Dear friends,
Happy Birthday Uncle Joe! Joe turned 98 at the end of August and we visited to celebrate. Unlike most 98 year old birthday parties, we delivered a load of firewood, purchased a case and a half of peppers, picked a huge bag of honey crisp apples, checked out the rest of his garden, as he dispensed helpful advice, and visited with the chickens. We never had time to enjoy the chocolate chip cookies my sister Allison made! Below is a beautiful picture of Cyndi with Uncle Joe, in his favorite place, outside enjoying his garden and orchard.
Lauren has been home the past couple weeks and the fair was high on her "bucket list" for vacation. We enjoyed 2 days visiting the fairgrounds, watching the 4Hers compete with 2 of our lambs and checking out the other animals and enjoying food that should only be eaten at a fair. After learning draft horses eat 20 pounds of grain and a full bale of hay a day, we decided against bringing home a new percheron. The goats were much more appealing.
Kelly and Jack showed our lambs and did wonderfully while having fun with their projects. Kelly won her showmanship class and they earned $1000 and $700 respectively at auction.
Otherwise on the farm, the new lamb is growing rapidly, "Elvis, the ram, is in the house," doing his job, 3 ewes were sent in for AI this year to further improve the herd gene pool, we continue to take firewood orders and will likely start delivering compost as the leaves begin to turn. Egg production remains strong and there are 12 new jars of Uncle Joe peppers still for sale.
Fun facts (compliments of Aunt Dee Dee): Today is the 125 anniversary of celebrating Labor Day as a national holiday. Labor Day was a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers and is a tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country. The first celebration was in New York City where 10,000 citizens marched for labor rights. At the time, the average American worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. It was not until 1916, with the passing of the Adamson Act, that our modern 8-hour work day was established.
We hope you enjoy (not work) the rest of this Labor Day!
Harry
