Fair Is Where You Go To See The Pigs (in the mud)

We come to you tonight from the great state of Indiana, which has a really great state fair that is in full swing. Last week we had a great time with Jeff & Rebecca & Tyler, along with Peter & Leigh-Ann attending the Fair on opening day - Purdue Day to be exact, and I have the bright yellow bag to prove it. As Andrea & Brooke were not able to make it on that day, we returned on Brooke's birthday this week and had more fun. For comparison sake, when we went this week there were probably only 1/3 of the people and about 1/2 the stuff to do. But it was still fun, and we had a great time. I forgot my camera the first day, but here are some pics from the second time around:

Since "fair is where you go to see the pigs", we begin with what the sign claims is the world's largest boar. This guy weighs in at over 1/2 a ton and really is huge. For comparison, there's Brooke in her stroller behind him.

Ah yes, and then there are the "pigs in the mud" - chocolate covered bacon. This is the first thing I got to eat upon arriving at the Fair last week. I don't recall who joined me and had a bite, but it was only one of our party. Due to the exorbitant price, I did not get a second helping this week when I returned. It was pretty good, but cold bacon isn't my favorite thing - even if it is covered in chocolate - which really does help a lot.

To round out our pig trilogy of pictures, here is Brooke as the farmer's helper on the little farm, with her pig friend. She tended to like this kind of animal best - it didn't move.

This pretty much sums up how Brooke approached most animals, with a healthy suspicion. We did finally get her to touch the ox on the horn, but she was not really happy about it.

Notice the tractor in the background spewing forth all sorts of particulate matter. The old tractor exhibit here was really great.

On our visit last week they had this tractor fired up and were using it to power this old fashioned thresher:

They would get the tractor going good, then back it up so that these very long belts would engage and drive the machinery in the thresher. It was pretty cool to see it in action. You can see in this picture where it would go in - where it is immediately subjected to some pretty rigorous pulling and chopping. The grain was coming out the pipe you see extending out to the right at the top of the picture, and the straw was getting blown out the pipe you can see just above that one - both exited the machine at a very high rate of speed. it was really amazing to watch it work.

Someone asked me at some point over the last couple of weeks how they harvest corn. Here is the answer. This is a massive John Deere that one would imagine could make short work of a corn field. But given the amount of corn I have seen in and around Marion County, IN - a very urbanized county - I imagine that this and neighboring states could keep many of these busy for some time bringing in the corn.

And speaking of bringing in the corn - here is Andrea with her foot-long corn dog in one hand and my snow cone in the other. That drink in the background is a lemon shake-up, one of the truly interesting concoctions available not only here at the Fair but in other points around the state as well. The smiles you can see here are all Fair Food induced, and I assure you mine was just as big as I contemplated, then dispatched my own 1' long corn-dipped pork on a stick. The original trip to the Fair included one of these, as well as an elephant ear and a fried potato chip kind of thing with bacon and cheese. The second trip was filled with snow cones instead as I became addicted to Tiger's Blood (strawberry with coconut). Yummmm.

And knowing that there are Leggo fans out there, here is a representative sample of the Leggo creations on exhibit. In this Hall there were home-made crafts and arts of literally every kind. The photos were excellent, particularly the ones in the landscape and portrait categories.
And for Aunt Lisa, I am including a photo of one of the many quilts on display. This one was hanging from the upper floor where the photos were on display.

And for Jeff, here is a draft horse they had demonstrating how they were used prior to mechanized farming. We were both disappointed to find that the draft horses would not show up until long after we visited the Fair. In the building where they were to be housed there were only goats. And here is by far the cheesiest exhibit - a sculpture made of cheese. The lady doing this indicated that it had taken her about 40 hours (5 days) to get it to this point. Looked good to me, as does all cheese (& all things cheesy). The little red cash register keys are those little rounds of Gouda cheese.

This is a video of Brooke finishing up her chores around the farm. She really enjoyed this fun exhibit. They would give all of the kids an apron and a basket and send them through the farm yard to do chores such as pick up grain and feed the hogs/cattle, pick fruit and vegetables, drive the tractor, collect wool, and milk the cow. This particular ceramic cow did no kicking, and the "milk" that came out of the rubber udder was just water, but I thought they did a good job of it. At the end of the chores, they could turn in their basket for some "money" to buy something at the co-op store. Tyler chose Fruit Loops and Brooke chose a carton of milk.