Farm Days

The first Saturday in October here in Fluvanna County is Farm Days. It is a county fair like display that celebrates the farming heritage of this area and the history of this area in general. We missed it last year. We went to Apple Days at Carter Mountain Orchard (first weekend in October) instead. We have been looking forward to it for a year, so we headed down Saturday afternoon to see what it was all about. The kids thought we were just going to the Farmer's Market at first, because it is held in the same place, but Farm Days stretches on MUCH further than our little farmer's market. It really was worth going, and there were a lot of fun things to see. The kids loved seeing the animals. There were pigs, goats, sheep, horses, the cleanest cow I have ever seen, and even some llamas. After our kids mooed at the cow, it mooed back. This encouraged them, so they tried the same thing with the llamas. After awhile, we asked them to stop. Ashley did it again, so we asked her to stop. Then, we kept hearing noises and kept getting after Ashley. We realized, finally, that it was the llama. We felt bad, of course.

The huge turkey that kept puffing up and trying to look fearsome as people passed by.

Those naughty trouble making llamas

It was nice and warm Saturday afternoon. Ashley was too hot in her sweater. We found some snow cones. Yummy! Jon says the snow cones were his favorite part of Farm Days.

There were several BBQ places set up. Since this is Virginia, they take their BBQ seriously. You can see that this place had all of their trophies displayed.

We kept hearing the sound of a train. We finally figured out where it was coming from. This is one interesting contraption. It is hard to see from the picture, but there is a little motor that moves back and forth and the whole thing is steam generated.

This was a festival about the heritage of the area. Sure enough, a cavalry of the sons of Confederate Veterans came riding through the festival area. They had a camp set up that you could look at complete with supplies. One guy was talking to Trent about all the things they could pilfer from captured Yankee soldiers. Trent, who has absolutely loved reading Battle Cry of Freedom, talked with him for quite a while. He tried to recruit Trent. Trent told him that his ancestors would have been attacking settlers as they traveled west. The man then asked if he was from the mid west then. Too funny.

What would a fair/festival/Farm Days be without a train ride of sorts. This makeshift train did not require tickets. Therefore, there was no line. That made getting the kids on and off a madhouse. In fact, Ashley got on, and I couldn't help Jon and Sami to get on the same train quickly enough, so they had to go on the next one. They all loved it though.