathroom. Bee hive boxes may be stacked to add additional space for the bees to keep them from leaving if there is not enough room. They prefer the box to be in the sun along a tree line. Bait boxes are strapped to nearby trees to attract the bees if they should swarm, to encourage them to reside there.

The Sumerel’s have a “Honey House” in the back yard where they make candles, honey butter, and bottle the honey. They showed us how they extract the honey from the hives to bottle the samples they brought for us to try and purchase for home use as well. Honey has long had wonderful health benefits. Honey butter is honey cooled down to make a creamed honey. An assortment of flavors was available for tasting..

If you are interested in gardening, join us on March 25 at 7 pm for a historical program about the origination of the Kneeling Gardeners.