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County fair day
Aug. 15th, 2009 08:52 pmWent over to Belvidere for the Boone County Fair this morning, got there early enough that the bible-thumpers, politicians, and chiropracters were not in their booths yet so we zipped through the "commercial" buildings without being pressured, accosted, and delayed.
Horse show at that fair has expanded tremendously in recent years. They put up two new barns for ponies, freeing up space in the main horse barn for more draft horses, but that wasn't enough. Now they have a temporary tent (huge) for more draft horses and another for more ponies. Haflingers were competing in the pony hitch classes, which was also a new development though I think quite appropriate. We watched one class that they were calling a "Jack Benny" hitch, but I'm not sure what that means and I haven't looked it up yet. They were carts, usually for two people, drawn by a single horse. Most were two wheelers, but a couple had four wheels. A Welsh pony took the blue, but Haflingers got most of the other ribbons.
The Clydesdales were lovely, as always. Tall and sweet tempered, oh so handsome. *preens*
The needlework exhibits were about twice as large as the ones last week at McHenry. We had a long talk with one of the assistants in the department. She said she didn't know where to get yarn that wasn't acrylic, so we gave her a dozen possibilities. They had four entries in a class for handkerchieves with tatted edges. Several other tatted pieces as well. I haven't seen that much tatting in one place in probably 50 years. Lots of quilts, but I was disappointed that most of them had not been quilted by the entrants, but rather sent to a commercial quilting shop for the quilting. This is permitted and there is a separate category for it, but to me it defeats the purpose of the competition.
Stopped for lunch on the way home at the cafe on US 20 in Garden Prairie. We realized as we were sitting there that the last time we ate at the place was on the way to the Boone County Fair last year. They closed down a week later, and have only reopened under new ownership quite recently. Different menu, slightly higher prices, but the same friendly place. It's like the Chatterbox Cafe on Prairie Home Companion, I'd say. One of the older waitresses recognized us and came over to say she was glad to see us, and of course we told her we had missed the place, which was true.
After we got home, Gary finally managed to get hold of our hay supplier. We've bought almost all our hay from the same guy for ten years. Suddenly this summer he just wasn't returning our calls. Now he tells us he sold his haying equipment to a neighbor. Why the heck didn't he respond with that information six weeks ago. Now we are going to have to scrounge to find the 650 more bales we need for the winter, when it's already late in the season. Grrr. All he had to do was tell us the truth back in June. We wouldn't have held it against him. Now we do have reason to be grumpy with him.
The Boone County Fair is huge, and my feet are sore. Tomorrow, the Sycamore Steam Show & Threshing Bee. See you there!
Horse show at that fair has expanded tremendously in recent years. They put up two new barns for ponies, freeing up space in the main horse barn for more draft horses, but that wasn't enough. Now they have a temporary tent (huge) for more draft horses and another for more ponies. Haflingers were competing in the pony hitch classes, which was also a new development though I think quite appropriate. We watched one class that they were calling a "Jack Benny" hitch, but I'm not sure what that means and I haven't looked it up yet. They were carts, usually for two people, drawn by a single horse. Most were two wheelers, but a couple had four wheels. A Welsh pony took the blue, but Haflingers got most of the other ribbons.
The Clydesdales were lovely, as always. Tall and sweet tempered, oh so handsome. *preens*
The needlework exhibits were about twice as large as the ones last week at McHenry. We had a long talk with one of the assistants in the department. She said she didn't know where to get yarn that wasn't acrylic, so we gave her a dozen possibilities. They had four entries in a class for handkerchieves with tatted edges. Several other tatted pieces as well. I haven't seen that much tatting in one place in probably 50 years. Lots of quilts, but I was disappointed that most of them had not been quilted by the entrants, but rather sent to a commercial quilting shop for the quilting. This is permitted and there is a separate category for it, but to me it defeats the purpose of the competition.
Stopped for lunch on the way home at the cafe on US 20 in Garden Prairie. We realized as we were sitting there that the last time we ate at the place was on the way to the Boone County Fair last year. They closed down a week later, and have only reopened under new ownership quite recently. Different menu, slightly higher prices, but the same friendly place. It's like the Chatterbox Cafe on Prairie Home Companion, I'd say. One of the older waitresses recognized us and came over to say she was glad to see us, and of course we told her we had missed the place, which was true.
After we got home, Gary finally managed to get hold of our hay supplier. We've bought almost all our hay from the same guy for ten years. Suddenly this summer he just wasn't returning our calls. Now he tells us he sold his haying equipment to a neighbor. Why the heck didn't he respond with that information six weeks ago. Now we are going to have to scrounge to find the 650 more bales we need for the winter, when it's already late in the season. Grrr. All he had to do was tell us the truth back in June. We wouldn't have held it against him. Now we do have reason to be grumpy with him.
The Boone County Fair is huge, and my feet are sore. Tomorrow, the Sycamore Steam Show & Threshing Bee. See you there!
