Community

County Fair Submissions

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We do not belong to 4H, nor or we farmers in the sense that we rely on our bounty for profit.  However, we are a creative bunch that likes to get our hands dirty in the earth and create projects, and what better way to celebrate these than to participate in the county fair.

I know we all have memories from childhood, the midway rides the animals, and cotton candy on a stick.  I just love the fair, I am a cowgirl at  heart.  Every year we take the kids to look at the animals and get a milkshake from the diary trailer.

Now that the kids are a little older we have started a new tradition of entering projects garden grown goodies.

The 3 older kids entered their Lego projects and were given participation ribbons.

Santanna’s Project and her ribbon.

Raiven’s project and her ribbon.

The little girls also entered onions and kohlrabis:

Santanna’s first place kohlrabis.

Avalon’s 3rd place red onions.

Solomon entered red mulberry jam and won first place.  I am so proud of him, he spend at lest 4 hours harvesting the berries from a tree in my mom’s back yard, then he rinsed them, took the stems, off and followed a no cook freezer jam recipe.

I entered the growth chart into an adult woodworking hobby category, I was very pleased to receive a second place ribbon.

The kids take from this experience a pride in participation.  They were very gracious about each others winnings and were already buzzing about what to make next year, taking inspiration from so many wonderful other projects on display.

We did also earn $4.50 in prize money, just enough for one more milkshake…or Tom Thumb donuts….mmmmmm, fair food!

It is such fun participating in the fair and it always seem to come and go so quickly.  Can’t wait until next year!!

Signed up for a local garden plot

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We have always has in our backyard a garden, clearly laid out, with a nice border or fence of some sort, which has produced numerous healthy and great tasting fruits and veggies for our family.  I really enjoy going out at lunch time and picking fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and sometimes peas in June for my salad.  I love watching the kids run out and pick fresh strawberries out of the patch staining their lips and fingers red.

We have a lot that is 1/2 an acre, on this sits our house so the amount on actual space to play is much less, with 4 kids and a small horse of a dog, we are trying a new gardening tactic this year.  This will open up some of the precious green play space for the kids, but still allow us to grow a garden.

I am keeping the strawberry patch and will have some tomatoes in containers on the deck these are the items I can’t have farther than this 1/2 an acre away.

Our city has 2 large spots that they till up and section off into 30 X 30 garden plots.  Each gets a number and is $30.  on May 1st we are allowed to some and plant in our spot.  We will have to carry in all the water that our plants will need.  I think the kids are going to love this, Solomon really likes to garden, he told me once, “gardening is more fun than playing”.   The plot is located just down the hill from our house it will take about 5 minutes to get  there and it is right off the bike path that connects to the kids school and fields where they practice soccer. 

We now have to decide what plants we are going to grow, and how we want to organize our 30 X 30 plot.  I  plan to post a weekly picture of the plot so everyone can see how quickly (hopefully;)) our plants grow! Stay tuned!!!