The County Fair

For as long as I can remember my family has been involved in the county fair, and things haven't changed much since I got married and started my own family. As the Young Farmer & Rancher representatives for Farm Bureau in our county, Kenny and I are in charge of putting on a talent find sponsored by the Farm Bureau Federation each year during the county fair. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is a lot of work and I totally procratinated this year! The talent find was on Wednesday, and it turned out okay. We didn't have very many participants, but the ones we did have did an awesome job. My niece, Brielle, won first place with her piano solo, even though I forgot to get the piano tuned (if I can tell it's out of tune, it must really be out of tune) - sorry Brielle! Thanks so much to Suzie for tending Stetson during the competition (another thing I forgot to arrange beforehand).

Kenny is the treasurer for the Jr. Livestock program, so he usually spends Thursday - Saturday over at the fairgrounds. We planned to go over on Thursday after I got off work so that we could go to the Emerson Drive concert Thursday night, but Stetson started running a fever so we missed the big event - oh well. Stetson still wasn't feeling well on Friday, but since I figured it was just caused by his 2-year molars trying to come in, I decided he could be sick over there just as easy as he could at home, so we went over to watch the livestock show. I know I am evil, but it was kind of nice to be able to sit and watch the whole show instead of chasing after Stetson the whole time. I think that is the one good thing about sick kids, they like to cuddle. Anyway, the show went well, and my brother Jens won Grand Champion with his goat! Jesse wasn't too far behind with the second reserve goat - way to go guys! Stetson and I both slept all afternoon, then watched the local rodeo from Kenny's parents' trailer that night.

Saturday was the day of free food, which is always a bonus! We ate at the Lion's Club's free breakfast that morning, and then the buyer's barbeque for lunch, and my parent's were kind enough to feed us dinner that night - it was wonderful! Stetson was feeling much better on Saturday, which was a relief (even though he got into more trouble). Thanks so much to Candice and my dad for tending Stetson during the sale while I tried to help Kenny keep track of the records and money. It is a lot harder than it looks, and I have gained a lot more appreciation for all the people who have done that job in the past (without computers).

We stayed that night to watch the youth rodeo, and then ended up camping again because I was too tired to drive home. The youth rodeo was very entertaining, and I was surprised at all the daddy's who let their little girls ride bucking steers - crazy! But, nobody got hurt so it was all good.

All in all it was a good fair. The best part was that it didn't include any close calls or big scares :)