Washington County Fair 2013

The Washington County Fair in Rhode Island is one of my favorites -- it's a Goldilocks fair, not too small, not too big.

Working Steer Competition
These were the Junior Teamsters (under 18), and I believe all the teams I saw were under a year old.

The "book" definition of Working Steer are those neutered males under four being trained for work, Oxen being four and older and considered physically matured and fully trained.

At least at fairs in my area today, the Working Steer can be older -- the Oxen are the brawny pullers, the Working Steer competetions are about finesse and training. Its been cool to see Working Steer boom in popularity over the last couple decades.

I couldn't back my garden tractor and cart up as well as a few of these teams could...



American Linebacks backing up...

Later on in the day they were doing distance pulls -- half the teams weight on the stone boat, five(?) minutes to pull it as far as possible. Most teamsters rest their teams for a moment at either end before continuing.








That's not something you see very often -- Jersey Steers!


Cheater.

Got Meat?
The Rhode Island Raised Livestock Ass'n had a nice booth, and all I got was this lousy pic of the bottom of a page to remember the URL...


Pig drinking from a pig version of a bubbler.


Vegetable Creatures!







Jiminy Crickets! I had no idea cabage could grow that large!

RI Dept. of Agriculture's booth included a table about invasive tree parasites especially the Emerald Ash Borer & Asian Longhorn Beetle.

They have a nice farm & household museum

If the thought of a hand cranked silage / fodder chopper makes you cringe...

...you could have the non-cranked version!



Its a Chicken Plucker!

Chainsaws!





I'm not quite sure what this is...I was thinking it was an ice saw, but those look like wood cutting teeth, not ice cutters.

Online acquaintance who saw the above pic told me what it was -- and here is someone's else YouTube of one in action: Hey, that skein winder has a counter!

Imagine the planning it took to cook for a large family and hired hands where the working adults were eating 4,000 calories per day on stoves this size!

Though a kerosene stove like this certainly could help out! Here its setup for canning by the looks of it.

Duck Duck Goose?

And we don't even refill beer bottles today...

Not from the museum...maple taps

The FFA Woodsmen Contest

That's a basket!

Stumbled on this pic I hadn't posted...the basket the day I brought Cindy up to Mom & Ed's campsite.

Cleaned all the veggies at home (there's taters, beans, and onions also in under the towels) and since I wasn't sure what mom had brought my own tools, herbs, oil, etc.

Connecticut Corn...

So on Facebook I had a couple friends bragging about Maryland corn being 10' high and double eared...and another likewise about Illinois corn.

So on the way to the Washington County Fair on Saturday, I stopped along Route 49 for a few pics of the Molodich Farm. I don't know if its skill, equipment, land or the the willingness to apply Nitrogen in quantities only a fertilizer dealer could love...but these fields along Ekonk Hill are usually the best corn I see.

Most of the corn I see this year seems a bit spindly and pale -- might be a combination of lots of rain in June leaching fertilizer and reducing root growth. And most fields suffer from a perennial Connecticut problem...the outer rows look like something I'd grow in my garden in a bad year.

But not these fields!

Lettuce is for rabbits...

...and bread is just needlessly filling :D

Great Eggplant!

Garden is going gang busters -- I had picked a bagful Saturday AM, and Monday afternoon got this:


Green beans are doing really well too -- getting a nice size without becoming "beany". Squash needs to be watched like a hawk...two days from not ready yet to almost too ripe.

A couple hours later, we have the eggplant from the basket nicely baked up:



Based roughly on this recipe, though I didn't do near as nice a job breading them, and I added herbs and mozzarella. http://www.injennieskitchen.com/2012/08/crispy-baked-eggplant/

Albuquerque!

Just started watching Breaking Bad from the pilot on last week...should be caught up by the time of the series finale :)

Nerdgasm...

Lindsey Stirling as Princess Leia...

'mater sandwich

A rainy day, but perfect for the first tomato sandwich of the season. Some garlic bread (cloves baked into the dough, not the garlic butter kind), little bit of mayo, slice of fresh mozzarella, and a tomato picked five minutes earlier:

The Herbary & Other Garden Pics...

