So as a recounting, here is what happened at the fair this year:
Wednesday, July 22
Fair set up day! This is the day we go to the fairgrounds and set up the barns so we are able to get our animals in on Friday, quickly and easily. Our 4H club (Livestock Unlimited) had a meeting/pizza party before set up. It's always a good time. Several of our club members participated in the 'Livestock Unlimited Photo Scavenger Hunt'. It's great to see so many involved. Hopefully we will have more in it next year. The winner was one of our Cloverbuds.. Taylor! He was so excited about Clark County Fair survival pack... especially the CAT hat Baylor threw in.
The weather was lousy and cold. It rained...no poured. It was miserable and we were using black mulch. By the time we left, we were all covered in black goo, yet everyone was smiling!
We worked until 9 PM. After a day at work, that was more than enough.
On Thursday, we had time to rest, eat and get ready. This was my last day to work, so I was really excited. The first day to set up is always so exciting. It's hard to sleep.
Friday, July 24th - The day of hope and promise:
Today is the official start of the fair. We start by setting up our 4H booth. Everyone pitches in and has fun. This year's theme is Hometown Pride shared Countywide. We already completed a HUGE map of Clark County, with each township a different color. Part of the scavenger hunt gave points for photos of anything that said a township name. We were hoping to get all the townships. The only one we didn't have was Green township. Not bad!
It took about 5 hours to set up our booth, but I think a lot of it was the details we put together. We had flower pots with each township name in them. Ten in all! It was a lot of work making them. The girls did a great job. (Note to self: Change camera batteries BEFORE the fair!).
Here are some photos of the booth set up:
And the finished booth:
As I said, it's far from professional, but we had a great time putting it together. That's what really counts. I am going to make this frame smaller for next year, though. We had to call John to bring it in a truck! The white piece with the map is 4 feet x 8 feet!I know you can't see it well, but almost all the townships are marked with photos of something with a township name, either a road sign, side of a fire truck, some patches, etc. The club was very creative.
In the afternoon, I went to the Arts & Crafts building and helped set up there. From 2 until 8, we accepted entries. We had 511 entries in our department alone. Only 19 were absolute no-shows. (yes, I was one of them!). Then we organized from 8 until 11. It is a lot of walking, climbing up and down ladders, etc.
Saturday, July 25th
OK, as busy as we were last night, we were just as busy Saturday morning. Open class judging started at 9. I was working with the Children's judges. It was fun, but we all felt a little rushed.
We were done with judging well before 1 PM. Then we had to try to figure out where to put everything and display it well. As always, it worked out. After standing on the concrete for so many hours, my whole body ached. We didn't have much else going on so I went home to nap thinking I would come back later. I slept for 4 hours, so I decided to stay home and rest to get a good start to the week.
I will post more about our fair week later.
