Plowing match was simply amazing

The International Plowing Match (IPM) was simply amazing. Northern Ontario should be very proud of an event well-organized and presented.
We were all gathered in a farmer’s field, but the tented city and landscaped yard were just beautiful. The RV part was maxed out with more than 2,400 RV’ers.
As of Friday night, they had reached their goal of more than 68,000 through the gate.
Temiskaming District hosted a very wonderful event, and everyone should put the IPM on their list of things to see.
I worked in the University of Guelph/Northern Station booth on the Wednesday afternoon, and enjoyed meeting many people and promoting all the great work we are doing up here in Rainy River District.
I told my friends to smack me hard if I ever thought of hosting an event such as this. I was told they had more than 1,200 volunteers this year at the IPM.
The horse plowing was great. These guys and teams work very hard–and it truly is a skill at this level.
I also was lucky enough to visit with many of my former teachers from New Liskeard and share what I’ve been doing since 1989 when I graduated from NLCAT.
• • •
We arrived home on Friday night about an hour before my cousin’s wedding rehearsal. Maddie was a flower girl so I rushed out to meet them at the church.
Mackenna, the other flower girl, is very outgoing and not shy, so she was helpful in getting Maddie to walk down the aisle.
The next day at the service, it wasn’t quite the same with a church full of people. Maddie ended up carrying her flower bucket with her mouth, then panicked when we were not sitting in the same spot as at the rehearsal.
Fortunately, the service was beautiful. Stacey (the bride) was lucky to have her Maid of Honour’s mom perform it, which was very personal and enjoyable.
After the ceremony, we headed back to my place for pictures. The overcast day was perfect for pictures and we ended hoisting up the entire bridal party into the hay mow—high heels, dresses, and all!
We are all excited to see the pictures now!
Stacey admitted she would have loved to have been married in the hay mow. We likely could have made this happen given the right amount of time (and the carpentry skills of my boyfriend/partner).
I had him cutting grass in spots around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, so he’s likely relieved that he wasn’t building some stairs to get everyone up in the hay mow!
All and all, it turned out to be a great day. I even snuck in a farm tour Saturday morning (the groom’s dad is a dairy farmer from the Steinbach area, so we did a corn/dairy tour before the wedding (if you saw someone driving in your field or in your farm yard on Saturday morning, it was just me).
He and his family are very involved in the Holstein industry and would like to communicate more with our district, so I’m going to set something up (once I get caught up!)
• • •
It certainly feels as though fall has set in (I actually had to turn some heat on Monday morning at the research station in Emo).
We needed the rain, but let’s hope it doesn’t continue on until snowfall, which has happened in the past.
I still have lots of field work to do, like many I’m sure.
• • •
The performance data on barley, wheat, and oats is due tomorrow (Oct. 1). Needless to say, I will be scrambling around entering data the next few days and trying to make sense of it.
Plus the cattle sale is this Saturday in Stratton, which means another busy week ahead of me. I have to round up my own cattle and wean and weigh and figure out what I will be selling.
And I’m turning 40 this week. My birthday always has landed at such a busy time of the year.
My friends surprised me with a party last week–the night before our 50th anniversary party at the Stratton sales barn (I thought everyone was showing up to help with the veggie cutting for our beef kabobs!)
Then I joked that I thought maybe they were having a fundraiser for me to help with getting a new truck!
While I was away, my parents had a dishwasher installed for me and while I was giving my farm tour Saturday morning, my boyfriend/partner brought me home a new TV (the old one had no colour, so it is quite an improvement).
So, even though I am not quite 40, we have been celebrating and getting spoiled over a couple of weeks!