Fair Follies
Behind The Scenes At The North Idaho State Fair!
So, The North Idaho State Fair doesn't actually kick off until Wednesday, August 23rd-27th in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, but for families like mine that have kids who show animals in 4H or do other various 4H projects, the fair season kicked off on Saturday!
This week I plan on posting a different post daily that chronicles an aspect of the fair that happens behind the cotton candy scenes. I can promise bad formatting due to the posts being composed and submitted from my cell phone, at least an ode or two to funnel cakes, plenty of animal pics as we will be basically living in the pig barn, and hopefully some new behind the scenes perspective for you all, dear readers, as to just what it takes to carry out something like a state and county fair. Well, at least a look at the 4H family side of it!
Yesterday, my family took our travel trailer down and parked it in "camper village." This trailer lodging area for 4H families that show animals is more like a camper car lot than a picturesque camping village. Travel trailers, tents, and motor homes of all shapes, ages, and sizes are sandwiched in a chain link enclosed fair smell utopia between general parking and the grandstand. Don't get me wrong, this arrangement gives me no small amount of elation, for the funnel cake stand is like 50 feet from my fair domicile!
Another bonus is my proximity to the rodeo stock. Tonight, we wandered down to the fairgrounds for a couple of reasons that I shall cover in just a bit, but as I meandered towards the site of my evening's labors, I found a lone Lowline Angus cow in one of the stock pens. She was all alone and looked a little morose, so my husband I stopped to say hello. She got up and let me scratch her cute little head. Of course this meant that each time I walked to the swine barn from our trailer I had to stop and give my mooing, diminutive little friend a pat.
Speaking of the swine barn, half of our reason for being at the fairgrounds tonight was to help our club set up and decorate our pig pens. The fair's theme this year is "May The Fair Be With You" (Two guesses where that theme was derived from), so I have seen many, many Star Wars pig puns, light saber shaped crop holders, LED light up Death Stars, and star-bedecked backdrops this evening. Many.
The kids in the club actually do most of the decorating work, so while they were laboring away prettifying the pens, I helped my husband, who is a 4H shooting sports leader, take a pile of 4H shooting sports books and projects to the 4H building to be entered as exhibits. This bit of business happens during a 2 hour window on the Sunday night before fair. If you want your project entered, it better be submitted, paper work and requirements properly met, during this time. Talk about a hive of clover activity! Everything from baked goods to robotics projects created by local youth is entered, displayed, and judged during this time. By the time the fair's general entry gates are opened on Wednesday to the public, everything has already been gone through and assigned a victory place.
Tomorrow, my husband and the kids will take their pigs to fair and stay down at the fairgrounds for the rest of the week, as Tuesday morning is pig weigh in. In order for your pig to sell at auction it has to weigh more than 230 pounds. Talk about stress for some people!
This Kat has to run the library for the next couple of days, so I won't be venturing down to stay at the fairgrounds until Tuesday night. I might be a touch excited, for when you get that many people and animals crammed together, competing and entertaining each other, no short amount of stories can be observed!
And I would like to think that I will share more than a few of them with you all! Kind of the opposite of what I will be doing with my deep fried Reese's Peanut Butter cup! WOOO!
Want to read more @Generikat posts?
I am already enjoying your behind-the-scenes perspective of the local fair! If I get there as a spectator this year, I will be sure to look for your kids' exhibits. And, unlike Some People, I love the musical and its songs. May the tunes be with you! After all, it might as well be spring.
You've exceeded my expectations.
Awe! We would love to see you, and thank you so much.
And Some People's tastes are rather questionable, lol! I am totally one with the tunes!
Have fun! May the 4H be with you! Also, how was that deep fried Reese's peanut butter cup?? Sounds amazing!!
Thank you! LOL! I have yet to eat it! Don't worry though, I will report on its awesomeness!
@generikat,
I think you had a nice weekend! I like that caravan experience! Coz, few weeks ago I had the same kind of experience!
Thanks for sharing with us! Really appreciate your effort!
(Thank you very much for giving me a chance to regenrate my upvote power! Now you can enjoy 100% again! I know it's not much, but this is what I have! Thanks~)
Cheers~
Ooh! I hope to one day read about that caravan experience! Your comments and upvotes are always appreciated😊 Thank you @theguruasia!
Hi............ Dear @generikat
Very nice near the state fair.
Thanks for sharing.
Up-voted and resteemed.
Cheers!
Thank you so much for that, very appreciated!
Nice post with wonderful photos and nice story from @generikat
Wel done my dear friend...
Happy steeming...keep it up...
Cheers!...
Happy steeming to you to! Thank you!
Sounds like great fun! Hope your son gets a blue ribbon. 4H is such a great way for kids to learn about taking care of a animal. Looking forward to hearing about all the goings on there at the Fair. 🐓
Thank you so much! 4H really does teach them a lot of responsibility, that is for sure. Watching my kids take care of the projects, give speeches and demonstrations, and keep record books on their own was sure something! I can't wait to share it all with you all, I move to the fairgrounds after work tomorrow night! My family is already there!
Hope you are having a great night!
Wow, I didn't know they had a place where families could set up and stay. That's pretty cool! I entered for the first time to a fair some flowers last year. It was a really fun experience, for sure! I was hoping to enter things into the fair this year but lacked motivation. I'm hooping to enter a Chicken or two next year as well as photographs and other things. Haha. I wish I had the opportunity to be in 4H as a kid, that's a really cool thing you all do! :) your fair season seems so late to me, ours is over with already here in Central Oregon. I think the state fair is last few days of august and first few of September.
Do you (can you?) travel to fairs outside of your state and enter items?
It is so beyond cool that you entered things into your fair! I have wanted to enter some produce, baked goods, canned goods, and a decorated cake for years, but have never gotten to it, so kudos to you!!!
I spent most of my childhood in the wilderness or in places where there wasn't 4H, but a lot of the time I was on my grandparent's farm in the summer and got to hang out with some local dairy 4H kids at the fair a couple of times. I always wanted to be in horse 4H. We'll just have to do our 4H stuff as adults, lol!
Our fair dates has a lot to do with weather, as we have a pretty short growing and nice weather season up here in the Northern Panhandle. And I don't know about entering out of state fairs, I'm definitely going to look that up!
Hope you are having a splendid evening!
Wow that's so cool! I wonder what all I can do as an adult... hahha.
I feel like cows are the sweetest animals. Of course the all have characters and no cow is identical, but most of the time they seem such a gentle creatures.
I totally agree with you! My grandpa had 100 cows, and they all had unique personalities, but yet they were pretty amiable creatures, most of the time. Boy, when one was mad though, watch out! LOL! I love cattle noses though! Ah, who am I kidding , I love everything about cows!
This was really cool great post you write today amazing indeed
Thanks a ton for sharing !!
Aww! Thanks a ton for reading, upvoting, and commenting! You are awesome!
lolzzz you are more amazing :D
Nice story...thank for your share...waiting another great story from you @generikat
Thank you so much @moelflow! I will try my hardest to make any future stories great!
Thanks waiting it...