Corn and fairs

Garry ,my father Ron and I at the fair back in the day
 (about 1981)

Yesterday Garry chopped corn from 6 am to 8 pm, the old New Holland chopper is still around (it is the one piece of machinery the guys are willing to let him use, I think). Yes, they did have to start the harvest early  this year, sadly it was 40 C (104 F) again today and last week's rain was not enough to save the early corn. The corn plants will start drying out in the extreme heat (no rain in the long term forecast either) so they will be chopping corn until they have as much corn silage made as he is projecting the cows will eat in the next year.

 Of course we will need more than in previous years with more cows milking in the fall with the trade school barn being ready for September. He tells me it will not be like two years ago when it was hard to find a kernel of corn when forking the silage to the cows, more like last year's crop, there are cobs on the stalks now. They had to tear apart one of the Belarus tractors to fix it, and so they had borrowed a big tractor from a neighboring farmer for the day. They thought they had the problem with the blue tractor repaired yesterday. He will be hard at it in a hour or two because it is almost 5 am Monday in Ukraine (10 pm EDT, 9 CDT Sunday evening)

I went to church at Emley's Hill this morning, where I remember going for one of the Havens' family reunions as a child (another ancestor on my mother's side of the family, apparently her mother organized the first reunion in 1947, I found letters about it when going through a box of paperwork last night.) I found a stained glass window with Havens on it, looking around at the windows, I realized that either the Emleys, Johnsons Polhemus and Jones had married into most of the families!

After I returned home I took the dog for a quick walk (it had been raining when we got up in the morning) and then I went with my brother and father to the Mercer County 4H Fair. We drove up Highway 29 toward Lambertville, bringing back some memories for me as Garry and I often drove that way to Pennsylvania when going to university in Doylestown (he graduated in 1980.) They have finished a lovely tunnel at Trenton to connect I-195 with old 29, making the trip much easier than in the old days.

My father and brother checking out a chicken display

Here are some fair photos- going to the fair was nostalgic for me because Garry and I met at another local county fair when we were showing  cows. My niece was showing rabbits and chickens at this fair. We had a good time checking out the exhibits and, of course. the animal tents, but there were no cows, just goats, sheep and horses.
We bought some hotdogs and baked potatoes there and father got a big bowl of ice cream to eat too.

Showing daddy the ducks

as the sign says this sheep ate its sign!
 It also said his name is Montgomery

Father enjoyed looking at the dteam engine, but we did not pay $5 for a wagon ride

This goat has decided he's tired of the goat cart rides