Halloween back in the day

For my job I do a lot of reading to keep up on current events and trends in my field. One of the papers I take is the "Co-Operator" from Cook County Farm Bureau. In this last issue there was a story by Bob Rohrer who is a friend. I think Bob and I are about the same age and were raised in very similar environments. So his little article about trick or treating in the country was hilarious to me since I lived it too. Growing up we actually had it a little better since we had about 5 neighbors in the 10 mile radius of our farm in Iowa. Still, country kids always felt a little bit cheated when we heard of the Halloween exploits of our city friends. I thought it would be neat to republish some of Bob's article and share a picture or two of David and I on an Iowa country night. (As a reference, I'm the T-Rex from Land of the Lost and David portrays what a little brothers really are, the Devil. Isn't is amazing how creative our Mom's were with making costumes back then?)

Here's Bob's article - Happy Halloween to all

""Life on the farm is not fair"..that is where my mind used to go sometimes as I was growing up. "Life on the farm is not fair" would pop into my head especially in October... October 31st... Halloween!
I'm not sure my city cousin friends fully understood the why but I was certainly "looking over the fence" with envy at their glorious circumstances.
The "why" was because of the close proximity of all those houses in town.. row upon row of front doors.. with people ready to open the door and dump candy into my bag when I said the magic words..."trick or treat".
"All we have", I whined to my mother, "is rows and rows or corn and beans." Our closest neighbors, the Cow family and the Pig family, were not inclined to fill my bag with what I was in the market for. The heck with the "tricks", I was in it for the candy treats!
In fairness, Mom was very patient with me and my siblings. She would load us all into the brown, four door Ford LTD and we would drive to the neighbor's farm to trick or treat. We would then all load back up and drive the next mile to do it all over again.
I recall the year I decided to be a robot..3 stacked boxes spray painted silver and tied together with twine. That costume did not bend in the middle, was difficult to get in and out of and took up too much room in the car to transport easily. There my mom was, patiently helping me in and out of the robot suit.. neighbor's farm to neighbor's farm just so little Bobby could trick or treat. And all I was worried about was getting some of the good candy... not one of those candy apples or black licorice. As I reflect on this, I wonder if Mom would call ahead to warn the neighbor's.. trick or treaters in the country were few and farm between.
I contrast those memory pictures in my head with today and the trick or treat "success" of my kids..they use a pillow case and they aren't happy unless it is 1/2 full or more of what they call loot. They are, like I was, after the "good" candy.. the houses giving out full size candy bars become very popular.
I still marvel at a neighbor kid a few years ago who trick or treated using his roller blades, his treat bag was an empty (not for long) golf bag on a pull cart. He had the ability to hit nearly every house in town. He told me that he filled the golf bag 2 and a 1/2 times that year! That is some serious loot and a dentist's dream.
Sure, growing up on the farm had a few advantages like open space, clean air and water, loads of animals and equipment, rewarding work and plenty of entertainment options...blah, blah, blah... but bags of candy, not so much.
So my message to urban suburban kids (and dentist)be grateful this Halloween for the gifts provided to you by Agriculture.. pumpkins, corn stalks, the ingredients for the great candy's and yes...be thankful for the plenty of neighbors even if they try to give you a candy apple."

Meet Pat and his friend Hera

At last night's volunteer meeting we had one of the most interesting speakers. Pat Moon who lives in Park Ridge shared stories about his job of being a sled dog musher. Pat found a way to combine his love of working with animals and being outdoors into a really cool job. And when I say cool I mean it. Since you need snow to run dog sleds that puts you in places like Alaska, Siberia and the Alps where a warm day is 10 degrees below zero. Pat has even run the famous Iditarod race in Alaska. For our meeting Pat brought the tools of his trade and even one of his partners, Hera who is a very friendly Alaskan Husky.

Jeff 's masterpiece

There are a couple of things that folks always look for this time of year at Wagner Farm. One of those is the great pumpkin carving that Jeff does. Have you ever wondered what happens to the pumpkins that have soft spots or get dropped? They end their career with the highlight of being on display in front of the farmhouse. If you are in the area swing by the farm and take a look at this year's creations.

A good guy

This is a special thank you to a real friend of the farm Mr. Ron Bernardi who is the owner of Sunset Foods. For the last couple years Ron has been a huge supporter of the efforts of the kids in the 4-H program and the activities at Wagner Farm. At one of our last events he brought out his newly restored model A Ford and the popcorn wagon and donated all the profits from that day's business. Thanks Ron

God speed to the Conestoga wagon

Jim completed the replica of the Conestoga wagon that he was making for the Grove's "Pack your wagon" school program.

Many hands make light work

How do you unload a 28 foot trailer full of pumpkins in less than 30 minutes? Call the 4-H kids to come and lend a hand.

