Bent Blades and Baker Creek Spring Festival

Last week when I fired up the big Dixon garden tractor I noticed a pretty severe vibration so I pulled the deck and was surprized to find two of the three blades were bent pretty badly. Lawn mower blades are made of some seriously strong hardened steel so I had to have hit something large to do that kind of damage but I remember nothing. I mean I do hit rocks now and again since they grow here so well but I dont remember hitting anything overly big or noticable. Once the blades were replaced I lubed the mandrels and put it all back together and no problems.

This past weekend was also the Baker Seed Company (wwww.rareseeds.com) Spring Festival which is not too far from our farm and is where we buy our seed. For the second year in a row Judy had a booth and sold her quilts and things and she had her highest sales to date this year so it worked out great. There were a lot of vendors, Ozark Mountain music and various guest speakers and this year the weather cooperated.

In addition, we got the Hardiplank painted on the back of the house and...lets see..oh yea, our daughter's boyfriend Steve called me and asked for my blessings as he intended to propose to her. So Steve and Jenny are now engaged and we couldnt be happier. What a week eh?

One of the new blades is of course in the fore ground but look at the bent angle of the blades in back, the first one is the most bent and was on the right side, the next bent one was in the middle and the left blade was hardly bent at all...no wonder I had a vibration. What is irritating though is I dont remember doing it...I would blame it on someone else to save face but I am the only one who has used it this year... :(

Luckily, none of the mandrel shafts were bent or damaged and it all went back together and functioned as it should (whew!). Obviously someone broke into the garage and took the mower out and hit a rock or something then put it back....couldnt have been me...just couldnt.

This is part of the Baker Creek shindig. They had people come from all over and many camped in an area set aside for that and me with my beard and our generally shabby chic country attire fit right in. The vendors were all people who through their own effort or talent made things, grew things, re-purposed things, or created music. It was a real eclectic group, the generally liberal arty crowd, the deeply devout religious, and the farmer/homesteader crowd. All got along and it was definitely a friendly bunch.

As said earlier in this post Judy had a booth and did very well sales wise. She continues to add to her offerings and her prices are extremely competetive.

Music was being played all over the place and this young man could really play the fiddle. I was kicked out of music class in 6th grade when we were learning the recorder because I am completely tone deaf and I irritated the teacher. I never did learn to play anything but I do admire those who do.

The owner and founder of the Baker Creek Company is a relatively young man and his family who have created an entire industry in these Ozark Mountains and this is their house on site.

Its a fun place to go anytime but the spring festival is my favorite; if you get a chance to go do it.

And finally, we got around last week to painting the Hardiplank lap siding we had put up early last year; its Lincoln Cottage green and is part of the Valspar American Heritage series...we just like the colour.

For comparison, this is what the back of the house looked like almost exactly two years ago when we moved in. Other than raising the roof line, adding a coverd back porch, adding a concrete patio, new windows, new doors, new siding, gutters, paint, outside electrical outlets and lighting, a grape arbor, landscaping  etc. we have just done some touch up.!!

In all seriousness, the house was not habitable when we bought it and we have enjoyed doing the work mostly ourselves (we did contract out the roof). Its old, it has character, and its now home. We are glad we saw the possibilities when others didnt and we are far from done but we have a vision of what we want and thats part of the enjoyment.