Small Town Living

It will be 9 years this October 1 that I have lived in this community. I grew up just outside of a small town, but worked and spent most of my time in a larger city, Lancaster, OH. I met my husband through a singles ad through a dairy magazine called Hoard's Dairyman. So, we chatted online through MSN chat for a couple of weeks, then decided to meet in person, and were thrilled to find that we both lived in Ohio. So, the day before Memorial Day in 2000, I drove 2 hours to meet up with this dairy farmer. We went to dinner and a movie. Our second date was the very next day, so another 2 hour drive to meet up with him at our "gas station". Then we drove about 2 more hours to Wooster, OH, to the Wayne Co. fairgrounds for the Spring Jersey Sale. Yep, our date was a Jersey cattle auction, and a lot of fun too! Obviously, I was into the farm stuff, good thing too. By July, he proposed, and on October 1, 2000 we were married. Yes, that is only just over 4 months of dating, and we only dated on the weekends when I didn't work. So, here I move to this farm in the hills not knowing anyone but my husband and his family. I found out quickly how folks jump in and get things moving around here. Our wedding was decorated with pumpkins, gourds, indian corn, mums and corn shocks. Beautiful!! I think fall is the best time of year for a wedding. Our dear, wonderful friend (who pretty much adopted me right off the bat), Wanda made our wedding cake. It was decorated with fall flowers. The decorations were provided by another local dairy farm family who also raises pumpkins and gourds. I remember picking them out for the wedding. We had just over a month to plan our wedding. Thank goodness for the local help we had! That was 9 years ago, well, it will be on the 1st of October. Our area is the kind where everyone seems to know everyone, looks out for everyone, and yes, knows what's going on with everyone, even before you know what's going on. I've learned to love where I live. Our local diner is a great, cozy place, and when we walk in, we know everyone. Kind of nice to have extended "family".
Our neighboring town, Barnesville will be having the annual Pumpkin Festival next weekend, Sept. 23-27. Yes, I'm shamlessly promoting it, so if you are close enough to check it out, please do! It's a lot of fun, a lot of good food, some really BIG pumpkins, and I think most houses deck out their yards and porches just for the event. A good parade on Saturday. Oh, did I mention there will be some cheese there? I will be set up again this year, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm in good company too. Lots of goodies to be found at the Train Depot. Walker's Ice Cream sets up right next to our shelter house, and has some Apple Dumplings that are so delicious!!!! Yes, I am diabetic, but that is just too much for me to have my table set up that close to such delicious goodies!! So, yes, last year, I did treat myself to an apple dumpling.....ok, ok, 2, I had 2. But on different days! That's ok, right?
Now, this has to be a small town thing, I noticed in the paper write up about the festival, there is a tobacco spitting contest. Yeehaw!!! Now nothin says country like that! It was right next to the hog calling contest, which isn't really a rare thing, but it does say country festival just the same. My only regret is that while I am there every day, unfortunately, I set up alone, and did not see the festival at all last year. Well, except for the 1/2 hour or so of trying to get through town when my day of selling was done. Hoping that this year, Al and Emily will be able to drive up and visit! Then I could actually walk around a bit.
Looking forward to the fall drives. The rolling hills covered in trees are beautiful when the leaves all turn. Seems like there is a small window of time to see the colors, since we usually get a good hard windy rain just when they look pretty, and that will knock them all off. Last year we drove right across the county to the river. Then followed the route along the river. Planning on doing that again this year. This year I will remember my camera, and have batteries too.
Have to share an "Emily Funny". Heaven knows we have a lot of those moments, but this one was good. Saturday night we were watching the Ohio State/USC game (which was very sad), so we needed a good funny moment. Emily went to the potty, so while she was sitting there she decided to use my curling hair brush to curl her hair, yes, while she was using the potty. She must have been bored. She ended up getting the brush stuck, and needed help getting off the potty, but did not want us to know. So, we wondered what was taking her so long, decided to check, there she sat, very quiet, but worried. I almost thought I would have to cut her hair to get the brush out, but after about 5 minutes of working at it, she was finally free. Oh my!
No pictures this time. I have some on my camera from our last cheese make, but haven't been able to get them on the computer. Will do that in the next day or so. I am really proud of myself, I managed to get a Facebook page done for our cheese, but I also figured out how to put the Facebook Badge on our website, which for some reason was a challenge. After I actually did it, I found it was really easy. Go figure!!
Well I have some eggs boiling on the stove that I need to check on. I'm trying my hand at pickling some eggs. I have 15 dozen eggs, and they have been selling slow right now, so I'm working at getting some things made with them. Tomorrow will be homemade noodles. Yum!! Will post the recipes as I make this stuff.