A Day at the County Fair

Yesterday we were invited to come with Jen and the kids to the Fresno County Fair. It's been years since we've been to a fair and we were excited to go especially with the grandkids. Jen wanted the kids to know that there is more than animals to see at a fair, since that's all they were able to see when they went to the Madera County Fair in July. The kid's eyes were wide open taking in all the food vendors; if they had their way they'd have tried every food item available. And their curiosity was peeked in all the vendors had to offer. JD even asked the Vita-Mix pitch man what seasonings he was planning to add to the vegetable soup he was making in front of a small crowd. We visited exhibits in the the Home Arts Building, the Agricultural Building, the Commerce Building, and the poultry and animals! Whew!

We were picked up at 9:30 a.m. and got home at about 5 in the afternoon. We had a good day of walking, plus a whole lot of fun.

The kids picked out their favorite flavor of rock candy, and I picked out some licorice for Ken.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching a real horse race!

After carefully checking out the horses we each picked out our favorite to win . . . however there was no money coming out of our pockets for betting. When the race was over Ken and I would have won nearly $100 if we had bet!

After visiting the Agriculture Building, and even learning about bee keeping (hmmm . . . maybe Simply Country Farm will be beekeepers too?), we went down to see the poultry and other farm animals. We were hoping to see goats, but there were none. So we settled on sheep, cows, and pigs. My favorite was the huge pen full of mama sheep and brand new adorable baby lambs. I think I heard one of the boys say "Mom, I want a lamb!"

There were at least fifty babies running all over the pen searching for their own mom. One of the mothers spent a good five minutes nudging all the baby lambs except her own away from her so that her babies could nurse in private. We all got a good laugh over that!

Next were the pigs . . . several varieties, however I found this one to be unique. And she was very camera shy!

Where's the beef? Jen and the kids had a good chat with the teenage girl who raised this 1301 pound steer. They found out what it costs to raise such an animal, and what it usually sells for at auction at the fair. She was hoping, of course, to make money but felt she would probably just break even. She invited all of us to come on into the stall and pet her steer. She was a sweet girl and I hope she made a profit!

I caught this shot of KL with the sweet cow . . . I mean steer . . . behind her. I heard KL say to Jen . . . "Mom, I...want... to... raise... a...steer!"

I walked past this cow and said "Hello!" and she had a few words for me. . .

I think she said "Life has been pretty good!"