Mother Earth News Fair

We were totally excited to head out to the Mother Earth News Fair in Somerset Pa.  We decided to camp at a local campground nearby the fair. We arrived at the campground Friday evening to find a nasty stench in the camper. As the evening progressed the smell became stronger and stronger. Danny thought it had something to do with  the grey water tank. So we started to check all the traps under the sinks, all the traps seem to be fine and there was no smell in the pipes. My super laid back hubby looks at me and says,"lets just go to bed, we will have to figure it out in the morning". 1:00 a.m. rolled around and I am still awake by this horrible sulfur smell, worrying that it will make the kids sick. I wake the hubby up to tell him I don't think we should be in the camper. I had no idea how he could sleep through the smell. He used to paint airplanes, I now truly believe the paint fumes has ruined his sense of smell. This odor smelled as if I had a stink bomb held up to my nose. He suggested we call hotels to see if they had any vacancies. No such luck!! Everyone was full. The campground was so super quiet and there were tenters all around us. We couldn't quietly pack up and leave, especially with a Diesel Cummins and neither of us wanted to miss the fair. So my SUPER BRILLIANT LAID BACK hubby suggested we open the windows and run the fan on the air condition unit for ventilation and stick it out until morning. It was below 50 degrees outside. I googled "our problem" and saw where it could be the batteries to the camper. Danny said, "Cant be, I checked them before we left". So I closed the computer, opened the windows and we crawled into bed with the kids to keep them warm. I dozed in and out of sleep, shivering, nose holes burning and the smell was stuck in the back of my throat. At 6 a.m. I woke up the hubby and begged him to just go check the batteries. Sure enough the batteries were super hot. No sooner did he remove the batteries from the camper the smell was completely gone!! This night will be marked down as the worst camper night EVER!! We were glad to have the problem fixed and was off to the fair!!!!

 The Fair was held at Seven Springs Resort. It was a beautiful place. They have skiing, zip lines, chair lift rides and much more, but we were there to learn more about self sufficiency.

 The fair had thousands of people soaking up knowledge on energy saving, heritage breeds, seed saving, cheese making, electric cars etc...

 Here Danny and Isaac were waiting for a workshop to start on winter salads.

 We were able to hear Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms speak. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

 Isaac was able to go into a butterfly tent and get up close and personal with one of natures finest. They had books and kits for sale.

 He was also able to take a kids workshop on composting.

 Tey was to young for the workshops, so he hung out with mom and played with the bag of toys we packed. Both boys were so quiet during the workshops I had to make sure I didn't switch them with someone Else's kids.

 Sunday morning we went back to the fair, refreshed from a GREAT night of sleep and took a class on home dairy and cheese making.

 Sunday evening on the way home we passed by several windmills.

Tey wants to wear Mommy's new t shirt

 I think the back was more appropriate!!

 Here Isaac is holding my SIGNED copy of Jenna Woginrich's book, Made From Scratch!! I am a huge Jenna Woginrich fan. I was able to meet her at a book signing at the fair. If you know me, you know I am not a shy person, but i was instantly shy when I met her...oh well. Who would have thought I could ever become speechless!!

 When we came home our Hereford cow Lily had missed us so much. When I went down to give her a treat she kept rubbing her massive head against my leg like a kitty cat. After I walked away she bellowed for 30 min straight..now thats true love!!