County Fair

[Marsha Cassada]

This week is our county fair. Besides working as a supervisor in the Antiques, and helping with Food Preservation, I am going to two schools with my sister. She is in charge of the petting zoo, and every year gets very frustrated about the young students who try to squish the ducklings and put the chicks in water. It is very difficult to get reliable help, as most of us already have other fair duties. And, unfortunately, most of the teachers just stand around and do not interact or supervise while their students are in the zoo area.

So, as an experiment, we are going to the local schools to give a demonstration about proper handling of baby animals. I will also take my little horse to the classroom.

Also plan to take some exhibits: garden produce, beadwork, quilt, jelly, something baked, and antiques. The fastest growing categories nowdays are photography and scrapbooking.

Anyone else have a Fair? What are you taking?

It will be a busy, but fun, week!

 

[CharlesFamily]

Oh I wish you guys lived close to us!

We are actually doing a theme this coming week at school on "the fair." Our month-long theme for September is "Farm" but we thought it would be fun to do something with the fair, too. Your visit would've been fantastic! Oh well, my kids will have to make-do with pictures and pretend.

We only get two field trips per year and we have scheduled one at the end of September to visit a working historical farm in our area. They do everything as it would have been done in the 1880's and have an orchard and garden that the kids can help harvest. They also have work horses and livestock where they use everything to sustain the farm.

That sounds like a great program and I hope you have a wonderful time!

Barbara

 

[cretahillsgal]

As you know, our fair is the same time as yours Marsha. I am going to be taking 2 minis, 1 mini donk, and 2 pygmy goats to our fair on Thursday. Its small and not a whole lot of people, but the kids always get a kick out of seeing the "tiny" animals that I bring. LOL

 

[Marsha Cassada]

As you know, our fair is the same time as yours Marsha. I am going to be taking 2 minis, 1 mini donk, and 2 pygmy goats to our fair on Thursday. Its small and not a whole lot of people, but the kids always get a kick out of seeing the "tiny" animals that I bring. LOL

Are you taking them for petting, or for showing? I hope you have a helper--that is a lot of critters to keep track of!

 

[cretahillsgal]

I am taking them mainly for the kids to pet and see. Though my 2 kiddos might show their geldings in the pet show. Unfortunately our fair does not have any classes for the kids to show horses in.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We took the animals to the schools today. My sister had the ducklings, chicks, and rabbits and I took my little horse, Dapper Dan. She gave them a lesson in how to handle the animals, as they will be visiting the Fair tomorrow on a field trip. Dapper Dan does a few tricks, and they were so excited to see a horse in the school. We demonstrated in a gym in one school and the lunch room in the other school. We took our rat terriers, and they had a good time visiting with the students. Buddy caused a round of applause when he sat up on Dapper Dan's back for a while.

I had one problem at the last school. We went up onto the stage. Dapper Dan went up the stairs fine, but going down he didn't want to do. He's done lots of stairs, so I am not sure why he didn't like these. At the end, he decided to LEAP down the stairs, and fell. Luckily the students were all gone then. He seemed fine afterward, but I will watch him for a few days to see if he hurt himself.

I think it was very effective to give the students a lesson in handling the animals. They seemed very receptive to understanding it. One little duckling kept yelling, so my sister would tell it to hush, and it would. This was very effective to quiet excited chatter!

My camera battery died, so I didn't get many pictures. And most of them were too dark. But here is Dapper Dan, showing his equine teeth to the students.