So, I’m farmer Andres, and this is my first blog. Todd has asked me to contribute to the Wagner Feed this year and to be perfectly honest I’ve been thinking about what to write about for the last two weeks or so. Well, let me clarify, I’ve been trying to figure out how to start my first blog, because I know what I want to talk about but have never written a blog before (and this is how I figured I’d start). I have only been a farmer for a short while, and am loving every minute of it, as well as learning new things every day. Today I would like to share with you all something that I learned the other day and after I learned this fact I shared it with pretty much everyone I know, needless to say some of my friends got a little fed up with it. I heard a lot of; “dude, you told me about this yesterday”. Mind you this happens a lot, seeing as I learn something new about farming almost every day and love to share knowledge.
A few days back I posted about our friend Pat Moon who is running the Iditarod in Alaska. Pat has had a tough run during the race and had to scratch out on Sunday when the seven dogs he was down to could go no further. Pat's story took a strange turn this morning as he was waiting in the town of Ruby and was called to something greater. A local child was riding his sled and crashed into a parked snow machine. Pat put his first aid skills to use and "stopped the bleeding and cleaned the cut, which helped keep the boy's face together" according to KTUU Channel 2.
Today when Ross and his crew were staking out the grading project it was fun to watch the reaction of the horses. Where ever Ross went they seemed to follow and show an interest in their project.
This past week I had the chance to travel to Madison, Indiana to take part in the Midwest Open-Air Museum conference. A conference for historians can take some interesting turns. While we have educational sessions, trade shows and networking there are also special classes offered relating to some historic aspect or trade. For this conference, I chose to learn the art of making a tin type photograph. In the 1850s this was the most common way of capturing an image. As part of the class, we prepared the tin by pouring on a liquid that was the consistency of syrup. Once this was "set", it was dipped in a silver solution for two minutes. Then the slide was ready to be placed in a frame that could be inserted into the box camera. The photographer, Robert, made some adjustments and took off the lens cover for about 15 seconds. In that amount of time the expose on the metal slide left an image of Evan (Evan is the historic farm manager at Volkening Heritage Farm) and I. One of the interesting things, in looking through the camera, we were upside down and backwards. If you have ever seen a Civil War image and the buckles or other writing seem to be backwards there is a reason for this. Once the exposure is taken then it goes through a series of chemical developers and washes. The whole process took about 20 minutes per image. It reminded me of a Polaroid as we watched the developer reveal the ghostly image. Here is one more example of how we are so spoiled to live in the 21st century!
One of the things that I value highly as the volunteer coordinator for Wagner Farm is seeing the satisfaction of the people who so generously donate their time and services to the farm. I think it is very important that we work with volunteers to create an experience that will fulfill both their needs and desires and the mission of Wagner Farm.
In January, I asked volunteers to submit testimonials about why they like volunteering here for us to include in some new volunteer materials. While I realize that this is not a method traditionally used to gather feedback, I found it to be very informative of what volunteers particularly enjoy about their experiences at the farm. Since Andy and Rob have just finished creating a special section on the bulletin board in the Heritage Center for volunteer information, I thought I would display a few:
Besides stopping in to visit the Dunbar popcorn wagon we also did a little sightseeing in Columbus. Directly across the street from where the wagon was displayed was an architectural gem, a Louis Sullivan designed bank. In the courthouse, they honored their past by commissioning paintings done to show different periods in Columbus history. Their dedication to preserving the past earned the downtown area the special distinction of having three solid blocks on the historic register. When the movie Public Enemy about the life John Dillinger was looking for a historic back drop they chose Columbus since they didn't have to make major changes. I was even impressed they had a store that specialize in original period clothing. 
