Ten Years

It's been ten years since I retired from State Teachers Retirement and took my early retire bonus and bought a brand new Chevrolet Silverado 4 door long bed. It's been eight years since we traded the slide in camper for a brand new one. This rig has taken LuAnn and I many wonderful miles. After a long hiatus, these two units are mated together once more.

We got caught up in cruising the oceans and rivers and flying to distant lands. Now it is time to see if we still love camping as much as we did ten years ago. That first trip in 2001 changed our lives and every trip since has, too.

Today two friends helped me move all of the iron in the way of the camper and we loaded that shiney, new looking Silverado under the Sunlite once more. That is an achievement I cannot explain to you because it sounds too simple.

It has been more than ten years since I started judging the crops, produce and canned goods at the Greene County Fair. I told them I was amazed they still wanted me. That surprised them. Those people are once a year friends now except for Wilma, who facebooks me almost every day.

While I was there, the Fairfield County Fair committee watched me judge an hour then came up to ask for my contact information. I was pleasantly taken back and surprised. That fair is the last one in Ohio and one I have always enjoyed and admired. It would be an honor to judge there. Now if I could just get Ross County interested, they have a great fair, too. Then there is the Great Darke County Fair, you get the picture.

You can see what the drought and heat hurt in the fresh produce but it has made an amazing comeback with the still hot but cooler temperatures and that precious rain we have been getting. The canned good classes were deep and challenging. I wish I could show you the difficult choices I had to make of top quality, canned produce and fruits. Thankfully I never anything like Chimel posted in my comment section yesterday.

It was a great day and a great week but a busy one. I think we may have palmer amaranth or palmer pigweed in the county so I am working with the state weed specialist on that problem.

The weather is beautiful here today and I hope yours is, too.

Ed