Last Day

Today is the last day of fair. Things are winding down. One of the extra special treats of these last two days has been the FREE DQ blizzard available at the Hwy 395 DQ Grill & Chill when you show them your current day's fair stamp. For us that translates into a $12.80 value...$15.45 if Clint is with us! Blizzards are a rare but much loved treat for us, so we made sure to stop by yesterday and today!

This morning we went in to feed the animals extra early (we left the house at 5:45am) because the superintendent sponsers a free breakfast in the barn, and the kids can't eat until after they've done their animal chores. It's pretty funny to be eating breakfast served in the barn right next to the big sign that warns fairgoers not to eat food in the barn! Eggs for the breakfast are courtesy of the barns feathered temporary residents. The eggs sit out on the counter all week so fairgoers can see the differences between eggs from different breeds of birds. Another fallacy exploded, that eggs need to be refrigerated. I'm sure someday someone will catch wind of the superintendent's kind culinary gesture, and the poultry breakfast tradition will be banned for health reasons(although I have to wonder how many poutry raising kids have ever had a case of salmonella poisoning...maybe we're immune due to regular exposure)!

The girls served barn duty after breakfast, making sure all the birds in the barn stay watered, doing errands for the superintendent, anwering fairgoers' questions, and holding birds to give fairgoers the opportunity to pet them.

After barn duty we did the one fun fair activity we haven't had time to do all week...we wandered. We wandered through the fine arts building (finally) and got to see an amazing array of stunning photos(among them Mary Ellen's award winning orchard shot), wandered past the very loud but impressive chainsaw carving exhibition, wandered through the horti/flori-culture exhibits, the commercial exhibits, and the vendor booths. Tamzin spent her money on face painting, which was beautiful, but I can't show you because of my camera situation. Rhiannon bought a neck cooling thing. Gillian opted to spend $2 on a snow cone and save the rest (a FIRST for her!). Shelby bought a bird at the poultry auction Friday, for which she is now in negotiations with me about whether she should pay for it, or me.

I was glad to get back to the tent to rest. After a week like this, just an hour or two of wandering and I'm very tired!

Now we're home, and it feels so great just to sit here and read my email, and blog. It's effortless.

Tonight we go back for the 4-H barn dance, to see how we fared on the herdsmanship awards, and to check on the birds one last time. We've decided to skip the Starship concert. Tomorrow we can sleep in til 7:30 or 8am, and head to the barns at 8:30 to pick up our exhibits and our chickens. The tough part is that we have to have our animals out by 10am, but purchasers (each 4-H'er could sell up to three birds at Friday's auction) don't have to pick up their birds until noon. Some purchasers let the 4-H'ers keep their birds. They are in effect donating the price of the bird towards the 4H'ers' animal project. My kids want to keep their birds if the purchasers don't take them, so we will have to wait until we know whether they are being taken. So it could be a long morning. On the other hand, we have our campsite to pack up too, so that should keep us busy until noon!