The Austin Pond Society held it’s Annual Swap and Sell Meeting on Monday, July 17 at the usual place, the Zilker Botanical Gardens Meeting Room. The meeting was attended by about 40 of it’s members who were treated to the good old American standby, hot dogs with all of the fixin’s. Members supplied the deserts mostly of different types of cookies.

While the members were enjoying the meal, the four members who had brought items to swap or sell were setting up outside in the patio area. I would like to say that they were doing a roaring trade but alas, that was just not the case. A few people wandered out to see what was available  but it appeared that the majority stayed inside where it was cooler. There was some very interesting and useful stuff available. Everything from a push lawn mower, to pond decorations of various types, all kinds of garden tools, a birdhouse on a pole just to name a few. There were a few plants, mostly lilies which were a popular item probably because they were free which always helps. All four of the item donors made some sales but it was a little disappointing to say the least. BJ especially was pleased that she will not have to bring the lawnmower back next year. She had to give a demonstration and mowed half of the lawn out the front in doing so. Must have worked as someone bought it.

There were several of the Board that were missing including Jeannie, our President,  Nancy our Parliamentarian and Julienne our Secretary, all away on vacation.  There wasn’t anything in the way of urgent business that needed our attention and Barb Lenhardt  filled in for Jeannie  and took over the role at President complete with mic to go around the membership to get any questions, introduce any new members and generally try to convince people that there was probably something outside on one of the tables that they really needed and to go out and get it. Alas, not too many people got the message and we were all through by 8:10pm wrapped up and cleaned up.

Personally, I thought there was some pretty neat stuff out there and I am really surprised that more people didn’t take advantage of some of the deals. For myself, the only thing I can say is that the 5 gallon bucket of trimmed waterlilies that I brought in that were ready for planting, were all taken but then again, they too were free…

APS Swap Meeting 2017 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

Again, apologies for the quality of the video as I am still working out the kinks of using my DSLR camera as a movie camera. One thing for sure that if I have to film for any length of time, I need to use a tripod to stop the camera from losing focus. Below is the video of the Business Section of the meeting.

APS Business July 2017 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

The next meeting will be held on August 14, same place, same time. The Speaker will be Steve Lash from the Honeycomb Fish Farm. Steve is one of the new sponsors for this year and is located in Cedar Park.Come and learn about what to look for when you are choosing Koi & Goldfish.