A Day at the Fair

Today we took advantage of our free passes and went to the State Fair.

We go every year, and always have a good time, but this year it just didn't seem as good as other years. The crowds were thin, which would normally make the day MORE pleasant, in my estimation, since I'm not overly fond of crowds or noise.

But the exhibits and vendors seemed very thin this year too. There seemed to be many fewer vendors, and the vendors that were there seemed not to have as many wares on display.

I wondered if this was because the fair was originally planned to move to a different location this year, but then the new venue wasn't ready, so they didn't move after all. Maybe the uncertainty of where it would be put off some vendors?

We always go to the agricultural and plant exhibits, the craft exhibits, and the animal exhibits, but none of them really seemed up to par this year, either.

There didn't seem to be as many animals in the animal display barns---with the exception of the specialty breed exhibits in the Big Red Barn where our sheep were on display. That actually had a nice variety of critters, as usual, including this really strange and cool looking spotted sheep (pictured at right).

It was interesting looking at the sheep on display in the sheep barn, even though they were nearly all the identical-looking meat sheep, slick shorn for showing. They don't have nearly the character of the Icelandic sheep, but they were still pretty cute, with their big ears and mournful faces like the faces of large, docile hound dogs.

I had to admire, though, the superb---even exaggerated---meat conformation on many of them. Broad shoulders, long backs, meaty and rounded all over. These were sheep bred for one purpose only, but bred for it well.

I'd never want to give up variety and versatility of our Icelandic sheep, nor the exceptional leanness and mildness of flavor of the meat. But wow, those huge meat sheep at the fair sure would produce a LOT of lamb chops!

So anyway, we wandered around for a while, but after a couple of hours we got bored and came home. I hope the Fall Fiber Festival this weekend will be more fun!