The State Fair

The Fair

It’s that time of year when Agriculture, Horticulture and clowns meet. Well I can think of a few gardeners that make that happen more often but I’m talking about the State Fair. Old Goat Farm is just a few miles from the Washington State Fair so we usually make a pilgrimage there each year.

Crested Polish

The first stop for us is usually the barn housing the birds. It’s fun to see all the different breeds looking their best. This year Gary only saw two or three that he thought we needed to add to our flock. That just means we have the rest. We both admire all the 4-Her’s that take such good care of their prize winning animals. Walking through the barns and seeing the young kids caring for their animals made me wish more kids could experience animals like this.

Hello

The second stop was to see the goats (naturally). This was goat day so many of the cows had been rotated out to make room for more goats. Again we had to check out all the breeds different from our own. The Pygmy Goats are my favorites. Their strength and agility is amazing. To be such little animals they are very strong and can jump like crazy which makes them very entertaining to watch. I think we need a big toy for our new little goats, Coco and Gima.

Biggest Pumpkin

Next we were off to the agricultural displays. The blue ribbon pumpkin this year was 1609.5 lbs. It was kind of weird looking but large non-the-less. I always like to checkout the Grange displays. Each Grange creates a design using fruits and vegetables. Gary loves to check out the floral designs and it always gets his competitive juices flowing because he knows he could win that blue ribbon. The same thing kind of goes for the different types of flowers. We both know we produce better geraniums. Next year Gary might give them a run for their money.

Salmon made from scrap metal

We then had to walk through the Hobby Hall and look at the collections. I’m amazed at what people collect. Mostly that people can be so focused on one thing. Here Gary thought he could definitely win the Christmas tree decorating competition. He might be very busy next summer if he follows though on half of these competitions.

Grange

Not being big on rides, hot-tubs and magic knives we did a quick walk through the rest and headed back to the farm. Lunch in our own garden beats the $12 fair hamburger.