Farmamerica Fall Fair 2012

Farmamerica is 120-acre site near Waseca that was commissioned in 1978 to preserve and promote the strong heritage of Minnesota Agriculture.
They offer my books for sale in their gift shop, and they invite Nancy and me to special events at the farm site. Farmamerica has a really fine Interpretive Center, great historical buildings, antique machinery, and activities that are fun and accurately reflect our farm heritage.
Preserving farm heritage is a noble mission, and Nancy and I are proud and happy to be invited to show our farm heritage photo display and sell our books at Farmamerica's events.

On Saturday and Sunday, September 8 and 9, We set up our photo and book display in the lobby of the Interpretive Center and enjoyed visiting with staff and customers for the two-day Farmamerica Fall Fair, which included the following demonstrations: threshing oats, stalk shredding, corn picking, corn combining, corn shelling, baling, buzz saw, plowing, corn bundling, silage cutting, and various tractor and equipment displays. A tractor parade started at 1:30 each day.

While Nancy took care of our booth, I was able to sneak out and view most of the exhibits, but I forgot to get a photo of our booth. The above photo with me and a happy customer shows part of the display. The television on the left has a 25-minute photo display on a three-second timer showing photographs of farm activities from the early and mid-1900s.

I was particularly interested in getting photos of threshing like the one above 

that I can use in my next book, A Farm Country Harvest.

The steel-wheeled wagon and the braces on the rack on the left remind me of the rigs used when I was a boy, and the removable basket rack on the right is very much like a used one my folks bought in about 1955.

When I spotted this silage cutter, I knew I wanted photos that show all the detail on the machine because this is the same brand and cutter my folks used when they hauled bundles to fill their silo for so many years. Since I intend to write A Farm Country Silo Filling as my next book after A Farm Country Harvest, I'd been looking for a model for photos to send to my illustrator. My search is over.

I never tire of photos of threshing from the drive belt to the thresher.

We thank Jim Gibson, executive Director of Farmamerica, for inviting us to the Fall Fair, and thanks to Crystal and other staff members who made us feel welcome throughout the day. We especially thank the many board members who stopped by our booth to visit, to introduce themselves, and to give us encouragement in our efforts to preserve farm heritage.