Our 44th Anniversary and the Fair

So the day came. We went tag saling in the morning. Our best find was a hay fork, needing repair, for $8. Our funniest sight was a tag sale at a small ranch style house that had a Jaguar SUV, a BMW, and a Lexus in the driveway…

Home for lunch and to make a run to the dump, then off to the Fair. We’ve gone to the Franklin County Fair together since 1974.

We started at the Kiddie Farm barn and patted the donkey and the calves. Then we went through the Wildlife barn, and the 4-H barn with kid entries. There were NO giant sunflowers this year, and the tables were not packed as in previous years. So sad…

Then onto the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse holds all the adult entries for fruits, vegs, flowers, crafts, etc.

My helper friend puts a good bit of stuff into the Fair for judging each year. His green eggplants got Best of Show, and he had several other blues (1st place) and reds (2nd place).

This was not his but I liked the presentation.

The quilt department had many entries. This was my favorite.

Outside the Roundhouse was the scarecrow competition. I thought someone had done a really excellent job with this one.

From here we wandered the midway and had the first of our Fair food: lemonade, French fires (for him) and onion rings for me.

Jersey cows

Then we went through the cow barns. There were nowhere near as many cows as past years. We stopped to talk with a woman who had the only Ayrshires in the 4-H show. She said more were coming on Sunday for the Open show.

We spoke of the good food we each grew and the effect it had on health and growing children.

Then we sat at the end of a cow barn and rested and watched the people. So few people on a cool Saturday afternoon!

My favorite ride is the Ferris wheel. Last year didn’t have one, it was under repair. When I was much younger I liked the Scrambler. But mostly I was not one for things like roller coasters and things that made you dizzy.

This Fair used to have harness racing. They still have stables and horses in them, but the track is used for just training now. This is the infield in back with midway in front.

Looking north and west from the top of the Ferris wheel the stables are behind the Super Loop.

Coleman Bros has a pretty nice Merry-Go-Round, with other animals besides horses. It wasn’t in as good repair as in the past but the zebra was pretty.

After the ride, we went into the Infield to watch the racing pigs. Not sure why we like this, but it’s fun. My husband wasn’t happy they were using potbelly pigs this year….

Then we looked for some supper. I’d found a Tibetan woman who made dumplings and had mild kimchi and radish pickles. It was delicious! My husband had a steak and cheese grinder. I found wonderful peach shortcake for dessert. All the food was made by local people and had local ingredients for much of it.

We went back to the Infield and checked out the crafts for sale under the white tent. I found the lady with the Mint Medley soap I had gotten last year and bought another bar. It smells so good!

By then we were getting pretty tired and headed home. It had been cloudy and cool all day, I wore a sweatshirt all day. It was to drop into the 40’s during the night and that’s too cold for the ginger in the New Herb garden. So when we got home, we put the plastic back on the hoophouse.

Good thing too, because it just hit 60F on Sunday and is to be cold and rainy until Tuesday. I’ve got 6 ginger plants that came back, and I hope to nurse them along into October before harvesting.

I’ve just got to remember to open the hoophouse when it warms up this week, not cook them again like I did in June….

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