Our agricultural County Fair

We spent most of Saturday at our local County Fair. 

This is a pretty big tradition up in our area and it is highly agricultural driven.

It brings together all types of people.

The dairy cow families are the backbone of this institution. Going hand-in-hand with the 4-H and the FFA.

You can walk endlessly through the Dairy Barns and see all the beautiful, jerseys, Guernsey's, Holsteins and milking shorthorns.

In our case talk extensively with most of the families, as my husband has been in this area for several generations and they know each other quite well.

The social aspect is a very big part of the Agricultural Fair in this area a lot of farmers know each other and they go way back. But they tend to be so busy that they usually do not get to socialize, the fair is a wonderful opportunity for this.

Those of you who don't know what an Agricultural Fair entails here's a breakdown.

Ours last for a full week if you show animals, you are committed to staying the whole week. 
Generally, you get the same space in the same Barn that you had last year.
This is a bit of a tradition as well, your friends can find you pretty easily. 

It is both highly look forward to, great fun and extremely exhausting for the people and animals participating.

The people and animals get thrown out of their normal routine. 
The cows, horses and other creatures find themselves tied into a stall for an entire week when they are likely accustomed being out on the field running and playing.

The farmers look after them to the best of their abilities under the circumstances.
They take them out for exercise a lot and make sure that they have everything they need, but it is still very tiring and grueling for the animals. 
Like people, some animals enjoy the experience more than others.
Usually badly behaved critters get left home next year.

By midweek most people and animals have what my husband calls "the fair stare". 
Where you are so tired and overwhelmed from all the extra fun and extra work that you've been having, that your just sort of a fair zombie. 

There are those who can hardly wait for the fair to start, and those who cannot wait for the fair to end.  If these two people come together in a married couple it proves to be a long week for all involved. 

It is also very well worth the time.
 The children get to show their animals and learn a lot about fair competition and how to properly care for their creatures.

If you win an award at a local fair you have the opportunity to go to a higher level one, and so on.
 publicity for your farm business as well as education for your children, it truly is something lovely that should be done at least once in a lifetime.

There is the open show which is any milk cow (etc.) can be showed by any aged person. 

Then there is the 4-H which goes from the ages of 6 to 18 and generally they show calves yearlings and Heifers.

 Then there is the FFA.
For those of you who do not know what this is,  "Future Farmers of America" my husbands family has a long history with this group.
 They go on field trips, exposure to as many different types of agricultural as possible as well as educate The general public.
 The FFA is a great program that I support highly even though I was never a member of it.

The other very large Tradition at our local County Fair is the tractor and truck pulls. 
This brings a very large crowd and goes most of the weekend at the fair. 
Even though I very much dislike it because it's Extremely Loud, very polluting and kind of a waste of fuel, (just my opinion,) it is very popular among the country set.

Another large part of our County Fair is the horse show which is much more my speed. 
They do barrel racing, gymkhana, and several other horse-related activities.
 This also is very large and important part of this Fair. 
The horse barns are quite Extensive and a permanent fixture in the fair.

The agricultural reaches far beyond just animals, with the antique equipment Barn.
Historic farm demo building and education.

 they have a beef Barn where the beef cows are, probably the 3rd largest animals group, horses being second.
 They also have the poultry Barn which I tend to enjoy because of all the pretty chickens and ducks and other fowl.

There's the rabbit Barn which hosts all variety of creatures from rabbits to gerbils to hamsters and chinchillas. 

There is the 4-H Barn which is filled with crafts made by the 4-h-ers
They are usually quite stunning because these kids tend to be very creative. 

There's an adult version of this Barn called the Craft Barn as well, any manner of thing you could make, baked or grow are present in these barns.
 There's also a large following for the photo contest which I very much enjoy as well and have often wanted to enter but never had the chance. 
(I always remember it far past the cutoff date to send in your photos.)

