On Saturday my husband and I went to the 11th annual Amish Parochial School Auction. I have been to most of them and each year it gets bigger.
The auction is held to raise funds for the Amish schools in our area. Each year it is on the farm of another member. It looks to me that there is an awfull lot of work involved. First of all parking, one place for the cars and trucks, another for the horses and buggies.
The main auction is in a big field. You name it, you can buy it, from old agricultural implements to childern's wagons to old milk cans and I can go on. In another corner they sell horse related equipment and gear.One tent has all new furniture, another huge tent sells food.Most items are sold on consignment.This is all going on with 6 auctioneers working at the same time.
And then there is the quilt tent. Each year about 100 quilts are sold,mostly small wall hangings or queen size quilts. One thing is a shame......the price. A nice, hand quilted, quilt will bring about $400CAn, good if you are a buyer, not so good if you want to make money.
And then there is the horse auction. About 250 horses and ponies are sold. This also takes a big field, for the trucks and trailers as well as the wagons to which the horses are tied. At least this year the auction ring had a fence around it. Horses sold ran the gamut from Belgians, to drivers to riding horses. And then there was the miniature donkey, that ended up at the daughter of friends.
Young boys have fun riding their ponies around before they are sold.
And at the end of the day, what is better than buying a few pies, in our case for the freezer, though we did have a taste at the sale.
And what did we come home with?
Laurence found a 4 row corn planter in very good shape for $70 and he could not let it go. I could not understand, since we sold one like it, quite a few years ago, because it was "behind the times". I guess he felt nostalgic.I came home with a tree and a scrub. It was a great day. I will be back next year( it helps that it is only 10 minute drive from here)
So while I was trying to dye fabric last week, he got ready to take some tractors to the yearly show in Drayton, about a 15 minute drive from here.Back to the fabric. I have dyed some fabric before, but never had the idea that I knew what I was doing. So after this dye session I signed up for the Basic Dyeing Workshop at the Quilt University(www.QuiltUniveristy.com). It is a 4 week course and I just finished lesson 3. And I'm learing a lot I will show pictures after the last lesson is done.
Laurence usually uses the "new" tractor with the trailer to haul the tractors, including a bulldozer, so he can leave everyting in town. That way the truck is still available. The first job is to wash and polish the tractors.
Once at the fair grounds each tractor has its place. This year it was the "Year of the A", so ours was in a line-up with similar tractors. It is a fun week-end, even for me, more of a horse person than a tractor person.
But now it is back to work. Yesterday we started the wheat harvest. So far the weather is cooperating, but the sky looks threatening. This also means, that a big part of the summer is over.
