COUNTY FAIR 2010

Old Glory
Grand Marshal

You have to have a fire truck

Twirler's

4-H club float

Old John Deere tractor

Old combine, 3 foot cut

New tractor

New tractor

New tractor with grain wagon

A BIG ONE !

New fuel truck & kids picking up candy

Garden Vegetable display

4-H crafts

4-H Food

Market Goats

4-H market lamb

Market barrows

Market Steer

Pedal tractor pull, Girls

Boys pedal tractor pull

Kids play

Mud volley ball

The winners!

Our County has seven small towns and the annual County Fair

brings the communities together more than any other event.

The fair begins with the annual fair parade.

4-Hers and FFA members enter their projects which are judged for awards. There are also open classes that anyone can enter their projects in.

There are many categories, including livestock, sewing, cooking, artwork,

photography, garden produce, flowers, style revue, fitting and

showing of animals and welding projects.

There are many events to enjoy. Pedal tractor pull, baby show, a petting zoo, events in the arena and many other attractions for children and adults.

There are food stands with delicious home made food.

Everyone enjoys the time of seeing and visiting with old and new friends.

KANSAS WHEAT HARVEST 2010

Pretty Kansas girl operates her

Dad's combine.

These combines take a 30 foot swath.

Straw chopper in the back chops the straw in small

pieces. The chopped straw helps build up the soil.

One of three combines used to cut this field.

Unloading wheat from the combine to the truck

that will haul it to the elevator.

One of the smaller semi trucks that are used today.
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Things have changed since I was a kid 70 years ago. A good day in the harvest field then would be harvesting 20 acres a day. These machines can harvest 20 acres an hour. The operator then was in the open with the temperature running from 90 to over 100 degrees. The dust would get in your eyes and plug up your nose. Now a cab with air conditioning, stereo radio, CD players and a nice seat make harvesting much more enjoyable.

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For me harvest is a good time of the year to see your green wheat fields turn to a golden color with it's heads turned towards the ground as if it is submitting to be harvested, to give up it's grain which brings to mind the great harvest when mankind yields to the Great Harvester. The farmer is anxious to save every kernel. He doesn't want to lose one kernel, he wants to get it in a safe place from the bad weather or any thing that would destroy it.

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One thing that I dislike is marketing the grain. We are at the mercy of the buyers. We don't get to price it, we have to take what they offer us.

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Jesus taught several things pertaining to the harvest.

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"He (Jesus) also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come'."
Mk.4:26-29 NIV
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"Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field'." Mt. 9:37-38 NIV

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"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please the sinful nature, from that nature, will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal. 6:7-9 NIV
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Hoesli Brothers Polands

Our boys were in 4-H and they were in the hog project raising pure bred Poland Chinas. They were doing good. They had won first place at many shows in central Kansas. It was hard work but when fair time came around it was fun to watch the boys show their pigs.

The competition was rough at our county fair because our neighbor was an expert in showing hogs and very good in selecting the right one that the judge was looking for. He would show and help the boys get their pigs ready to show. He had a son and daughter that would be showing their pigs also. So if you would get grand champion you had a good pig.

There was a frail, elderly man from over 100 miles from us that would show up at almost all of the pig shows because he loved to show his pigs. He would stay at the fair grounds and ate pig feed. He was a good old guy and the kids liked him.

The boys bought their first Poland China gilts from Paul Davidson. They liked the looks of the Polands and there weren't as many of them as Durocs, Hampshires and Chester Whites. They bought their first boar from Ron Holling. You've heard the saying "worthless as teats on a boar". We found out that the teats on a boar are very important because the more teats the boar has the more his pigs will have. The boys had a Landrace sow that had 22 or 23 pigs. She had a big enough dinner table for all of them.

One time we went to a pig sale in Oklahoma. It was near one of Darlene's cousins so we took the whole family and stayed with them. We had a two wheeled trailer so we made stocks racks for it and pulled it with our car. We probably looked like some hillbillys but it was a good time in our life.

