John Deere Green

Dan and I spent the weekend in Muncie at Brandon's, and while there traveled to exciting Jay County, which hosted the 42nd Tri-State Gas Engine & Tractor Association show, and I promised a blog post about it. I attended with the promise of steam engines and Ivanhoe's ice cream afterward. Ivanhoe's became a reality, but the steam tractors were a tad scarce. I think there were 5. Here's one of them, heading up the Tractor Parade.


There were however lots of old tractors, about which the guys were able to reminisce about using as kids. This one is apparently similar to one Dan's family had:

I was a little out of my element there, as I pretty much grew up in the city. Even when I lived in the mountains of West Virginia, it was in a subdivision, and the mall was nearby. The closest thing we had to a tractor when I grew up was Grandpa's John Deere riding mower in Jeffersonville. But I digress: the tractor show. There were also a lot of small engines running, however superfluously, as most were not attached to anything. They just ran. Others were running water pumps or performing some other useful task. This was one my of favorites, mainly because it's the right color:


Also in the parade was this cute train, with the cars made from old barrels:


After wandering around the show for a few hours, it started to rain on us, so we drove (or napped) to Ivanhoe's and ate way too much, because that's what one does at Ivanhoe's. On an unexpected but pleasant detour back into town, we ran into this bridge:


which suffered an unfortunate fate:


In all it was a great (albeit very busy) weekend, definitely good to get out of town, and as always, really great to see some old friends.

State Fair, yo

I have not gone to the State Fair in 20 years. Really, I was 7 and living in Fern Creek at the time. I remember going with a girl from school and Girl Scouts. I remember nothing else. I do know that I hate crowds, and that's why I've stayed away. However my inlaws wanted to go tonight, so we went.



That was dinner. Hot beef sundae. Mashed potatoes, roast beef and gravy, corn, and shredded cheddar, with a cherry tomato on top. Heaven. I will be making this at home this winter.



Information you've always wanted: The winners of the ham contest.



This is what award winning tobacco looks like.



We thought these goats were fighting, but we found out later that it was foreplay.



At 815 pounds this was the biggest pumpkin.



Tater zoo!



We spent the whole time there looking for alpaca. At the last booth, right before we left, this is what we found. The stall was empty, containing only this:



Bastids took my alpaca away...



Good night!

IOU

I owe you guys a couple of blog posts, one with pictures from the Art Car Show last weekend, cake makin', and another about this week's LEO. I don't have the energy for it right now, but, I found out today that someone's been using my Blockbuster account. I got a call that I had some movies that were overdue and became suspicious, as I haven't rented a movie in quite some time, so I called. Someone used my account to rent a couple of movies that I've never heard of. Fortunately they're semi-honest people, because the movies had been returned and my credit card hasn't been charged, and I was able to cancel my account. What I don't understand is how they accessed the account to begin with, as I still have my card.
That's all the excitement I have for now...