Plow Day!

A few years ago, some of Mom and Dad's neighbors hosted a plow day and benefit to help support other members of the community with special financial needs.  This event has grown tremendously and we went over to partake in all the festivities this weekend.  This event brings the entire neighborhood together - both the Amish and the English people.  This seems like a huge culture clash, but it is actually just a lot of neighbors getting together for a good time and a good cause and no one really thinks about the drastic culture differences - they are just neighbors and friends.

 I loved this picture - kind of representing the stark differences between the team of horses and plow and the new tractor, all united under a huge American flag.

 This is not your average plow day with just a bunch of old guys dragging out their old tractors to plow up some ground.  There are activities and fun events for everyone.  The kids loved the pony rides and all the kid games.  I had a lot of fun just watching them sack race against each other - they obviously had fun too:)

 There was a pony pull too.  I had watched horse pulls before with big Clydesdales pulling and these little ponies did just the same.  They were raring to go as soon as they were backing up to get hitched to the sled full of blocks.

 There were 106 tractors and 2 teams of horses that plowed up many acres throughout the day.  This Amish team of horses proudly displayed their names on top of their harnesses - "John Deere", "International", "Ford", etc!

 The tug of war was a huge hit too.  Starting with the tractor against the team of ponies, then the Amish versus the English guys and other heats.  Ava, Aubrey and Samantha pulled hard in this heat to help out the English kids, but in the end, they were all pulled forward by the Amish kids, ending up on the ground.

 All us girls took a ride to the field in a covered wagon, driven by this Amish guys and his boys.  We watched all the plowing going on.  But then we came up to where Blaine, John and his Dad were sitting on the golf cart watching tractors and waved to them.  But when Blaine saw us, he immediately started crying and wanted on with us.  So the driver stopped and let him on, making him a very happy camper:)

All in all, it was a great day.  Not only did we get to enjoy all the plowing, kids games, toy tractor making, food, bake sale, cider making, kettle corn, rope making, pony rides, bag making, etc., but it was also nice to catch up with old friends and neighbors that I don't often see any more.  It has become a huge event and is all ran off of free will donations to benefit local families.  Nice to see neighbors helping neighbors in such a big way.  Hats off to the organizers of Plow Day in Whitley County!