EVERGREEN FAIR PART 2

Evergreen Fair has a sizable horse community. And, cattle, too, both meat and dairy. Just peeking into this barn, from her costume, it looked like a girl dressed for English riding.


A barn had different types of horses, what I'd have to call "normal" sized. This young girl is a barrel racer. She calls it gaming. At our fair we have pony express and barrel racing among other speed riding feats.


A board full of ribbons for a pretty palomino. Her door is open so people can pet her horse and ask questions.


Then we saw a quarter horse. Ah. A familiar since my daughter Virginia took her quarter horse to the fair.

She took a first place in the "novice" category, her first year with her horse, Reno.

Both my girls had horse projects in 4-H. Kristanne, at age 10 wanted to join the horse project. We lived in a city and didn't own a horse. The leader said she couldn't take that unit without a horse. Her reply:  "Does that boy own his own tractor?"  They were speechless for a moment or two, and conceded that she should be allowed to join the horse project. She learned a lot and got to ride other kids horses.


The next barn we visited had sheep and goats. Black faced beauties sheared before the fair. Their wool is measured.

This sheep is a wool and meat animal.


Angora goats are allowed to keep their horns. The oils stay in the coat and are judged before being sheared.


Angora goats produce mohair. Only a few pens of sheep and goats at Evergreen. This is cattle and horse country.


The old fashioned spinning wheel is put to work, turning the mohair into yarn.


I finally found the dairy goats. Again, not many represented. Nubians are by far the most popular dairy goat. Their milk is very rich and plentiful. Virginia raised dairy goats in her 4-H project and two hogs as well. Dairy goats are a lot of work, but rewarding.


Another nubian in colors I hadn't seen before. Kids love their goats and sleep in the pens with them before they give birth or whenever they want to rest.


This is an alpine goat.


A la mancha goat has funny little ears. They are small goats, good keepers and absolute escape artists. At the fair, people would ask, "How come you cut off their ears?" Virginia had one and was glad to see her go. Her 4-h project had toggenbergs as well, but I didn't see any at this fair.


After the goats, we went to the cattle barns. In the arena they were judging heifers.


They are young and can be ornery and difficult to handle. This girl had to drag her animal into line.


We saw some beautiful dairy cows.


This girl was outside of the judging area and looking angrilly toward the arena. Her dairy cow may have been disqualified, or she was simply unhappy with the beast. But, to me, she was a beautiful specimen. I only mention it because the kids who raise animals for the fair have a serious regimen and rules to follow. It is great training, hard work and discipline.


Enough animals for a day. We stopped in the horticulture exhibit and saw plenty. But, here are 3 different tuberous begonias, one of my favorite flowers.


Drop dead beautiful color.


A begonia with prettier leaves than blossoms, which are bitty little flowers on a thin stem. We will visit rabbits and chickens, pigeons and ducks, tomorrow. Can you tell I love a fair? Something for everyone.

EVERGREEN STATE FAIR.

My idea of a great fair, is to eat all the greasy, yummy foods you don't make at home and don't eat out. Wow! Grilled turkey drums filled the bill. We arrived early with the idea to walk around during the coolest part of the day outside and do the inside exhibits when it got hotter. We weren't hungry yet, so we passed them for later.

A ride called Freak Out where your legs hang free with nothing under you, always freaked me out. I did ride one but it made me uncomfortable enough to never do it again.

I just KNEW someone was going to fall out of that contraption. But, no one did.

This ride was a bit milder.

At least they have a bar across the seat. I had fun watching them. Not interested in riding anymore.

Kids love the merry-go-round. Me too.

This little girl doesn't look to sure of a roaring lion. Maybe mom selected for her.

She might have been more comfortable on this kitty cat.

As we walked along, a horse judging event was taking place and we stopped to watch. My youngest daughter had a horse in our local fair and I kind of knew what was taking place. The student shows the horse to its best advantage in a set walk, with set positioning. It shows both the student's and the horses training and obedience, smooth handling, etc.

I picked this girl to win. It was a familiar move to watch her get her horse with his back legs spread and into a particular stance.

We met her later in the barns. And she won that event.

It helps to have a really great horse, too. And this one has many ribbons including a Grand Champ.

Hmmm!  Look at all these sausages, and onions, and peppers. It smells really good at the fair. I usually end up eating sausage something. This fair had no beer booths that I could see.

This guy was just sweating around those grills. He had heaps of fried potatoes and onions to go with those sausages. Oh, my. Not quite hungry enough yet. Good and greasy though.

Danny Vernon? Not sure I have his name right. He was a cool Elvis Impersonator. I've heard a couple Elvis's but this guy was really good. The moves, the looks, the whole show.

Then we came to the draft horses. They had clydesdales,  percherons, and possibly another type. They are enormous with enormous heads. Kind of intimidating.

Didn't seem intimidating to this young woman nonchalantly reading a mag.

You have to get up on a bench to dress and brush these giants.

Didn't bother this young girl, braiding a giant tail.

I don't know how this giant felt about having  a little tutu on her tail.

This draft horse has a beautiful tail, unlike the percherons. It was being harnassed for a wagon pull at 1:00. We intended to go back and watch it, but by then we were what seemed half a mile way from that arena.

We walked through the Home Arts building. Tons of needlework. People are often surprised to see that men design and sew quilts. This one is by Dave Ball, and has a masculine flavor.

Another by Robert Newsome, excellent points and beautiful quilting. I was impressed.

An interesting crazy quilt done in cotton, with flower prints.

One block from a farm themed quilt.

A woman making bobbin lace. I was impressed that she could talk and keep shifting bobbins at the same time. It takes intense concentration.

She showed me a framed piece she had done.

You don't often see real hooked rugs, using wool pieces instead of yarn. I make braided rugs, and hooked rugs. The problem is, I've hooked some pieces, but never actually finished a hooked rug. I have two that are half done. I love the darn things. They are heritage quality pieces when finished. Someday...

We are getting hungry and I love my fair food, but this giant corndog doesn't appeal to me. I'm posting the picture because this is my youngest daughter's favorite fair food. Betcha never saw one this big?

The swine barn was interesting. I'd never seen one of these cradles that prevents the sow from rolling over on her babies and killing them. In the old days, people kept their sows in pens where the babies could nurse through holes in the fence where she didn't have any space to roll. This is much friendlier for both.

And, the type of pigs we raised had curly tails. I didn't realize that some pigs have straight tails.

I watched this pigs tail as she tried to uncurl it and it would just retract back into a curl when she relaxed. What is really telling about fair animal barns is the lack of any unpleasant odors. Super clean.
I keep looking for the perfect junk food.

One booth was making gyros. I took a picture of this lady's gyro and I peeked and watched them make it first. Can you even see that one thin slice of lamb?

I finally settled for this chicken, taco salad. It was not very greasy but very tasty. I had a piece of chicken in just about every bite. I figured to save that turkey drum stick for later in the day.  But, we saw a lot more fair. More tomorrow.