County fair

The Chief and I went to a county fair today; his first and my first in 20+ years. Not too hot for August, and relatively low humidity, so we didn't kill ourselves walking around looking at everything.

The Chief enjoyed the animals (we wandered thru the sheep barn as feeding time was approaching; all the sheep seemed to be saying something like "c'mon, where's lunch?!?"), but what he enjoyed best was watching all the little kids. The stroller brigade seemed to be out in force - flocks and throngs of toddlers, young children, even babies, all of them utterly fascinated by just about everything.

One vendor had a lot of John Deere equipment displayed, most of it available for kids to climb on. They even had a combine they'd converted to a slide - climb the ladder into the cab, then slide down the "chute". That one was very popular! They also had a corral full of JD toys for kids to play with, as well as a gift shop with all kinds of JD-logo items, mostly toys for future customers. The whole area was swarming with kids and parents with cameras. I asked the Chief if he wanted me to take his picture sitting in the cab of one machine or another, but he declined. ;)

The livestock barns all had empty spaces, even those barns where exhibitors had set up a space to hang out in the shade. I wonder how long it's been since every single one of those spaces was needed for livestock...?

We also strolled through the 4-H exhibit halls and looked at the winning entries in all kinds of categories. There was one for sewing by children (I didn't see ages displayed). One girl had done quite well - she had a 2-piece outfit that had won a blue ribbon, and a fairly intricate dress (not elaborate, but a lot of assembly and she'd added some nice, subtle touches) that had won a Reserve Champion award.

We stopped by a produce stand on our way out and bought about 12 lbs. of tomatoes. What on earth am I gonna do with all those tomatoes? Why, make marinara sauce, of course, using my fresh basil, rosemary & oregano. I just have to peel all these darn tomatoes first; that'll take a while, so making the sauce itself may have to wait until tomorrow. Our house is gonna smell SOOOOOOO good while it's simmering!

Our county's fair is coming up in a few weeks; walking through this one has me seriously considering entering something in one of the cooking categories. Probably not the marinara sauce - this will be my very first batch; I haven't had time to play with it and get it where I want it. If I decide to take the plunge, it'll probably be some tried-and-true recipe that doesn't need refrigeration.