The boys ended up with a boot box full of mostly purple and blue ribbons. We ordered ball point pens with 'Hoesli Brothers Poland Chinas' on them which they would give away at pig shows.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phil.4:19 niv

If you would drive around the countryside in the fall you would see fields planted to new alfalfa that would have clumps of dark green in them. That would be turnips, because farmers sometimes put turnip seed with their alfalfa seed. I have heard it is to help keep the fields from blowing, but I think they just wanted some turnips for themselves and their neighbors. Sometimes they would go to town and tell the people they had a field of turnips, go help your self. The last few years some farmers have planted large fields to turnips for fall pasture Cattle love them and it is earlier than wheat pasture

In the early sixties we had a small patch of ground around 1 1/2 acres that was closed in by two ravines. I worked the ground and hand planted turnip seed and never checked on them until fall. I was surprised to see the ground covered with turnips. We picked some of the biggest ones first, they were all different sizes.

We started giving them away, then we decided to try and sell them to the super markets in Salina. They were only selling from 3 to 5 bushel a week. There was a country market in Salina so we stopped to see if he could use some. He took what we had and gave us 25 bushel baskets to bring back the next week. We took him the 25 baskets the next week and he gave us 50 baskets for the week after that. He said he was selling a bunch of them at Fort Riley and farther east. We stopped selling them to the grocery stores and let him do that.

One day he told us that he had rented cold storage in our home town and wanted us to start taking them there. He would give us the baskets and he showed us how to trim the tops so they would keep good for a long time. I'm sure we lost 2 or 3 pocket knives and had sore backs. I think we harvested several hundred bushels of turnips.

I didn't know the Lord at that time but now I believe He blessed us because at that time we had no money. It was a family project. Thank the Lord for the kids being big enough to help. "JUST LOOK AND SEE WHAT THE LORD CAN DO WITH A LITTLE TURNIP SEED"!!!!

"Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.' Eph. 6:17 NIV

Proud great grandpa and great grandma with Jada

We added these pictures to Jada's graduation

Jada and Joey by the lake

Joey at the playground

Jada and Joey, havin' fun

The graduate
Her brother

Her family

Her Grandpa and Great Grandma

Yesterday we went to Jada's pre-school graduation. We got up early to be there by 9 am. The pre-school is held in a church in her hometown.

They sang several action songs then the teacher asked each one of them what they wanted to be when they grew up.

The thing that impressed me was that they had memorized 26 Bible verses, one for each letter of the alphabet. She didn't hesitate on any one of them as she was going through the alphabet. These are 4 and 5 year olds. I doubt that very many in the churches could recite that many from memory.

We celebrated by going out to eat together after the graduation ceremony.

GOOD JOB, JADA!

My Melon Experience

I have been a farmer most of my life but my first experience of planting a seed was when I was 5 or 6 years old. Someone gave me honey dew melon seeds. I decided to plant them just west of our house. The soil was sandy and it takes a lot of watering to keep things growing. I dug up a small plot and planted four or five hills. It was close to the windmill so I kept them watered good. It didn't take them long to sprout and come up and they had good vines.

They started blooming, then came the little melons. About a month went by and I had several good sized melons. I decided to check one of them and see if it was ripe. It was still green so I waited a week and checked another one. It was still green. This went on until I had no more melons. I was really disappointed.

That fall the person that gave me the seeds asked about the melons and I told him what had happened. He started laughing and told me that they were green when they were ripe. So much for my honey dew melons.

Years later we planted watermelons down by the orchard. It was when the kids were still home. We had a beautiful patch of melons and they were big. I checked one and it was still green. I told my neighbor, who was known for raising good melons, and he said he would come and show me how to check and know when they were ready. He picked some and said they were ripe---no, they were green! I had a truck-farmer friend tell me he could pick out ripe ones but they were green, too! There were other people who told me they could pick ripe ones, too, but they were all green. They never ripened, they just started rotting.

I checked with K-State and they told me sometimes that happens. I never did raise good watermelons but several years we raised big cantaloupe that were wonderful.