Another very large Tradition at our fair is the food! 
It is very much looked forward to, extremely unhealthy and slightly expensive but everyone has a fair food tradition. 
My husband broke his tradition and tried a blooming onion for the first time this year.
 I awoke the next morning to find him looking up recipes to attempt to make it at home, so I have a feeling he liked it. 
Mine is the gravy fries with the locally grown potatoes those cannot be beaten!
 Even though they are $8 for a bowl, they are absolutely delicious and well worth it, in my opinion.
 I save up some change all year just to have those. 
You also cannot leave the fair without having a maple something, especially in this area of the country.
 this year I chose the ice cream but you really can't go wrong whether it's the maple cotton candy, the maple ice cream, the maple shake, the maple candy or the maple butter.
 As well as several other maple flavored goodies. 

I did notice that a booth had a new type of treat, which had maple bacon on top of a fried dough.
 Lots of people seem to be eating but, to me and my family, not being big grease eaters as a general rule, felt like it would just be too much of a good thing. 

I realize that some places like the interstate fairs and larger ones are much more commercially driven, but down here out in the country agricultural is probably 80% of Our Fair.

Which causes for a very interesting mix because you have people coming from all walks of life out to see the animals witness the tractor pulls play in the Midway and ride the carnival rides, that I avoid like the plague, I just paid $8 for some wonderful gravy fries, why would I pay to throw them up?
No disrespect to the people who run them.

As I've already said, we know lots of people at the fair.
 We spend half of our time catching up with friends.
This year we had a home base at a good friend's booth and the dairy barn. 
Where we were able to leave our things and go sit and rest when we got tired because there's a lot of walking associated with seeing everything you want to at the county fair. 

Even though we were there for most of the day we still didn't manage to see everything that we had wanted to. 

My uncle lost himself in the music tent and we didn't see much of him for the rest of the afternoon, between that and the comedy show which he was enthralled with. 

My husband and I got split up for a while, I was able to relocate him at the piglet races which are always enjoyable but seemed a little too familiar to home right now.

As I sat with my friends at Dairy Barn we visited and people watched.
 As people milled in and out of the Barnes it's very easy to see who is who the farm people and who is not.
Farm folk tends to walk right by with a glance and a slight smile over at the cows.
Well, the townspeople come in, point out how pretty the cows and asked questions, "like if we got a cow would it eat our chickens?"
(a very small girl asked me.)

Now, this is right up my alley because as you know I very much believe in and enjoy educating anyone who's interested in farming.

There is a whole other set that attends the fair.
They do tend to wander through the animal barns, only because they might as well take in everything at the fair.
These people are very easy to spot because they're wearing generally pristine and expensive clothes and occasionally high heels as well. 
I witnessed one pair of teenagers walking through in their Gucci heels turning their noses up at the smell of the cows and tripping over the sawdust laying in the dirt alleyway. 
My good friend and I giggle slightly amused at this, as she Whispers to me that is not fair attire and I wholeheartedly agreed. 

No judgment placed upon these young women but,
they obviously had no clue what they were getting themselves into when they prepare to go to the fair. 
Our Fair is in a very large Farmer's field that the rest of the season gets hayed.
There are a lot of permanent buildings in this area that obviously are not a part of the field.
There are very few places and actually have a cement walkway most of it is gravel dirt and grass, not a place you'd want to be wearing stiletto heels, Just for future reference. 

There also tend to be animal poop in quite a few places.
 Their owners are very good at cleaning up after them, but it still happens when you are taking them to and throw.

I love our country Agricultural Fair I left feeling very happy slightly tired and extremely proud of our areas Farmers!
The animals were all pristine extremely well cared for and just beautiful to behold.
 I went home to my barn to do my chores and I was extremely proud to be who I am and live where I do. 
Most people misunderstand farmers and do not give them the appreciation that they greatly deserve and even though a handful of people were exposed to these farmers at this week-long celebration they still left the fair not fully understanding them. 
Hopefully, there were a handful of people that have their opinions of us change for the better.