Saturday, September 22, 2007

Common Ground Fair


A long time ago, when the girls were very little and I first started boarding dogs, I used to take care of a little dog named Blake. The reason "why" I took care of him, was because his "parents" always had a vendor at the Common Ground Fair. They always had such wonderful things to say about this fair, and would say to me..."you should go and see it!!!" but as I told them, if I was off seeing the fair, they wouldn't have anyone to take care of Blake!!!!! However, I did tell myself, that one day, I would go and see the Common Ground Fair..... and yesterday, was "that day"

Ed and I got up fairly early in the morning and got on the road. It's about a two and a half hour trip, but I can say, it was worth the time and effort to get there. The fair prides itself on two very important factors.... organic and agricultural.....and it is at that. You won't find any rides, cotton candy, or blooming onions... but you will find lots of animals and " natural things," like wool for spinning, yarns, quilts, bee keeping items... etc. etc... and for food, all organic and VERY yummy!!!!
We watched the sheep herding demo... those border collies were some impressive, saw lots of livestock, including this beautiful "highland cow", mules, draft horses, lots of llamas and alpaca.. bunnies, chickens and all the sort of farm animals...


We sat in on a bee keeping lecture.. in fact, there are all kinds of lectures that go on all day.... saw one being done on sheep, another on "natural logging of your land", one on keeping alpaca., and the list goes on and on. It's what I would call a real learning fair, and if you ever had a question on farming or some part of it, you can probably get the answer there. They had a whole section on things like building a "green" house (environment friendly), using solar power or wind power, composting, growing your own food (or raising it for that matter!!!) There were lots of animals being put to good use, like this nice team of mules showing how a barley field can be cut by hand....


And look at this wonderful old thresher.... I don't recall what "year" it is, but it was run by some sort of engine ... possibly a one-lunger back in the day- and it was all belt driven. Course now, we look at it and wonder how they ever figured out something like that, but I bet when it was brand new and showed up on your farm, it was thrilling to think you wouldn't have to do all that threshing by hand!!!! The day went by so quickly, and we didn't even notice how tired we were from walking...until we sat down!!!! There were just so many wonderful things to see and do. On top of that, the weather couldn't have been any better, it was actually on the hot side, certainly did not feel like the middle of September!!!! and just a grand day to be out and about. So, to quote my friends from all those years ago..... "the Common Ground Fair, yes you really need to take the time to go!!!!!!!!!!"