Day one at the farm show
Oct. 18th, 2005 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nlbarberThree people this morning thought I was from some part of the University of Georgia. UGA vs USGS--I guess 2 of the letters do match....
Booth neighbors: to one side, a group selling a product called Visible, a "soil penetrant"--supposed to enhance the crop yield. I'm not interested enough to pursue the question of how, exactly, this works. To the other side, a firm called Russell selling evaporators and condensers--refrigerator units for crop storage. Across the way is a group selling fences made of aluminum, steel, or plastic, along with a sub-firm called Papa's Little Cookers, which are various sizes of industrial-strength grills. Next to them is the fluorescent light guy, selling his tough bulbs. His booth has a row of the bulbs lit up as demos, almost causing me to need sunglasses to look over there. To prove they are tough, he has one (battery powered) work light that he dips into a container of water and swishes around, and another work light that he raps on the counter in a pattern so people can see the bulb stays lit. rap rap rap RAP. This got old after about 15 minutes of the 8-1/2 hour day. However, he's very nice, and kindly lent me a stool after noticing that I stood all morning. (Left my canvas chair in the vehicle, and decided that it didn't work anyway as it's too low to hop up from easily to talk to people.)
Down at the end of the building is the Misty Morn Safe Co.--they are here every year, and I always wonder how many safes (some of theirs are very large) they manage to sell at this show every year, and who buys them. And what they store in them. Maybe this is for the items that a city-dweller would keep in a safe-deposit box, only a lot more expensive. And out beyond the safe company I can see the Lancaster "take pride in farmers" sign, where they hand out chewing tobacco so all those farmers can get oral cancers.
In my wanderings I found a vet supplies area, where products like the floating calf nipple and the cow "waterbed" are available. And over at the Clemson University building, there's a tiger-paw shaped putting green--each "toe" is slightly mounded with a hole at the peak, and the "pad" is flat. Didn't see anyone putting on this, though. Got into a conversation with a guy in the Fort Valley State University building about aquaculture, and was rather surprised when he said that he'd never seen a shrimp with the head on until he took some introductory class on marine aquaculture. Guess I forget how many people buy breaded shrimp in the frozen foods section (or even frozen-shrimp-in-a-bag) and never know what the whole beastie looks like.
Last thought: if anyone doubts the articles about the crisis of obesity in America, come and watch a crowd pass before you and estimate the proportion who are not overweight. Or even the proportion who are grossly obese. It's scary.
Booth neighbors: to one side, a group selling a product called Visible, a "soil penetrant"--supposed to enhance the crop yield. I'm not interested enough to pursue the question of how, exactly, this works. To the other side, a firm called Russell selling evaporators and condensers--refrigerator units for crop storage. Across the way is a group selling fences made of aluminum, steel, or plastic, along with a sub-firm called Papa's Little Cookers, which are various sizes of industrial-strength grills. Next to them is the fluorescent light guy, selling his tough bulbs. His booth has a row of the bulbs lit up as demos, almost causing me to need sunglasses to look over there. To prove they are tough, he has one (battery powered) work light that he dips into a container of water and swishes around, and another work light that he raps on the counter in a pattern so people can see the bulb stays lit. rap rap rap RAP. This got old after about 15 minutes of the 8-1/2 hour day. However, he's very nice, and kindly lent me a stool after noticing that I stood all morning. (Left my canvas chair in the vehicle, and decided that it didn't work anyway as it's too low to hop up from easily to talk to people.)
Down at the end of the building is the Misty Morn Safe Co.--they are here every year, and I always wonder how many safes (some of theirs are very large) they manage to sell at this show every year, and who buys them. And what they store in them. Maybe this is for the items that a city-dweller would keep in a safe-deposit box, only a lot more expensive. And out beyond the safe company I can see the Lancaster "take pride in farmers" sign, where they hand out chewing tobacco so all those farmers can get oral cancers.
In my wanderings I found a vet supplies area, where products like the floating calf nipple and the cow "waterbed" are available. And over at the Clemson University building, there's a tiger-paw shaped putting green--each "toe" is slightly mounded with a hole at the peak, and the "pad" is flat. Didn't see anyone putting on this, though. Got into a conversation with a guy in the Fort Valley State University building about aquaculture, and was rather surprised when he said that he'd never seen a shrimp with the head on until he took some introductory class on marine aquaculture. Guess I forget how many people buy breaded shrimp in the frozen foods section (or even frozen-shrimp-in-a-bag) and never know what the whole beastie looks like.
Last thought: if anyone doubts the articles about the crisis of obesity in America, come and watch a crowd pass before you and estimate the proportion who are not overweight. Or even the proportion who are grossly obese. It's scary.