Lumberjack Days

In July, we went to a Lumberjack Festival in a small town about an hour away. We like this festival because it really is a festival. No beer tent, no midway games. Instead they have pie eating contests, greased pig contests, and arm wrestling.

They also had a lumberjack show. Three men show off lumberjack skills while making lots of jokes with the crowd. There is the ax throw...

...and the cutting through a log in about 15 seconds. There was a log rolling contest which the children found very funny.

You could also compete to win a new chainsaw by being the fastest in cutting one slice down, one slice up, and one slice down.

Besides all that, there was an arts and crafts fair and fantastic BBQ pulled pork. On the way back to the van, we ran across a man who had a sign up saying 3 arrows for $1. So we tried it out. It turns out that he knows a lot about shooting and gave us all a short lesson on how to shoot an arrow.

While you were waiting your turn, you could shop at his wife's garage sale. Ain't America a great place to live?

Food Glorious Food

It is the bountiful days of the garden. Corn on the cob almost every night. Tomato salads and salsas. Grilled zucchini. Stuffed eggplant. Sweet cantelope for breakfast.

Deborah and I made blueberry muffins from her American Girl Cookbook. They were very good.

With the big zucchinis I'm making lots of zucchini bread and freezing it. We usually eat some kind of sweet bread for breakfast on Sundays and this will help me out when I'm too busy to bake something on Saturday.

This is the product of one busy day. Pickle relish on the left, calico corn in the middle, and blackberry jelly on the right.

County Fair

We had a perfect night in August to visit the county fair. Deborah brought her own money and wanted to ride the ponies.

We looked at all the large and small farm animals and the merchant booths and petted the animals at the petting zoo.

We saw the wild animal show. This year was the tiger show. I think this is Samson.

And of course, we got cotton candy!

We rode the ferris wheel after dark.

Then my dh decided to let the children ride one more thing. Nathan and Aaron rode the bumper cars and Stephen and Deborah wanted to ride the rollercoaster. I was surprised that Deb wanted to ride it. My dh said she looked terrified on the first hill but enjoyed herself after that. Here's what the rollercoaster looked like from the ferris wheel.

And how did we do in the judging? The children got an A ribbon for potatoes and B ribbons for beans, squash, carrots, and eggplant. We got our first A ribbon for our eggs.

I got a first place ribbon for my beets, a second place ribbon for my relish, and a third place ribbon for my jelly.