Today marked the date of Buchtafest 2012.

Purchased with gold from the mining exploits of two Buchta brothers who went to California during the Gold Rush, the headquarters for Buchtafest is this building:

One part of the building not visible in the photo, is about the size of a two-car garage. Built of bricks made on site, it housed the original six-member household that set out to tame this patch of land.

Begun in 2009, Buchtafest celebrates both the family and the farm that has served to anchor it for so many years. While most of the attendees are descended from the Buchtas who settled this particular patch of earth, the celebration also includes supporting cast members, including the family who currently lives on the farm and performs many of the day-to-day operations along with a Buchta cousin who continues to pursue farming projects of his own.

The purpose of Buchtafest is to make sure that the stories of both the farm and the family are known, shoot potato guns/cannons, toss bean bags, and craft:

While my great aunt worked on a baby blanket using a afghan stitch entrelac design and my second cousin worked on a knitted sweater, I got out the Mark & Kattans LOL yarn I purchased at Knit One, Weave Too yesterday:

along with a 5.5mm hook and began work on a hyperbolic streamer so that my cousin Lois would have a little extra something to decorate her golf cart when she attends a belated Mardi Gras celebration in the near future:

And after the Mardi Gras celebration, she will have a fetching decoration for a barbed wire fence.