Woodhaven Ramblings: It's the Fair!! ~ Day 9

Wow, the day before the last day of my beloved Fair. In some ways it feels like I have been living at the Fair for months. In other ways, I can't believe it is almost over.

We started early today, getting to the Llama Greenway at 9:30am. We also left early – before dinner even – so we could attend my cousin's surprise birthday party. Yes, I love her that much. With 3.28 miles on my pedometer today, we seemed to make the most of our 7 hours.

For the curious, the ribbon is green The highlight of today's Fair was participating in some Llama Fun. The second half of the Fair is for Open Class Llamas, meaning anyone can participate. You don't have to be a 4-H kid with a llama. You don't even have to be a kid. Heck, you don't even have to own a llama. You just have to know someone who will let you borrow their llama and be willing to laugh at yourself. YAY for me on both! So for a few years now, I have had fun borrowing my friend's (Lori) llamas and competing against people who have a much bigger clue than I do about llamas and lead ropes and judges and such.

I started off the morning doing Halter Class. It was my first time in Halter and I was incredibly relieved to learn that the llama was the one wearing a halter, not me. My days of satisfactorily wearing halter tops ended sometime in the early '90s. I'm still not sure why it is called Halter Class, but the gist of it was that we got to walk around the ring, go back and forth in front of the judge, and be evaluated on things such as back slope, tail set, and the width between the legs (again, fortunately the llama and not the handler).

Next up was the Obstacle Course. I am competitive enough that I am very proud of last year's unexpected 4th place ribbon when I took Beni through the obstacle course. And so I am still smarting from getting a 6th place ribbon with him today. Honestly, I was quite surprised I didn't place higher. Beni did great going in a circle, walking through some logs, slaloming through posts, and hopping over some rails. He even let me place a pack on his back. He wasn't so sure about the tunnel I dragged him through. And he only got 2 hooves in the pool of water, but overall I though we had done really well. Rob agreed. He said we looked great and that he was certain I had bested my placement from last year. I still don't know what I did wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was my fault, not Beni's. If I see the judge tomorrow, I might ask if she remembers me and could give me some tips on how to do better next time. Until then, I will soothe myself with the knowledge that at least to the audience I looked like I knew what I was doing (gotta love a husband who is a keen eavesdropper).

God bless friends with teenagers When I quickly checked Facebook this morning, I had a note from a friend who knew of my heartbreak over the Deep Fried Heaven truck running out of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on Monday. She said that her husband found them last night and to let her know if I wanted to know where they were. DUH!

It took a few emails and phone calls and wandering about the Fairgrounds to finally find the other vendor doing deep fried fun. Wait. The other vendor?!? I've been at the Fair for eight days and didn't know there were two Heavens on Earth? Thanks to a teenager who knows her Fair landmarks (unlike her dad who was understandably just focused on food), we finally found ourselves in front of a truck in the Carnival by the Yo-Yo ride. Yep, that's why I had missed it – it was in the Carnival.

Not wanting to take a chance on that vendor running out too, I stuffed my face with Deep Fried Peanut Buttery Cuppy Goodness before lunch. At the risk of being a chooser who was only just yesterday a beggar, I will say that this vendor's version wasn't quite as gooey and melty as last year's version provided by Heaven #1. And the chocolate syrup was a little runny. But, IT WAS A DEEP FRIED PEANUT BUTTER CUP and therefore I am grateful. Both for it and for friends who look out for me. Thank you, Roberts family!

I might get a Blue Ribbon yet Today was also the Junior Livestock Auction. The day that helps fund college savings accounts of dedicated 4-H'ers around the county. The day when kids who have raised their animals to be eaten get to sell them to the highest bidder.

In early years, this particular event troubled me, me the product of suburbia who prefers not to think about where my tasty steaks and loins and fillets come from, other than Albertsons and Costco. And admittedly even now I have a little bit of a hard time understanding how these kids manage to care for and name and even kiss their livestock only to hand them over to a meat dresser (another term I learned since moving here). But there are some ways in which this process is made psychologically easier, such as this kissable rabbit who was the Reserve Champion 4-H Single Fryer. Nice that the breed tells you how best to prepare it.

I was most intrigued by a steer category we hadn't noticed in prior auctions. There was about a dozen impressively meaty cows who were in the “Rate of Gain” category. The Rate of Gain Champion was a very hearty black steer weighing in at 1482lbs that had gained an average of 4.36 pounds a day for 180 days. Heck, given the right incentive, I could do that! Depending what my scale says on Monday morning, I just might be the Woodhaven Rate of Gain Grand Champion. Stay tuned!

She's worth it In an effort to actually join my family in eating dinner tonight, I tried to hold back a bit on my Fair Food Feasting today. I think I did pretty well as I enjoyed a basket or two of tortilla chips, fantastic homemade salsa, and four street tacos with three grilled jalapeños on the side at a lovely Mexican restaurant across the river. Happy Birthday, Ginger!

And now for today's Fair Food Parade:

Free sample of frozen pink lemonade. It's become a reflex when walking by the booth.

Breakfast (since I didn't know the location of the peanut butter cups yet). A baked potato with The Works, including a bonus dish of salsa. And the sour cream I forgot to have on my taco earlier in the week. Mmmm, I love me an Irish Sundae!