White Pine County Fair-2014

 White Pine County Fair is held in mid-August each year, usually right after school starts for us (which makes it a little challenging!). I took the kids in Friday to enter projects (it's a very short fair, just Friday to Sunday).  In the evening we went to the delicious Cattlewoman's BBQ and stayed for the dance. The kids had a super time dancing.

The next morning we got to the fair just in time to see the cousins showing their steers. They've put a lot of time and energy into raising these steers, so it was cool seeing how well they've done.

At 10 am they opened the exhibit hall doors, and Desert Boy couldn't wait to see how he had done on his projects. We had had a talk beforehand about ribbons, and he had decided he wanted Grand Champion. I told him very few grand champions were awarded, so he shouldn't expect one as this was only the second year he had entered projects in the fair, and only the best of the best got grand champions. His various arts and crafts projects (string art, pottery, legos, wall hangings) won blue and red ribbons.

Then we went over to look at how his photos had done, and were astounded to see that he had won both Grand and Reserve Grand Champion ribbons for the children's division! He was so stoked! I won a Reserve Grand Champion for one of my night sky photos, so I was delighted. Desert Boy made sure to let me know that he had beat me. I guess he might be a wee bit competitive.

Later we wandered around the booths, buying food, doing activities, and chatting.

Desert Girl was very excited to see Smokey Bear.

We went back over to the animals and watched rabbit and chicken judging, something I had never seen before. I learned that market rabbits are supposed to weigh 3 to 5 pounds each, and since there are three of them, they are all supposed to be the same size. These white ones won Grand Champion. While we were watching, I got into a conversation with the lady next to me about chickens, and one thing led to another (keep reading!).

 Another highlight of the fair was the climbing wall. I asked the climbing wall guy how he went to events, and he said he had to pay to take the climbing wall to the bigger events, but for small ones like the fair, they paid him to come. Plus he charged money for the climbers, so he has a pretty good business. Desert Boy loved scampering up.

I had to take a turn too. And one wall even had a timer so you could see how fast you went up. (Now who's being competitive? ha)

We had to stay until Sunday afternoon to pick up our projects. What sweetened the wait was that we had bought the grand champion rooster and a couple hens. Yahoo, we're back to having chickens! 

Hopefully we will be more successful keeping these chickens away from predators and maybe even get an egg someday! For now, we sure like hearing the cock-a-doodle-doos every morning and watching the birds.

We're already setting aside the kids' artwork for next year's fair. That makes it so much easier when it comes time to look for entries. They love it, too, when I tell them something they created might be good enough to enter in the fair.