Our state fair is the best state fair

Don’t miss it, don’t even be late.

Dollars to donuts our state fair

Is the best state fair in the state!

Rodgers and Hammerstein

David and I hadn’t been to our state fair for years so we decided we would go this year.  We also decided to take our grandboys.

We kept two of the boys Friday night and spent the day on Saturday with them.  The boys decided they wanted to make a quilt so I said, “Sure,” and so they did. I had a lot of two and a half inch squares cut, so I told them they could make a quilt with them, eight across and eight down and asked them many squares they would need.  Teaching them a little multiplication also. We needed sixty-four squares so they started sewing the squares together. I wish I had taken pictures.  One boy sewed and the other one ironed the pieces.  I had to teach iron safety also as he kept leaving the iron laid down on the ironing board.   By the end, they both were losing interest, but I kept them working and teaching them you don’t give up and quit. Finally we had it ready for quilting and they really liked doing that on the machine.  Had to teach them safety with a sewing machine also. I may have scared them a little about getting their fingers caught on the needle, but since I have sewed my fingers, I wanted them to be safe.

They ended up with a cute little quilt and we made a label with their names and ages and the year on it and I sewed it on the back of the quilt for them.  We wrapped the quilt up to give to their mother.

We took the boys to see the movie, “Nut Job 2” and it was very cute.  Then to the Dairy Queen for dinner and ice cream.  It was a full day.  To bed early that night as we were going to the state fair in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning we got up and got ready and drove to Indianapolis to pick up another grandboy.  Then on to the fair.

We parked the car and walked up a big ramp onto the fairgrounds.   The smells and noise of the fair hit us immediately.  I told the boys we were going to eat our way through the fair.  Their eyes lit up.   So this is what we ate that day. Caramel corn, corn dogs, cotton candy, hamburgers, Italian and polish sausages, elephant ears, donuts, ice cream, and candy from the general store.  Plus gallons of water, lemonade and root beer to wash it all down. I just want to say one thing. Cotton candy is much better fresh and on a stick than stuffed in a bag where it hardens.   Sad you can’t get it that way very often.

There are many buildings to go through at the fair. The first one was my very favorite.  Draft horses.

They are just gorgeous animals.

 

This guy liked to get near to us.  Had very different markings.

I really believe this horse was posing with the boys. Look at those ears.

I think they liked being this close to horses.   I could have stayed in this building all day, but we had to move on.

I think maybe this horse was glad to see us go!

We watched the sheep judging. A long time ago, I once showed a sheep at the county fair and won a blue ribbon.  I loved that little ram, but Daddy had to sell him because he was getting too aggressive with the other farm animals butting them and he tried to butt people, too.  There was a Disney movie in the fifties called, “So Dear to My Heart,” that involved a little boy and his pet sheep.  His grandmother didn’t want him to have the sheep because it was black and its wool was not worth anything, but the little boy loved him. He ended up showing the little sheep at the fair.  Burl Ives was in the movie as the boy’s uncle.   I saw that movie again a while back and it still made me happy.

There was model car racing at the stadium.  The boys really liked that.

Those little cars flew off the ramps and into the air and came down and kept going around and around the track.   The boys could have stayed there all day, but there was more to see.

To the pig barn. When I walked in it, it reminded me of the farm.  We raised pigs among other animals.

This mama pig had the biggest litter for the year with thirteen piglets. Some were chowing down while the rest were snuggled up in a corner sleeping.

In another pen the mama pig was snoozing and taking a rest from her brood who were all asleep.

Ah, peace and quiet.  I could kind of relate to her.  When you are a mother, you catch your rest wherever you can because soon the kids wake up!

Here’s her babies piled on top of one another.   So cute.

Standing in front of the heaviest pig weighing in at over one thousand pounds.

Just noticed his name is Boris.  Boris the boar.

In the cattle barn. Once again I smelled the smells I remember from my daddy’s farm.  Fresh straw beds for the cattle.   The people who own these cows keep their pens very clean and they are constantly brushing, combing and bathing the cows they are going to show.

 

Some cows would even pose with you!

Time to eat!

Just starting on a day of gorging ourselves.

Corn dogs are so good!    With lots of ketchup.

Dave and his grandsons standing under a fan and mister to cool off. It got really hot that day.

We watched baby ducks being hatched.  My mother and I hatched some ducks one time and they got attached to me and thought I was their mother and followed me all over.  I fed  a whole box of oatmeal once to them which made my mother very angry!   I was a problem child at times. Ha.

The duck which is damp, just came out of the egg. As soon as they were hatched a woman picked them up and put them with the other ducklings.

There is so much to see and do at the fair and not enough time.  We watched a cooking show by a man trying to sell cookware. I have that cookware. I got snookered into buying it one time at a home show.  At that time, the salesman would actually come to your house and cook dinner for you and others you were to invite and then after you had eaten, he would try to sell the cookware. It really is wonderful cookware and I also got a food slicer which is industrial grade.  Funny thing is, I hardly ever use it and still use my mother’s old pots and cast iron skillet.  I think I need to get out that cookware and use it.  Walking down the aisles looking at all the things for sale, a man coaxed me into a chair and started putting stuff on my face before I knew what I was doing. He had beautiful brown eyes. I looked for David and he and the boys were walking on.  Help!  I cannot say no to a saleman, especially one who has beautiful brown eyes and was as determined as this one. He put some stuff under one eye to take out the puffiness. By that time the grandboys had come back and I asked them if my eyes looked different and they said, “Yeah!”   Oh, no.  The stuff sold for $299 which is not anywhere near what I spend for stuff to put on my face. I don’t really put much of anything on my face but some Oil of Olay and lipstick.   Help!  Just them David walked up and said “No,” and I breathed a sigh of relief and got up. The man shook my hand, but I kind of felt bad about the disappointment in his face that he didn’t make a sale.  See, I don’t like to hurt anyone.

At the Pioneer village they had this vignette set up.  I have eaten in kitchens similar to this one.

There were different artisans making things to sell, women quilting and hooking rugs.  Some were grinding flour with an old gas powered grist mill  So much to see, we hardly scratched the surface.

An exotic animals tent where the boys could hand feed and pet the animals. Except for the zebra. A big sign read, “DON’T FEED THE ZEBRA.”  So, we didn’t.

Feed the grandboy!

Three boys in a tractor tire.

Mowing the lawn.  They kept saying we ought to get one of these to mow our tiny lawn.  One or two swipes and it would be done.  I don’t have much lawn.  Only garden.

Virtual reality.  It was funny watching them turning their heads and looking down as if something were really there.

We were all getting tired, so I sent David to get them all some fair taffy to take home to share and then we walked to the car. I really felt like I was walking on stumps by that time and my back was hurting so badly, I could not wait to sit down.  We took the boys to their homes and got home in the evening tired, buy happy for a fun weekend with our grandboys.  I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Here’s to fun times with grandboys and wonderful state fairs.