The Expo Was a Lot of Work!

As mentioned in my prior post, I had volunteered to help my friends over at Hoss Tools at the AG Expo last week (Tuesday thru Thursday). This Expo is mainly geared towards commercial farmers but my friend talked the shows representatives into letting him open a Sustainable Living Center for home gardeners that were interested in more natural & organic growing methods. Especially since at least a third of the attendees are home gardeners as well.

The location of the show is on an old airfield (over 600 acres). Last year was the first year & it rained almost the entire time & was basically a muddy mess. But, there was a lot of interest so the Center was deemed to stay. They added an open air metal building to hold the vendors & displays of pumpkins which was the theme this year. And, they have a garden shed where attendees can select which implements they want to try. There are single wheel hoes, double ones as well, plus a double seeder & a sweeper attachment (to cut weeds off while pushing through the rows), raised bed kits & a variety of rakes & hoes. The garden was fenced off & divided into 9 or 10 sections. Each holding various flowers & vegetables (4 or 5 kinds of pumpkins, 7 or 8 of squash, pinkeye peas, 2 kinds of okra, various lettuces, pak choy, broccoli, zinnias & cockscomb & sunflowers just to name a few).

They had to bring in over 18 cubic yards of compost because the dirt there was in bad condition. Farmers Organic supplied the compost & Johnny's Seeds supplied the seeds & they both had booths in the building. There was also a speaking tent where various people gave speeches throughout the days, including NY Times best selling author Forrest Pritchard who was promoting his newest book Growing Tomorrow.

We got started each day around 7:00a & ended around 5:00p. The first day started out quite chilly but warmed up to a nice 78 degrees. The next 2 days were quite warm. There were 2 other volunteers from nearby who both have organic gardens, One has a CSA with her brother. We walked around the garden answering peoples questions. Hoss Tools demonstrated their products & let people try them out for themselves. It was quite tiring & as I arose each morning around 5:30a I felt like I had gone back to work!

The interest & enthusiasm showed by attendees was outstanding. Greg from Hoss was interviewed by various newspapers & gave 2 separate live interviews from local newstations. The gardens were beautiful & people were very impressed. We hope to expand next year, maybe have some raw milk & grass fed beef and/or pork products.

There was another vendor (Lauri Jo's) who was exhibiting in one of the larger buildings, doing live cooking demonstrations. She brought in celebrity chefs each day & they came to the garden each morning to pick product to use in some of their demos. Who knows maybe next year we can have a chef or two on site (in the building).

Although this show is always held in the fall, the Media Girl from the show was talking about doing a Spring/Early Summer event just for the Center (read ... no big AG). We'll see.

Here are a few random pictures ...

Raised bed with Salanova Lettuce

L shaped raised bed containing herb

Hexagon raised bed containing, ornamental kale & cabbage

Rainbow Chard, Kale, Romaine, Elegance Asian Lettuce Mix

Zinnias & Cockscomb

Sunflowers

The other 2 volunteers & Greg from Hoss Tools

Double Wheel Hoe

Mennonite Farmer getting ready to buy the Seeder

Trying out the Seeder

Pak Choy, Salinova Lettuce, Broccoli

Daily Life & The Expo

My daily life is finally getting to be somewhat of a routine. Still either exercising or walking (or both) first thing most mornings. If I get an early enough start I am back home by 8:00a or so. No dog lunges recently but I do carry a baseball bat part way, just in case. I leave it hidden behind a post about 1/4 mile from home. The only dogs I see after that are on leashes being walked by their owners & most are very friendly. It's been somewhat cool in the mornings the last week or so & it's been great to get out early. The sunrise this morning was especially lovely, huge red sun coming up on my way back home.

Overheard Greg tell a relative at the family reunion that he is also loving my retirement since I have dinner made most nights (he's only had to cook once he said) & am doing all the laundry & grocery shopping. My sister was sitting near & piped in that it sounded like I didn't do anything at home when I was working. I will say that we shared the cooking but it always seemed like we were behind the clock trying to get dinner on the table before 8:00p. He did ALL the grocery shopping, so that has opened up a new world for me. I actually walked almost every aisle in the grocery store last week. There's a lot of stuff in there! In the past my grocery shopping was to run in & get a few things & leave as fast as I could.