Friday Hart's Greenhouse next to me had their annual blow-out sale -- 50% off most stuff, annuals for a buck or so...woo hoo. Next year I'll have to bring my own wagon and just walk over since parking was nuts; they opened at 3pm for the sale, and I had to park on Route 6 when I left my house at 3:06pm (and for those who don't know, I share a property line with them!)

This bed I started a couple weeks ago is a combination of:
-- Plants like the Tiger Lillies I relocated from my property;
-- An extra Hosta Ed dug up at mom's;
-- Herbs I had been growing in pots on the deck;
-- Some perennials from Hobbie Road, Deerfield, Mass. that I saw a sign for and followed;
-- Stuff I've bought from Hart's.



The garden!


I had to go looking through the seed packs, since the label I wrote faded in the sun! This is a "spaghetti squash:"


Cherry toms are doing nicely:


Today's harvest:


And today's lunch -- fresh maters and cukes, leftover chicken and taters.

Great Steak!

I had a hard time finding steaks from Brookside locally last week :( But I zipped down to Griswold and managed to get some Ribeyes from Campbell's Farm where I buy my pork when I can.

Had the other steaks at Mom's last week, and Ed commented it was flavorful and tasted like beef used to taste...which coming from a former butcher I reckon is good :)

I pay a small premium -- these were I think $13/pound, compared to Big Y selling Angus Ribeye for $10/pound. But even at that price its still no more expensive to make a really good meal at home then an OK meal at a modestly priced restaurant.
Getting pretty good at foil grilling my veggies too -- I've figured out to put the potatoes down first, today topped with beans and onions. Beans take as long as taters to cook, and onions get sweeter from more carmelization. But each will burn if touching the bottom of the foil against the grill. Onions could go in the squash which grilles for only half as long, but won't get carmelized.

Fantastic!

Decided to stay over in Maine Thursday night rather than drive home in the rain, only to be home on a rainy day. Got a hotel room, and went to watch Wolverine -- first 3D movie I've gone to! Went back to surprise mom at the campground and had lunch there.

So after I left mom's on Friday, I wasn't hungry enough to eat supper in Maine but I did stop at a favorite place of mine, Jakes in Ongunquit, and grabbed a lobster roll with tonight's dinner in mind :)

Grilled up taters on the grill -- I've figured out its best to put the taters down first, then the green beans on top of them. Oil, vinegar, herbs, and pepper :) Taters couldn't have been fresher -- dug 'em, washed 'em, grilled 'em.

First full-size tomato of the year too!

And the whole meal was...awesome.

Garden (and cows)

Herb / Decorative bed I put in this weekend...herbs weren't liking the pots that much this year but kept 'em alive till I could get a spot ready. The hosta isn't happy because it spent two months in a bucket since my step father had dug it up :)


Few daylillies...I love this "Bubblegum" one.




Garden shot


Hopefully have cucumbers soon.


Squash seem to be doing OK. Only a couple seem to have Squash Vine Borers so far -- this is the first year in many (5+) I've used any synthetics in the garden, this time Sevin dust to keep the SVBs at bay.


Next year I think I will try a combination of Bt spray & injection and/or a half-and-half experiment to see if it is equal to Sevin at keeping htem under control.


Today's harvest...beans were picked last night. Feel a bit like I'm committing infanticide picking these baby squash :D

Girls down the block waiting for breakfast....Fred was coming down the street with the feed wagon as I was pulling off. Have no idea why a Brown Swiss is mixed in with their herd. The heifers have their own pasture/woodlot separate from the main farm.




Also done today:
Planted more cucumbers, zukes, and yellow squash (in case I get a late attack of SVBs...I'm done for the season dusting the squash bases with Sevin), and beets.

Tore out two squashes that looked like they had SVB and shredded them with the mower :)

It's WWII!

Between the dragon flies zooming and the tadpoles splashing...the swim pond right now looks like a reenactment of the Battle of Truk Lagoon!

Awesome graphic on introverts

Trolley from Norwich to Central Village...

"...cars ran on electrified tracks of the New Haven from Taft's to Central Village

That would be Taftville, and would've taken them through Jewett City and Plainfield.

Taking an educated *guess* the trolley probably left the tracks (now owned by the Providence & Worcester) near current day Plainfield High School and followed current day Route 12 to 205 to Grove Street.

The old right of way north of Grove Street can still be seen on satellite photos as it left streets and continued cross country towards Danielson.