Bob Evans, Down On The Farm

Two weekends ago, we had the privilege of joining the Riddell family and heading to Rio Grande, OH for the annual Bob Evans festival. Beth came here with her family a few times as a youngster and I remember coming with her once during one of our farm trips. (If my memory serves me correctly, her grandpa went to the same high school as Bob Evans). We had a fun time and Jake even said he wanted his birthday dinner at that Bob Evans. We had to explain to him that all the fun stuff was specifically for the festival. Below are pictures of some of that "fun stuff."


First we headed up this hill and sat down to wait for the show at the pond to start.

First, there was some friendly competition with sawing logs the old fashioned way and with a chainsaw.

Next, this man demonstrated a certain type of chopping and did it in quite a fast time (he used to hold a world record in the 70's).

Look how high he is (note the telephone wires in the background)! Don't know too many men (or women) who would get up so high with an axe on a teeny board. Not to mention he's not a young man anymore.

Next came my favorite thing to watch...the log rolling!

This dude lost, obvioulsy, so next time...

he decided to cheat.

The gang in front of an old mine.

One of the memories from going to the BE farm with Beth was rolling down the big hill near the pond (see the first picture to see the height). Anyhow, the kids had a fun time reliving our adventure. Beth, Ryan, and myself got in on the action, too. Too bad Dan had a bum shoulder; or maybe he was glad for it at that moment? (No pictures of Jake doing it, because he had fallen on the way back down from the mine and had to go get bandaged up).

I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series to the kids, so it was fun for them to get to see and stir these giant kettles they were using to cook soup beans in. We had just finished reading about Laura Ingalls grandpa collecting tree sap and transferring it to giant kettles.

Waiting for the sheep and duck herding to begin.

Hay bail maze!

And then getting to climb on hail bails!!

Hmm, appears to be a tongue sticking out in that picture.

Waiting for the tractor square dancing to begin.

Here they come.

Dog and farmer, tractor square dancing.

About this time, we decided it was time to leave. We still wanted to make a trip to the farm that used belong to Beth's family. That was bittersweet. Brought back many, many memories, but I didn't even take pictures as it was just not the same and looked very run down. Before we headed up, we went to downtown Galipolis and had some supper at the Snack Shack.

And that's all for now, folks!