Fair Days Have Come . . . .

Day One of my 2012 Bonner County Fair experience has come and gone.  Day Two should not be so hectic, but I'm figuring on a very busy afternoon as a judge.  

What's nice about that responsibility is that my sister Laurie is judging with me.   So, it will be work combined with pleasure.

Like many folks who enter exhibits at the fair, I coulda used a shrink by the time I finished the last of my entries during yesterday's hot afternoon.

I ranked 'em according to complexity, beginning with photography, then pumpkins, then jellies and finally veggies. 

Let's just say the photography information in the fairbook is open for interpretation.  This I know:  only seven entries per person in four categories.

On the left side of the page at least seven different kinds of photo entries are described.  On the right side of the page, only four choices if all your photos are color. 

I decided at the last minute to print off two 8 x 10 photos and use two prints I could not enter last year.  

I drove to town with my CD, plugged it into the photo printing machine and soon discovered, with the tech's help that the CD was bad. 

I drove home, found my thumb drive, found the photos on my computer, saved them and drove back to town.

This time the machine read my device.  I asked the tech, only about four times, what to do next.  

When I got to the shopping cart, it said I'd ordered five pictures when I thought I ordered only three.  Feeling too stupid to ask the tech one more question, I just pushed the button and placed the order, figuring I could give the extras away.

When I came home and looked at the categories for my geese flying in front of a nearly full moon, my stain glass window from Northern Ireland, my portrait of Laurie and Mani and the photo I snapped of Daniel Bouse last week, the categories available totally disordered my mind.

So, I just stacked 'em up in a box and figured the superintendents could help me decide.  

Then, I took one last look through the fairbook for pumpkins.  On Saturday after I hadn't found pumpkins in the veggie section or the fruits, my sisters helped me look.

"Would they consider them gourds?" one asked.  We looked at gourds.  No pumpkins.

"How about melons?"  another asked.  Nope.

"Look through all those veggie listings and see if you find pumpkins," I said, handing one a fair book.   No luck anywhere, and I didn't feel so dumb.

Well, it was different yesterday, under duress, and knowing I may end up entering them in "Other" as indicated in an earlier posting.

All the sudden something caught my eye as I thumbed through the fairbook.  

"Pumpkins!"  

"Ah," I said, "finally."

Then, I asked myself and later asked the superintendent.  "What do pumpkins and potatoes have in common?  Iz it because they both begin with "p"?

She had no answer, but at least I knew where to carry my great pumpkin entries---one for the biggest and one for pies. 

When I took my entries to the fair, I did start with photography and learned,  while watching another exhbitor almost literally tear her hair out with frustration, that even the judge got so confused, he or she devised a "flow chart" so people could figure out how to enter their pictures. 

The superintendents clarified to me that it was okay to enter more than one picture in each of the four categories, so mine will all be judged.

Next, I lugged my pumpkins to Virginia, the superintendent.  She said my great pumpkin looked pretty big all right.  When I asked her if the green pumpkin would fit in the "pie" category, she said she guessed so.

At the jelly department, I have a guardian-angel superintendent.  She knows I'm stupid, so she tries to help me out.

One year she explained to me that the reason my jelly did not get judged was that TWO jars were needed.  Helps to read the fairbook. 

The next year she explained the USDA bathing requirements for jellies and then gave me a multiple-choice question, emphasizing one answer.  Then, she asked me how long I had bathed my jelly.  

I answered correctly and won a blue ribbon.

Yesterday, she picked out which jar would be judged and which would be tasted.  Then, she gave me a suggestion, which I shall not divulge at this writing.  

All I can say is that my serviceberry jelly will be judged.

Veggies---green beans, wax beans, oregano and dill---were pretty easy.  

I did note to myself, though,  that one lady sure did bring a lot of stuff in her huge box.  Looked like she picked the whole truck garden and brought it to town.

So, this morning I'm filled with expectation and hopes for the day ahead.  While I'm judging my category, several other judges will be scrutinizing my entries.

Maybe there will be some ribbons.  We'll see.

Whatever the case, even with all the frustration, entering stuff in the fair makes the annual countywide event a whole lot more fun. 

Happy Monday.