Belvedere Ends, Records Fall and a Return to RIR

Last night, I finally got to sleep in my own bed for the first time in over a month.  I’ve been gone since September 25 and it was great to get back to the farm again.

But, what a fabulous month it has been.  I’ve added some pictures to the Belvedere set so you might want to click on the Flickr button the the right and scan them.

Belvedere Plantation was awesome and featured such things as my biggest day ever, my biggest week ever and my biggest month ever.  Not bad, huh?   Plus, I met the head of the Maryland Stadium Authority while in Fredericksburg.  Certainly, a nice contact to have.

The weekends were all that we could handle except Saturday, the 25th which was rainy.  During the week, there were school groups every day.  I worked them by myself and actually only needed to cover my basic expenses–like dinner and my motel cost.  Most days, I did that and a little more.  So, it was good to be able to support Donnie and his crew by being there.  I got more than enough on the weekends to offset those few bad days.  And what a help Steve and Noah’s crew from TJ’s was to us.  I’d run out of something and it would magically appear.  All in all, a most successful month.  I’m only sorry that I missed the last weekend which was after Halloween but. . .

We got an unexpected bonus as Todd from Americrown contacted me to work the Equine Extravaganza at Richmond Raceway.  Since I had a JMU football game, I got Tank to come up on Thursday night to meet me after I finished up at Belvedere and set up our tent program and equipment.  He opened on Friday while I did the auction with Big Red and I came over and worked with him Friday afternoon and evening.  I left for Harrisonburg with Big Red at 6:00 am on Saturday while Peggy and my sister, Jean both drove to Richmond to work with Tank.  Todd’s friend Chuck Sturgis helped me at JMU and did a great job for his first effort with us.  While it wasn’t a record breaking game, we were only about $50 short of it.  Saturday night after the game, I drove back to Richmond to work Sunday and close out the show.  It was the best show we’ve ever done at RIR and almost 40% more than the last time we did the Extravaganza.  Jean, who was sick, Peggy and Tank did a great job and just about killed themselves.

Today, I’ve spent the entire day catching up on a month’s worth of bookkeeping, laundry and dishes.  Tomorrow is cleaning day for Big Red and all of our equipment from Richmond.  Then, its back on the road again.

A report to follow.