Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Another Cass County Fair has come to a close.  As a kid, this was a sad event because it meant that the start of the school year was near.  As an adult with a seasonal fall business, it means its time to kick it into high (higher?) gear!  Our opening day, September 19, is now less than six weeks away.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was blogging (and panicking) about it being TEN weeks away??

Before I get to work on all the painting, cleaning, ordering and advertising I need to be doing, here are some final images from the fair...

This is our niece Grace greeting a Jersey calf.

One of the most popular events at the fair is the Mutton Bustin' competition, where kids see how long they can hang onto a running sheep.  The folks from McClain's Mutton Busters do a great job!  (Is it me, or does the next kid in line look a little nervous?)

Our friends from the Conestoga FFA (Future Farmers of America) had a float in Saturday night's parade.  This is the group that helped with our Ag Day in 2008 -- we're planning another one this year!  Driving the tractor is FFA Advisor Jon Anderson.

And finally, here is my dad, Mick Jacobson, competing in the antique tractor pull with his 1938 John Deere G.  He got second place -- my brother, pulling with the same tractor, beat him by two inches!

The Cass County Fair , our local county fair, began on Tuesday and continues through Saturday.  We have a booth for our farm and pumpkin patch, so have been spending a lot of time there this week. 

Before we head out again, I wanted to share some photos.  The weather has been beautiful, and the skies clear.  The sun was just setting behind the midway when I shot this one...

I've never seen so many flowers entered into Open Class!  This is just a testament to the wonderful rains we've had in our area this summer!

The 4-H beef show was yesterday morning.  These beginning 4-Hers had just finished showing their bucket calves.

We also spent some time at the 4-H horse show yesterday morning.  I couldn't resist taking a shot of the "sandbox social club".

So many great photo opportunities at the fair!  I'll bring you more soon!

Well, we survived a very hot and humid field trip yesterday!  48 students from the Tara Heights Kids Club, part of the Papillion-LaVista school district, visited the farm for our first-ever summer field trip.  They were a nice bunch of kids, ranging from first through sixth grade, with a few high school-aged helpers along to supervise. 

The kids ate sack lunches in the shade of the big Hackberry tree in our yard.  After lunch, we split them into two groups.  One group stayed back and played, explored the farm buildings, and visited the horses.  This was Abbie's first exposure to a large group of kids.  She was safe behind her fence, but it freaked her out a little when twenty-some bright green clad youngsters all ran toward the pen at once.  After that, she took it all in stride.  She'll be an old pro by the end of our first fall weekend.

We took the other group on a farm tour, talking about the field corn on our way to the pumpkin patch.  We came back on the nature trail, where the kids got to see deer and racoon tracks and water striders on the creek.  As a born-and-raised farm girl, it continues to amaze me how horrified and/or fascinated kids can be by bugs...and poop.  One of the horses took a poop while the kids were watching, and you'd think the world was coming to an end!!

We gave the second group a tour, and after the kids filled up their water bottles and took a trip to the restroom, they were on their way.  It all seemed to go by too quickly -- there was much more about the farm which we would have liked to share.  But, it was in the lower 90s and extremely humid.  One little girl told me "Kids don't get hot"... however, teachers and teenaged helpers do. 

It was a lot of work to get ready for the visit, but we had a good time.  Hopefully the kids learned something from us and took a little knowledge of farm life back to the big city with them.