State Fair Affair 2008

I love state fairs! I always have. So many fond memories of the Michigan State Fair, where so little seems to change year to year. I especially always loved the huge refrigerated display box which entombed huge butter statues of cow and calf. There's no equivalent of that particular attraction at the North Carolina State Fair.

Nor is there a Miracle of Life tent here in NC, which allows one to hold a squirmy-squealy baby pig or a just-hatched chick. Or, to wait in vain for the eggs in the incubator to finally hatch a chick. The main attraction, though, is always a huge, wild-eyed cow in labor in a large ring with bleachers set around. Even having experienced labor myself, it never occurred to me that a cow might prefer to calve in private, perhaps in a hot tub or the comfort of a straw bed (a gal working at the state farmer's market in Raleigh made this point to me recently and described how the animals on her farm sneak off to mat down a grass bed to welcome their offspring). After some reflection, maybe it is better that North Carolina sees fit to allow its livestock to labor away from prying public eyes.

But the state fair! We hoped Junie would appreciate it as much as we do, and she really did seem to have a ball. Our game plan: skip the midway, head straight for the animals, take a brief tour of the prize-winning produce, and maybe scarf down a few unwholesome, inappropriately fried foods along the way. All I managed to eat was a roasted ear of corn smothered in butter this year, but the animals and June's reaction made the trip totally worthwhile.

First, a horse show:
Then rabbits, all different sizes and degrees of fluffiness.

Cute but vicious domestic animals emerged as a theme this fall.....
....as we also received this warning at Ganyard Farms pumpkin patch we visited earlier in the month.


But back to the fair--the wienermobile was there.

Here they are, the prize-winning pumpkins, very large indeed. But I think I heard the national prize-winner this year tipped the scales at about 1600 lbs. This guy here was a real peewee by comparison at I think about 600 lbs.


The produce just doesn't photograph well; believe me, this was more impressive live. A very large watermelon. I also took pictures of the 9 pound sweet potato, but that proved even less photogenic than the melons. Mama pig and a whole mess of babies, all sleeping in a heap.
As always, though, the goats steal my heart. It's true that my dream is to have chickens and bees, but as long as I'm just daydreaming, goats are a close third. Here, June generously tried to feed these goats in a trailer some hay from the ground. They declined, but June seemed unfazed by the rejection.
She greeted each goat in the building with a cheery "hi, goat!". The goats allowed themselves to be petted and were very gentle. I love their intelligent eyes.

This cow got a haircut in this scaffolding thing. They buzzed the hide quite close and she did look quite radiant. Another highlight: a young man meticulously trimming the hair at the back of the spine of another cow, then using a brush and hairspray to carefully sculpt just the right tufts back there. I love to see the 4H kids and think about what their lives must be like with their closeness to these animals and their life cycles. This gal here is due to calve in December, so I felt some solidarity with her, as I am due myself to calve in February. I asked the young man from North Carolina A&T how long cows gestate and he said 9 months. I was skeptical so I looked it up at home, but he spoke the truth. However, he left out the part where their babies are 80 to 100 pounds.
June's first taste of chocolate milk, milk provided by the cows of NC A&T and sold for $1 at the concession. Who doesn't love chocolate milk? I wish I had a huge glass of it in front of me right now.

June developed an instant and, in my opinion, excessive attachment to Smokey the Bear....

...as the only tears of the day were shed when he moved on from us to other fair-goers. Lloyd displayed some serious quick-on-his-feet thinking and told Junie that Smokey was tired and needed a nap. And at that, we decided there was one in our midst who really did need a nap. So we bid farewell to another year's state fair. And we hope to find it essentially unchanged one year from now.