I went to Lowe's yesterday as I heard they had mums & such on clearance. I just wanted a few to spruce up my front porch. They had the mums in 4" pots on sale for .25 each & the 6" for .50 each, plus some geraniums for $1.00 each. I picked up a few of each & spent most of the morning planting those in various containers for the porch & a few for the back patio. Although my potting bench had a blow out & I had to improvise until Greg can fix it. Always something.

I am in the process of turning my workout room into a workout & craft room. I gave away our old treadmill to a former co-worker. We delivered it to her last weekend then met some old friends for lunch. The husbands had planned it & didn't tell the wives, it was a very nice surprise. Greg & I met at an apartment complex where we all lived. There are 5 marriages that spawned during our time there & I'm proud to say that all 5 couples are still together after more than 30 years! Well, except for 1 but that was due to a death a few years ago. I'd say that is a real accomplishment for each of us especially since we all married young & it was the 80's :)

I'll be heading to the country tomorrow to stay for a full week. I won't be doing much at the house as there is a huge Agricultural Expo in the nearby town next week. It's huge & my friends at Hoss Tools have a sustainability exhibit where they plant vegetables & flowers & show how their products are used. I will be helping them out during the 3 days of the Expo & am very excited. I'll be sure to take pics & share them once I'm back home.

Here's a link to a Vimeo on the Expo Sunbelt Agricultural Expo.

Since the last post we've had parmesan chicken, breakfast for dinner, homemade pizza, beef tenderloin, lamb shanks, spaghettia & meatballs for dinner. Tonight is a chicken broccoli, mushroom casserole I saw on Trisha Yearwood's Food Network show last night. It's got sour cream, mayo & cheese in it so it's bound to be good.

Family Dynamics & a Reunion

My Grandmothers were the true Matriarchs of their respective families. My Mama & Daddy both hail from the same general area in the country where our Country House is. Both were large hardworking families. Mama's side of the family were sharecroppers (they didn't own the land that the family worked on but had free housing & all the food they needed) & Daddy's side owned a 200 acre farm where our House is located. I never knew either of my Grandfathers so my Grandmothers were the glue that held the family together.

Family reunions were started by my Grandmothers after their children married & had kids & many moved away. It was a way to get everyone together at least once a year. After my Grandmothers passed the siblings kept the tradition going for many years. As the older siblings have passed the grandchildren are not as good at keeping them going for many reasons.

The last reunion on my Dad's side was about 5 or 6 six years ago. They were always held on the weekend after New Years. The last one planned got cancelled due to a death in the family & no-one ever took it upon themselves to plan the next one, until this year.

The cousin that decided to hold it had good intentions but isn't the most organized person. Invitations went out late (really late) & not everyone was called to make sure they knew about it, in case they didn't receive or didn't check their PO box regularly. So, we were missing about 25 or 30 people that probably would have come had they known about it or had enough notice.

My Dad's family had 8 siblings that consisted of 3 older boys, 2 younger boys & 3 younger girls. My Grandmother & Grandfather separated when the 1st 3 boys were young. They got back together soon after & had the next 5. One of my older Uncles used to say there was the 1st family & the 2nd family. There were probably about 8 - 10 years difference between the 1st & 2nd sets (I'll have to ask my Dad). Regardless, all have passed but my Dad & 2 of his Sisters.

The reunion was held at my Aunt's house (wife of one of the 1st family). We had a fairly small get together on Saturday night with the big event being held on Sunday. My cousin got up early & cooked Boston Butts on the barbeque & then everyone else brought side dishes of all sorts.

(Cottonwood / Confederate Roses)

There was cornbread dressing, all sorts of beans/peas, corn casseroles, chicken & dumplings, chicken & rice, tater tot casserole, cornbread, rolls, etc. along with every sort of dessert imaginable. The star of the dessert is always my cousin's 14 layer chocolate cake. She always arrives at the last minute just after icing the still warm cake. The lucky ones hurry & finish their meal & grab a slice of the still warm chocolate cake, heaven on a plate!

Pic borrowed from Internet

In addition to "Old Settlers Baked Beans", I made a key lime lasagna from some fresh key lime juice that my Greg had squeezed last year. Those things are tiny & it took him forever. We froze the juice in ice cube trays & I was so glad I finally used it! This pic is from the blog that I "borrowed" the recipe from OMG Desserts

Mine actually looked very similar to this!

Here's a pic of mostly everyone that was there (some had left already).

Minus about 30 or 40 (some had left, some didn't come)

Some were a bit angry that they missed out. Hopefully, they will get over it for next year as we hope to continue in the upcoming years because we had a really good time!