It's Fair Time Again

Well, the fair has started and yesterday was our first full day of contests. I won a first, second and third for some of my artwork entered. The little one won a second place for her granola bars. They didn't look very pretty, but I guess they tasted pretty good. She got an honorable mention for her collage. The oldest didn't enter anything because she got disgusted when the printer messed up her photos. However, she had fun. I entered some bread in the home baking contest and then another loaf in the special bread contest later in the afternoon. I didn't win either, but that's ok. However, for the special bread contest I don't think that the one who did win should have. The second place person had a much better, much more unique bread. For that matter so did the third place person. First place had pretzel bites that frankly were quite tough and hard to chew. The cheese sauce that she had to dip them in wasn't that great either. It tasted like it was processed cheese. I was a bit disappointed at the results. There were some great breads. The fun part about the cooking contests is going around and tasting what everyone had after the judging. Who needs to eat fair food when you are nibbling from the contests all afternoon long. You also get a chance to get some great recipes! We had fun walking around the barns. Yesterday was the dairy cow competitions and let me tell you there were some nice cows there. The best of the day is the costume contest where the young competitors and their cows dress up in costumes. I couldn't believe how tolerant some of those young heifers were of their costumes. One was dressed like a tractor while her young handler was dressed as a scarecrow. The pigs were coming in yesterday for today's competitions which I am anxious to see. Of course, unloading pigs and getting them in their pens was quite noisy. My oldest's friend who was with us is a city kid and she didn't know what the noise was. We were several barns over from the pig barn and I told her it was the pigs coming in. She didn't know they were so loud. I told her you would need earplugs if we were actually in the pig barn. Rabbits were there and I was a little disappointed that there were so few breeds represented. All in all it seems like there were very few at the fair. The midway was even quite sparsely populated throughout the afternoon. Usually the weekends are the worst for being crowded. There also didn't seem to be as many entries for the contests. The bread contest last year had over 50 entries and this year only 18. Hmmmmm....sign of the times? Probably. The fair is expensive or can be. We get competitors tickets and so can come an go all week as we please. We tend not to eat or drink at the fair. And only on one day do the kids get to do rides. There are loads of things to do without paying for rides and games. We see the shows, watch the competitions, and look at the other attractions. So we tend not to spend too much money other than for our initial competitors tickets. However, I have known families that spend hundreds of dollars. I did notice also that prices went up this year for just about everything. Last year pony rides were 2 dollars and this year they were 5. That may have hurt the fair more than helping it make more revenue. We are guilty of doing some junk food during the fair. We will get a funnel cake which was 5.00 this year and today the kids can share some cotton candy which I noticed yesterday was 4.00. That is a little much I think. Maybe I will win one of the cooking contests this week and make our money back. Oh well, if not we have had some fun. Next year the little one will be ready to enter more contests and she is having a great time seeing her ribbons displayed next to her work. So it will be a busy week as we get things cooked and prepared and off to the contests we go. Blessings, Kat