Fair Days Fair Days Dear old Golden Fair Days

I don’t know about where you’re from but here in Missouri we’ve been having some extremely warm days. I do believe the dawg days of summer are upon us. Maybe that should be dog days of summer… anyway… they’re here. I’m not sure how long they will stay though. I like the summer but I think 100 degrees is a bit excessive but I won’t complain because shortly winter will be upon us and we’ll all be wishing for warmer days.

When I was younger, one thing that signified that summer was coming to an end was Labor day, another was school starting and the third was the Lamar Free Fair. I started showing sheep when I was a freshman in high school and showed up until I was 21 which is the oldest you can show in FFA. My parents took me all over the country side showing sheep but once the Lamar Fair came, summer was drawing to a close. I’ve met a lot of great people and friends while showing that have lasted into adulthood.

So one day this last week I got a message via facebook from a friend asking if I wanted to come up and judge leadline at the Lamar Fair. Then later that afternoon I got a text from a number that I didn’t recognize asking the same thing. Turns out it was the same person, they still had my cell number but that’s another story. Anyway I checked with hubby to make sure we didn’t have any plans; make sure he hadn’t volunteered us to do something else. He said we were free and clear for the evening, so I said I’d come up and judge leadline.

When we got to the fair the Fat stock sale was going on so we went up and walked around the square where they hold the carnival portion of the fair, then we went back down to the barn and sat and chatted with old friends. It’s crazy that a lot of the people I grew up showing livestock with are either in their late career of showing (some weren’t even born when I started showing) and others have children of their own.

Once the sale was over, they set up for leadline and then 2 other girls (one of whom I showed with/agaisnt) and I judged the leadline show. In leadline the kids dress in at least 20% wool and lead sheep around to promote the sheep industry and the wool industry and show the versatility of wool. There were 4 divisions of leadline, tiny tots that were ages 2-7, juniors ages 8-10, intermediate 11-15 and seniors 16+ (to 21).

Once leadline was over I wanted to run back up to the square and get a few photos you can only get at carnivals… Then it was time to head home and crash. Can you believe I made it past 10pm. These days that seems to be about my max. We got home at 12. You know you’ve gotten home and gone to bed later than normal when your normal tv programs you watch going to sleep have gone off air and others have come on in their place…

btw, I used my phone to help me write this blog post via the blogger app. I edited my photos with the photofy app. It’s an app I had to download for one of my classes this semester and I’d never played with it before so I thought it might be fun. I should have paid the 99 cents to get rid of the photofy watermark on my photos… but anyway, enjoy the fair!