A Pair doesn't necessarily mean a Team.

Horses: Curtis, 3/20/2001

About 10 years ago I moved out of
the city to a rural non-farm setting. My new neighbor, Dan, had been waiting
for someone like me to “go out and play”. The play was with a pair of
standardbred horses that had been retired (not due to age) from the
track. Dan wanted to train them to plow. He had them harnessed
up but he needed holders to help the process get started. So my son , David,
and I went “out to play”. We backed the pair up to the plow and
steadied them until Dan got a pin in place to connect the double tree to the plow.
The click of the pin started the process.
The horses lurched forward. The plow wedged into the
ground, and since we’d started a little too fast, Dan jammed the plow
into the ground a little deeper to decrease the speed. That strategy
seemed to work for a moment, or until the hitch pin that had only been
partially installed, popped out. Get the picture? The metal double tree
slapped the horses quarters as if shot from a slingshot. The horses
bolted and David and I yelled almost in unison “let go, don’t get hurt”.
Well, it looked like I was trying to be a hero as I clung to my horses’
halter. I imagined the worst and then the horses suddenly stopped.
Dan and David scolded me for not turning loose. As they were lecturing
me I was almost overwhelmed by my apparent blind bravery. The real
deal was that the tongue of the halter buckle had penetrated the skin web
between my thumb and first finger. So my apparent bravery was out of
my control.
Morals:
A pair dosen't necessarily mean a team.
Bravery is sometimes blind!

Cousins! Cousins! Everywhere there are cousins!

Cousins, there's nothing quite like cousins!

They are built in friends for life!

They are laughter and tears!

They are smiles and hugs!

Cousins, you just can't beat cousins!

Barren Co., KY Has Unique Pot Luck (copied)

100-mile potluck highlights a county's local food production

By Katie Pratt

LEXINGTON, Ky., (Jul 27, 2010)

Food purchased in a grocery store travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to consumer, but for community members who participated in Barren County's recent 100-mile potluck, that distance was much shorter.

The 100-mile potluck was a community dinner orchestrated by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service in Barren County. The goal of the event was for participants to bring a dish containing ingredients produced within 100 miles of the county. Since the majority of products were produced inside the county, most dishes were well under the limit, said Melinda McCulley, the county's family and consumer sciences extension agent.

"Most products were prepared and picked early the morning of the potluck or the evening before, so we had some very fresh, tasty foods," McCulley said. "Since many people only eat food that is purchased in a grocery store, they don't realize the taste difference between fresh, homegrown products and those from a store."

The Barren County potluck also displayed the variety of foods that can be produced locally. At the event, they had everything from zucchini to dill to  bacon and beef.

This was the second year for the potluck, and it grew out of an idea of the county's extension council who wanted a different kind of event to emphasize the importance of local foods to Barren countians.

"Communities in other parts of the state have done something like this in the past, but it had never been done in this area before," McCulley said.

McCulley said the dinner was a great opportunity to educate a lot of different people about the benefits of locally grown foods, both to the consumer and local producer.

Contact: Melinda McCulley, 270-651-3818