Going trainriding tomorrow

[altivo]

Today was a beautiful, clear day, with moderate warm temperatures. Of course, since we're planning to do the railroad museum tomorrow, and that's mostly outdoors, the weather forecast calls for a 60% chance of thundershowers. Oh well. We'll see if the carbarn roofs leak, and it should be dry as long as we keep riding the trains. Rain will cut down on the crowds, which is kinda nice sometimes too, as you get to chat more with the conductors and drivers/engineers.

It's Milk Days in Harvard, where I work. The library will be closed tomorrow, and could have been closed today, as it was mostly deserted all day. Harvard still proclaims itself as the "Milk Capital" and it's true that there was a time in the middle of the 20th century when there were more dairy cows than humans in McHenry County. No more. Now most of the county's rich farmland is either covered by developments or scheduled to be converted to more developments. I wouldn't be surprised if the dairy cow population is down to just a couple hundred on two or three farms. I know of one that is still producing milk, and one that still produced purebred stock for sale but doesn't actually do any milking. The horse population of the county has been rising for the last ten years though, which helps to make sure that we'll keep some open land for a while.

Anyway, the Milk Days stuff started a week ago and will continue through Sunday. There's a parade, of course, and a Milk Queen (and in recent years, King.) There's a carnival setup, and a lot of silly events like a bed race down Harvard's main street (what this has to do with milk or cows I'm not at all sure.) It attracts huge crowds, which for me is a definite "stay away" signal.

Since we're going to the museum tomorrow, we went grocery shopping tonight. Normally I do that on Saturday morning. Spent more than I like, but it was a big load. Last week we only spent half as much, but didn't buy as much either. Some was stocking up on things that were on sale and could be frozen or would keep. We went to WalMart, which I really don't like much but it's necessary now at least half the time because prices have gone so high. The trouble with WalMart is that it becomes difficult to find the real food buried amidst all the junk and convenience crap. And, as I've said before, I don't like their produce department at all. I'm getting used to the layout and having to dodge spacy people who are lost and towing a half dozen screaming kids, but it's disorienting and requires serious concentration. WalMart has good prices for some things, but not so good prices for others. We wouldn't save much if we just bought everything there all the time.

Comments

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

Well, I should be there; it'll be an excuse to road-test the GPS at the very least, that or end up at a restaurant in some tiny little town. And I like trains...did I mention liking trains...or at least anything that runs on rails...(well, maybe not Ruby).

Apparently I can download lists of offbeat tourist attractions to put into the GPS...that would make for fun roadtripping.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Our favorite restaurant in a tiny town has closed, alas. We were quite disappointed (Country Cafe in Garden Prairie.) I'm looking forward to seeing you today. Last time we did this, we ended up at a place in Marengo for dinner, but there are other options in the area as well. We'll see how large the group actually turns out to be. At the moment I'm only aware of five of us.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I think it was Lobowolf that told me once the problem
with Walmart is that you go in for a lightbulb and come
out with a set of tires, a high def television, a
set of ratchets, new curtains and a box of frozen
catfish, going to your car in a daze @.@

"The prices are so good!"

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's what happens to Gary. Unfortunately, he likes to go to WalMart when I go grocery shopping.

WalMart has good prices, but when I think of why those prices can be so low it makes me unhappy. I really don't like shopping there but we're squeezed hard enough now that I can't entirely avoid it any more.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Most supermarkets seem to be like that, and intentionally so, too - they're cheaper than the competition on some things, but more expensive on others, in the hope that when you come in for the cheap things, you'll also buy the more expensive things there out of convenience.

About the only exception I know of (here) is Aldi, which is always the cheapest. (Your version of Aldi may or may not be similar.)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Aldi is the cheapest for what they actually sell. The trouble is, they don't sell all the things I need.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Aye - same for me. :) Of course, that's a conversation we've had before...

(Fortunately, the Aldi store closest to me is integrated (i.e., sharing a building) with a larger, regular supermarket.)

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I think Devonshire is the milk area around here. i went to sleep in a field there once and get awoke by an earlick from a cow. :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Better than being stepped on by the cow, believe me. Or even worse, used as a depository...

Cows are nice actually, though I prefer fairly small numbers of them at once. A dozen is fine. A hundred is too many. That's the trouble with so much farming now. There was a time when you could milk a dozen cows and turn a profit. Now you need ten times that just to break even.

[aureth.livejournal.com]

There are more dairies in the county than you think. Certainly not as many as there used to be, but they're around. I know of five or six in the Hebron/Harvard area, and I think there's more around Marengo, which is a bit out of my territory (although I had my sprayers running a few fields south of Marengo, this year). Holbrich Farms, just south of Harvard, milks about 200, just by themselves.

Better than Lake County, where there are know just three remaining dairies and one of those I'm not too sure about. Golden Oaks Farms in Wauconda is owned by a rich family (The Crown's, if I remember correctly) that uses it as a gigantic tax writeoff, so they'll be around for a while. And the third one is my parents and uncle, who only milk 40 or 45 cows, these days.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Holbrich I know about. I pass it every day on my way to work, in fact, though I wasn't sure whether they were still milking or just raising stock. The one working dairy I knew of was on Marengo Road east of Union. We spent a lot of time looking at property around Hebron ten years ago and I saw lots of closed down dairies but none that seemed to be working. In fact, one place we looked at was a retired dairy property. There was a beef cattle breeder over on Standish Rd. just a mile or so from us named Frank Elliot, but he must have retired or passed away because his farm was sold a couple of years ago and the signs and fences are down. No cattle there any more. And a place at the corner of IL-23 and Streit Rd. has some elderly looking Holsteins but doesn't look like it's really working any more. You've probably been down more back roads than I have, though. I'm aware of more sheep than dairy, and sheep aren't exactly a big profit item around here.

Buying crap isn't saving anything.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I'm getting used to the layout and having to dodge spacy people who are lost and towing a half dozen screaming kids, but it's disorienting and requires serious concentration. WalMart has good prices for some things, but not so good prices for others.

Heh, yes people are always spaced out in Walmart- sometimes the customers, sometimes the employees. It's a great place to test what I call your "crowd dodging skills" ^_^ It's also a good place to "speed shop" (rush in, grab one thing & get out ASAP), because one can only tolerate that envirmoent for so long- no wonder half the employees look dead on their feet.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I think you'd like a little place here called Samford Valley :) Although it might be building up a little too fast for you.

It's funny going into big places like that, for us we have big hardware chains called "Bunnings" you go in for one thing for the house and find another $300 worth of things at the same time.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/stores_152_.aspx

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Generally I'm a little puzzled by these stories. I usually go into a place looking for something specific and come out with just that and nothing else. I'm not much of an impulse buyer. I may look at a dozen other things and sometime later go back for one of them, though.