Dane County Fair 2012

I loves me the County Fair! I haven't missed it once since moving to Madison 22 years ago. I'm not a ride

goer-on-er person but I love to visit the show animal barns, all of the kids' 4H displays, the business expo, petting zoo, and to just watch the folks in general.

This year, I fulfilled my dream of becoming a carnie and actually worked at the fair! Heartland Farm had a public awareness booth in the Expo center and I signed up for a couple of shifts; one on Thursday afternoon and one on Saturday afternoon.  The Thursday afternoon one was pretty much a bust, attendance at the fair was pretty low but there were still enough folks around to make the people-watching interesting. Saturday was busy and I made quite a bit in donations to the farm which is always greatly appreciated. My favorite conversation was with a lady who, upon learning that the Heartland takes in farm animals (remember that because it's going to be important in a minute), insisted that we were going to take her cockatiels because there was something wrong with them. Seems they 'don't got no fur'. I'm thinking that may not have been their only problem. It took some fancy talking to get out of that one!

After my Thursday shift, I met friends and we perused the carnival for supper. I had cheese curds, nutritious, I know. My friends had a blooming onion (vegetable alert!)  and cream puffs. There were the usual assortment of deep- fried-things-on-a-stick.  This is the one I found most disturbing.  On a lot of levels. 

There were some neat and clean booths and there was also a generous helping of  booths with questionably sanitation run by nefarious looking help. I DO NOT even want to speculate what was in the 'Special' hot dogs at this booth!

The best part of Thursday night was attending a thrill show where a young husband and wife team, raced around the inside of a small metal cage on their dirt bikes. All the while their toddler watched from about 30 feet away where they'd parked his stroller facing the spectacle.  I don't even want to think about his therapy bills should Mommy and Daddy have an 'off day at work'!

After my shift on Saturday I made my barn rounds before meeting up with more friends. I took a million pictures, but  here are some of my favs.

Blue Eyed Goat

Sweet Piggy Dreams

 Peacock cake at the 4 -H Cake decorating competition. Amazing, no?

And this girl told this llama to DO stuff (like go through a tire maze and over a fence)....and he did it.  This was a jaw-dropping feat to me considering I had to work for 20 minutes, using reverse psychology, bribes and a fair amount of out-and-out trickery just to get Thor to come down off the manure pile the other day when he escaped. Just trying to get him into this ensemble wouldn't be worth the trauma. Should, by some quirky freak of nature, I be able to get it on him and grab the reins, I predict a jolly ride, face down, all over the back forty for my troubles...but a girl can dream can't she?

Anyway, the fair is over for another year and my fair fix has been fulfilled until next summer. Do you still go to the fair?