Another Fair Done

Have you ever been to a country fair? Do you know the work and organization that goes into one? Our fair - The Thorndale Fair- celebrated its 150th Birthday this past weekend. Our family lives for the fair. We enter baking, crafts, sewing, flowers, run a swine show, judge the baby contest, work the gates- and this year I am President of the Homecraft Division. Talk about a whole different outlook on the whole thing!The real work begins the Saturday before the fair. We spend the entire day transforming the Progress Building from an empty shell
, to a building full of display cases. The next week is spent organizing people, getting the display cases cleaned and generally worrying that no one is going to enter anything!!
Thursday is the big day for entries. The doors open at 7pm and area residents stream in with baking, crafts, sewing, vegetables - you name it! It is really cute to watch the little kids with their marshmallow creations and collages of their families.
Friday is the last day for entries and we skurrie around like madmen making sure everything is where it should be for the judging. We stop at noon for lunch, the judges arrive, and the fun begins.

My job is usually photography, but this year I handed the job over to some very capable women as my new role includes the final tallying up the points. There is always a good contest between a couple of women who want to win! This year we had an especially difficult job as there was only a ONE point difference between first and second! We also have to make sure the contestant who wins has enteries in at least 7 of the 10 categories. This year our winner won almost every "root and fruit" section, but did not win anything in the craft or photography sections, so we had to make sure that she did indeed enter in those other two. The next step is to contact the Homecraft winner and runner up, and the Junior and Senior Royal winners. (Junior and Senior are the winners of a special homecraft class for 10-13 year olds and 14-19 year olds involving baking, sewing and crafts) We have to make sure they are ready to recieve their awards at the evening ceremony. By the time all the cases are prettied up and all the little details were taken care of, I only had 1/2 hour to talk to the MC for the night and get home to change for the opening ceremony! The evening was topped off by a pie and quilt auction. The pies usually bring an average of 250$- this year I bought a peach pie for $300! It was the winning novice pie baked by my own daughter Katelyn! She and Micaela both entered pies and got 1st and 3rd repectively. We then trundled off to our house where we continued an age old tradition. We always have a party on the friday night of the fair. Generally one of our daughters or a friends daughter have run for Ambassador or Junior or senior Royal. We invite whoever wants to come, put about $1000.00 worth of pies on the counter and eat! I forgot to get a shot of the "pie counter" but here is the empty pie plate!
Saturday morning was the fair parade. I am usually a parade watcher but this year got to sit in a friends convertaible and wave to all my friends and neighbours! To commemorate the 150th I wore a circa 1800's outfit that I borrowed from a friend who is the general manager of the local pioneer village.
The other photo is Daughter #1 Erica who got to reprise her role as Ambassador a few years ago.
The rest of the weekend was spent running from one event to another, judging the swine show and generally basking in the glory of another successful fair weekend!