County fair, the golden egg, and mad chickens

17 September 2012
Week 7 (I think ...)

Well the county fair started last Tuesday with all of the frustration and turmoil it could muster. I'm sure most people think of the county fair as a celebration, a time to eat all the junk food their steel stomachs can handle and ride as many rides around and around and around in circles as they can without throwing up. But for those of us who enter items in the fair to be judged, it is a different place entirely. The weeks and months before are spent in preparation of jams and jellies, knitting sweaters, quilting together all manner of fabrics, raising chicks, and raising crops all for the chance to compete against our neighbors. Any more those neighbors for competing against are few and far between it seems.

When we first started entering things in the fair, it seemed like a foreign world and no one told us the rules, but we learned quickly. The first year we entered our sand plum jelly, thinking everyone in the county must enter sand plum jelly, and it was the only jar of it there. The next year we entered a new jar of that most native of foods and it stood next to one other jar listed in the "other" category. Ten years later sand plum jelly had it's own category and stood in competition to 56 other jars. This year, our jar had but 3 lonely companions.

There's always an ebb and flow to what people produce and enter into the county fair, however, last year the ebb and flow was seriously curtailed by a change in the manner of entry. Someone somewhere decided that the system of entering and tracking who, what, when, where, and how much at the fair in all the various categories could more effeciently be done on the computer instead of in the manner it had been done for the last 70 something years. It was an overwhelming failure. Most people, frustrated and confused by the lack of communication and organization of the "new and improved" system, just gave up and left without entering a single thing. And very few returned this year.

We, on the other hand, persevered and entered 28 jars of canned goods, 1 loaf of bread, 1 plate of sweet potatoes, 3 bantam chickens, 5 rabbits, 2 turkeys, and 4 ducks. And in the end came home with 32 first place ribbons, 7 second place ribbons, and 3 third place ribbons along with 2 Grand Champions, 2 Reserve Grand Champions, 4 Champions, 2 reserve Champions, and 3 Ball Canning Awards. All in all it wasn't a bad haul, however, our animals were highly stressed out by the end of the week.

Our silkie here was a little freaked out by all the noise and commotion of the animal barn and proceeded to bite anyone who came near unless I was holding him. He and the two girls next to him were probably the most talked about birds at the fair. Admittedly they are odd looking compared to other chickens.

But this little jewel was our biggest surprise of the week. A turkey egg, notable for it's spotted coloring!! One of our turkeys laid eggs last year for a few weeks but it wasn't until December and they weren't fertile. This year we have boys and girls but certainly weren't expecting eggs for another couple of months. We're not sure if the horrid hot weather we've had this year made them lay early or what. I guess we'll keep watch and see what happens over the next few weeks. I just can't imagine them hatching out babies in the cold as turkeys are hot weather birds.