Greetings from The Woodshed!

It's Litchfield Fair weekend!  Dad and I went this afternoon for about an hour and managed to see everything!  The exhibition hall is always a favorite place to check out everybody's handiwork and locally grown produce.  I t seemed like all of the vegetables were smaller this year--except for the giant pumpkin which weighed in at 932 pounds.  This is the first year that Mom and Dad and I haven't entered anything in the fair.  They pay really good premiums to exhibitors and there are some high-paying specialty contests that Dad likes to enter--a Christmas tree, a Maine arrangement of greenery etc, the scarecrow contest.  It was too much for us to deal with this year, not knowing how I'd feel during fair week to get things together, tagged and up there on Wednesday evening and then to stand in line for two hours to pick things up again on Sunday night.  Dad's already got next year's scarecrow design planned!  It certainly was strange to not see any of our stuff up there.  Even Mom enters some of her collections each year--Toby mugs, cow cream pitchers, some antique collectible or another.

There were lots of animals in the petting zoo area--ten baby pigs with their mom all sound sleep piled up on top of each other, calves, goats, lambs, rabbits.  There were specialty hens on display and an incubator so kids could watch chicks hatching.  There were barns full of cows, but Dad said he'd seen enough cows in his lifetime that he didn't need to go look at more.  There was a horse show going on.  Miniature draft horses were pulling a wagon full of kids around and a large matched pair with their foal hauled an even bigger wagon full of people.

One of the display areas we both enjoyed was the museum/historical society building.  Dad got a kick out of identifying for me all of the old farming tools and which ones he'd used as a boy/young man on the family farm.  Some of the tools on display are very much like those in Dad's workshop, tools from his father and grandfather.  He really like the horse-drawn dump wagon and an old David Bradley tractor.  One of the volunteers was making applesauce using the woodstove and someone else was demonstrating how to make butter.  It's always an interesting interactive place.

I picked up my free literature from the various religious groups accosting people in the walkways as well as a free miniature sunflower growing kit and I got fudge for Mom and Dad from the Fudge Lady.  Managed to avoid all of the food at the fair--the whole place smelled like one giant fried onion.  I think some people just go to the fair to eat--french fries in huge buckets, fried dough, bloomin' fried onions, sausage sandwiches...if I were to eat at the fair, I'd get some homemade pie from the local firefighters at their booth.  But I even passed that up this year, having had lunch before going which was a good plan.

Even with so many people milling around it was pretty easy to avoid getting close to anyone.  Dad and I pretty much had the exhibition halls to ourselves.  Blood counts are lowering so I do have to be more careful about germs and keeping my immune system working well. Lots of handwashing today!