Fair Play

Well... fair week has come and gone, leaving behind a bunch of tired but happy country folks in its wake.

But I couldn't let the past week pass on without extolling the many virtues of our cute little county fair just one more time.


One of my favorite parts of fair week is getting so see the various and sundry 4-H projects that my former and current kidlets worked so hard on. From giant sugar beets, to hand sewn clothing, to baked goods, to heifers, to pigs, to tractor maintenance, I am constantly amazed at their skills and talents.


And it would be near blasphemous to write a post about the fair without mentioning all of the delicious fair food. Corn dogs, cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, scones, funnel cakes, and the all-important maple bars taste better during fair week than during any other time of the year.

One of my other favorite aspects of the "county fair experience" is that no matter when you go, you always end up seeing 75 to 80% of all of the people you have ever met in your life. They are working in booths or showing animals or just walking around enjoying the unique ambiance created by dirt, manure, and fried food residue. Everywhere you look, friends and neighbors are visiting and getting caught up on everything that has happened in each other's lives since last year's fair.

Lets see... 4-H, fair food, long-lost friends... it feels like I have forgotten to mention something.

Oh, wait.

There is also that little rodeo thingy going on that week.

I guess I should probably mention that too, not that I am all that in to that sort of thing.

Cowboys. Sigh. Real ones. Double Sigh.

And now that the carnival rides have been hauled away, the stables mucked out, the 4-H pigs baconized, and the food booths boarded up, the time has come for me to think back on all of the many wonderful fair and/or manure related experiences of the past week and select my favorite; the memory that I will carry with me until next year's fair week rolls around.

Huuuummmmmm..... I wonder what it will be.....

Drum roll please......

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

Kylie spray painting her heifer!

Where would someone come up with the idea to spruce up their showcow, preshow with a can of black spray paint? Only in a town where people of different religious beliefs, political persuasions, and socioeconomic backgrounds are all united in heart and spirit once a year in betting on GPS-tracked horse poop.

Have I mentioned lately that I love it here? Cuase I do.

Thank goodness fair week '10 is only 257 days away.

I can't wait!