There’s a certain time of year that the sun is no longer a beautiful, pleasant thing. And that would be July. The shine goes away, and it turns into a blaze. However, we cant all go crawl into a freezer and drink lemonade all day. Sadly, we don’t even have a walk in freezer.
So, here’s a recap of the Nemaha County Free Fair that took place over what had to have been the hottest weekend of the year.
Lets roast together, shall we?
Friday morning at the fair starts off bright and early at 9 o clock. That means that all the veggies that are being entered have to be picked that morning, and the animal must be loaded up and transported to the Seneca Fairgrounds. Thankfully, the arts, crafts, and photography were judged two weeks prior, so that is out of my mind. Except for wondering whether my photo got Grand or Reserve Champion.
Oh, let me clarify the order of placing's.
White is the worst. NOBODY wants a white. Very few kids do get whites anyway.
Red means average…which is not too good.
Blue is OK. That means that you wont win, but it was a pretty good exhibit anyway!
Purple means outstanding! This means that you have surpassed everyone else and are now available for the Top Dog Awards.
Now, out of all the purples in each division (senior, intermediate, and junior) they choose one Grand Champion, and one Reserve Champion. Depending on the item, that is eligible for the KState Fair. Held in Hutch. (Hutchison, KS)
After arriving and placing all of our Horticulture, foods and such where they need to go, we waited on the judges to start, and Gabe went out to care for his animals.
Food Judging is very involved, and includes sitting down with an intimidating judge (they are all very nice, really:) and discussing what is wrong and right with your foods. Wrong mostly. We have to remind each other that critiquing is their job!
Horticulture is easy, and you don’t even have to be there as the judge picks the best of three classes: Senior, Intermediate, and Junior. The winner of junior horticulture was a single zinnia in a jar. Mom says that we ARE doing that next year. However, I thought that about a cookie container, and there ended up being EIGHT other cookie containers. (oops)
Here’s the Food specs:
Aubrey got a Purple on her ‘Healthy Snack’ which was some banana/peanut butter type cookies.
Cole got a Purple on his ‘Healthy Snack’ which were some oatmeal chocolate chip granola bars.
Me, well I got blues. Not the ‘Blues’ but two blue ribbons on my Cookie Container, and a recipe box.
But who cares? Food isn’t my passion anyway! Now photography on the other hand…I received the Kansas Pride award for my sunset photo, and Reserve Champion for the baby feet photo. That photo is now on its way to the Kansas State fair! Hopefully it will get better than a white like my last photo that got sent there. :/ 
On to the animals…and more Saturday Activities
Gabe put two out of the four animals that he had planned on in the fair. After an unfortunate accident involving two valuable steers, all that was left for the fair was his two meat goats. Aubrey and Cole had two adorable bucket calf twins named Tucker and Tyler. Those calves got sent back to the dairy on Tuesday. We just take care of them for a few months before the fair.
Trenton Meyer led Gabe’s 2nd Goat as they were being judged.
Cole and Aubrey’s Bucket calf show was Saturday at 11:00 am. Before showing, they had to get all dressed up and their calves all clean!
Gabe’s animals both got purples in market, but their wasn’t anyone else in his class. ( classes are split by weight of the animal, and there happened to be no other goats the same weight of his) In showmanship, he blew them out of the water. He beat the two kids who ALWAYS win, and went on to win the Round Robin. Which is when all the Showmanship winners of all the divisions go against each other and compete. He smoked them all. Gabe got Grand Champion of the Intermediate class! His camp chair prize is sitting in our garage right now:) Here’s a photo of the Grand Champion Round Robin (junior, senior, and intermediate) kids. right to left: Sarah Rokey, Karrie Van Winkle, Gabe Meyer.
Monday night was the Premium Auction where you can sell your animal to a local business, and then you still get to keep the animal with the sell money. It doesn’t really make sense to some people, but its just a way for business to advertise and support the kids in their county. My cookie container also was sold in the premium auction. I get to keep half of the money, the other half goes to the 4-H council.
Here’s a few random photos from the weekend:
Premium Auction- who’s gonna pay up?
Care for the animals
Fair barn
One of my fellow Entrepreneurship Academy Attendees was Dillon Thompson, who works for the KNZA Radio. They serve NE Kansas. His bosses make him go out to all the local county fairs and interview kids. I helped him enlist a couple kids for interviews, and I did one myself. I made sure to do a little advertising though! I tried to get Gabe and Cole to do it, but they wouldn’t. It went on the air on Sunday at 1:30, so I missed listening to it. Last year, Cameron heard mine on the radio.
Braxton and his mommy stopped by, and we were so excited to see him! He loved the animals! Tuesday was his 1 st Birthday, and on Wednesday I photographed his cake smash!