Wagner's new barn

I'm sure Mr. Quill got a little excited when he read the headline for this posting. Worry not, it is only a bird house. To be precise it is a martin house. Some of us have seen a few martins in the area so we thought it would be interesting if we could get a family to call the farm home. Laura's Dad picked up this super neat bird house and Andy got it mounted this week. Once we see the martins showing interest then we can start pulling some of the plugs out and they can take over the mortgage.

4-H officer elections

This month the Glenview Clovers elected their new officers for the coming year. Seeing this little form of democracy in action is always interesting. The angst, the speeches and the voting. Congrats to the new leaders.

End of the Farmers Market

I got so busy with the school tours this month that I fell behind with mentioning a few things that were going on at the Farm. On October 9th we had the last of the 16 week farmers market Saturdays. This year proved to be our best yet in many ways. Attendance wise we ended at 23,054 which was the best finish in the markets 23 year history. Another aspect that was really nice was that we only had rain for two of the 16 days. Of course we did have one day of heavy winds that wrecked a lot of the tents.
I think that the farmers market is a lot like any other event. Unless you actually work it you really don't know how much time goes into the day. I would like to thank Roxanne Junge and Karen Diener for the numerous hours that they have spent to make the market what it is. Along with Roxanne and Karen there a many volunteers that give of their time to help keep the operation running smoothly.
Next year will just not be the same as we will be without Karen who hung up her farmers market hat. We will all miss you - thanks for everything friend.

Corn Harvest 2010

This past weekend we had our 9th Corn Harvest. It was a beautiful day and we hosted a large crowd with 2,390 folks coming to the site. This year all of the activities outside centered around bringing in and using the corn crop. There was corn picking, shelling and we even got the broom corn out and demonstrated how to make a broom. Inside there was cookie decorating, special exhibits, a 4-H straw maze and it was the last day for the Sweets and Treats soda fountain. A great way to end the year. Thanks to all our supporters and friends for a very successful season.

More Corn Harvest pictures

Big help from some friends at Kraft

For the last couple years we have been the beneficiary of some manpower help from our neighbors at Kraft. Peter Brown who is on the board of the Friends of Wagner Farm brings some co-workers over to the farm and we work on different projects that we need help with. For the last two years we have had a very special job that our friends have gotten really good at, harvesting broom corn. Few people know that brooms actually come from a plant that very much resembles the common corn plant. The difference is instead of developing a ear of corn with seeds on it the broom corn has seeds randomly attached to straws that come out of the top of the plant. To get material to make brooms with you have to cut off the head of the plant where the straws are. Once the harvest is done then you dry the heads and remove all the seeds. With the crazy pace going on here at the Farm it was so nice to have the extra help from our friends at Kraft. So thank you very much!!!

Fordson

Our Fordson was the recipient of a brand new coat. When these tractors were made they came from the factory with a canvass cover for protection. Farmer Jim told me that there was a place that actually makes a spot on reproduction of the cover so that was a must.

My Favorite Tree

I hope you don't mind if I start going down this road of sharing some of my favorite things with you. Every morning when I come into work I walk by a maple tree that works so hard to make me notice her. It isn't just this year but for the last few she has put on one of the most spectacular displays. From the shape of the tree to its unusually bright fall colors it is just perfect. So here's to taking the time to smell the roses and rake the leaves.

Corn Harvest this Saturday!

Birdie buffet

This upcoming weekend is our big Corn Harvest event. To put on a show about corn you can imagine what the main ingredient would be, corn. So what do you do when the acre of corn you planted as been invaded by our winged friends to the point where there is no longer any ears of corn? You import. How sad is that? On Wednesday I had Jeff call Horchers and put in an order for 400 bundles of corn stalks. I walked that field from one end to the other and there were only two ears in the whole field that resembled what could be called an complete ear. I knew it was bad when every time a school bus rolled into the bus turn-a-round the field came to life and looked like the movie "The Birds". I even saw the semi-domestic Canadian geese fly into the stalks and knock them down just to get to the ears. To be fair to the birds I'm sure the coons and the deer have done their fair share of damage too. The thing is when you have the only acre of corn in a 15 + mile radius it just screams - Dinner is served!

The next round of 7th graders

Springman Middle School 7th graders had the opportunity to visit Wagner Farm over the past few days for our all day fieldtrip. The kids had a great time! Our staff has worked very hard over these last two weeks to make sure these kids learned a lot and had a good time in the process. Thanks to everyone for your hard work and dedication!

Building a Scarecrow!!

This past weekend was our Scarecrow Building event. I laugh to myself as the hundreds of scarecrows leave the farm because it looks like there was some kind of massacre. Bodies of all shape and size are being drug off and pushed in strollers. This event is fun to watch how creative people get with making their scarecrow. I even think I saw John Wayne and maybe Sarah Palin I'm not sure. Enjoy the great weather we are having thus far this Fall. If you are looking for pumpkins we are getting a HUGE shipment in on Friday.