Our County Fair

Our county fair was this past week and despite the heat the kids and I were at the fairgrounds at least three different times. I grew up in 4-H and was a 10 year member in Kosciusko County, Indiana and have gone to all kinds of county fairs back home, big and small. But nothing quite prepared me for how small our county's fair is.

There are only two buildings for livestock. Half of this building is the show arena and the other half is devoted to the large animals.

There are only a couple dozen swine. Poor guys, those misters were going all the time.

I grew up with a barn full of hundreds of hogs. Boy what a shock this is!

And as for sheep and goats, there were probably a couple dozen of those all together.

Only beef cattle at our fair. It's Kansas, do expect anything different? But only about 10 or 12 of them.

Boy do I sure miss Holsteins though. I grew up in a county with a beef barn and a dairy beef barn, both barns were full every year.

The second livestock building, right off the show arena, houses the chickens and rabbits.

Chickens on the right, rabbits on the left.

Yep..that's it.

As for the exhibit hall there is one building with two large rooms.

The first room is full of tables and a concession stand. Behind the tables on the left are the few clothing projects; 4-H and open class and the framed artwork on the right; 4-H and open class together here too.

On the other side of this room, one small display case houses all of the foods projects; 4-H and open class.

In the second large room, that the rest of the year is a gymnasium, are 4-H and open class projects such as gardening, models, photography and quilts. Around the exterior of the gym merchants from around the area have booths set up the whole week.

And that's it. There you have it. You've seen every thing there is to see at our county fair. Pretty small isn't it?

Okay, I can't end this post without bragging just a bit and showing a few projects by Yip and Yap.

Yip carved the pink soap boat in the back and they both exhibited dipped candles that we made over the winter. Whoops! One of them fell.

And Yap exhibited a Lego castle. Whew, was he glad to get this back. Yap was going into Lego withdrawal after a week!

So, how what was (or will) your fair like?