Another County Fair

I'm up to my old tricks.  Last week we attended the Saratoga County Fair.  Drake claims I've dragged him to at least twenty of these, but I think the number is closer to ten.  My fascination with county fairs runs deep back into my childhood.  At its root it's all about greed.  My mother believed sugar was the devil incarnate, and she ruthlessly controlled her childrens access to soft drinks, candy, ice cream, and even desserts.  I could count on one hand the times in the calendar year I could satisfy my sweet tooth, and the Tulsa County Fair was one of those times.

Most kids would have looked forward to the midway, but I was a fast learner and realized early on the carnival games just emptied my pocket rather than rewarding me with the big purple bear.  My sweet tooth was also helped along by my irrational fear of all but the mildest of the midway rides.  My speed was always the carousel rather than the rocket cages.  I was even afraid of the swings which rose you progressively into the air as centrifugal force spun you faster and faster.

If I wasn't consuming funnel cakes, cotton candy, or a Dr. Pepper, I was collecting as much free stuff as I could put into my plastic advertising bag.  I loved getting rulers, pens, pencils, band aids, combs, erasers, magnets, clips, and free reading material.  I've never been picky - I'll read anything.

In between sugar fixes, I also inspected every animal pen and cage.  As a city girl, the exotic smells (animal manure, I'm sure) and the lovely animals seen close up seemed to be from a different planet than the one I inhabited.  Hard as it is to believe, as a child I was very shy and timid.  Life for me was mostly solitary observation seeing and noting things I had only read about.  There was nothing about a county fair I didn't love as long as I didn't have to ride anything.

Perhaps that's why it's so easy for me to be eager to 'see another one'.  This time I met some people who made this fair wonderfully unique.  There was Carter, the eight year old who was entered into the sheep showmanship contest for the first time.  We love watching 4H kids working with their animals.  We've watched kids show pigs - that's mostly a free for all.  We've watched kids work young oxen teams.  We've watched five year olds show young cows bigger than they are.  We've watched llama packing - really hilarious - and totally one of a kind in terms of showmanship.  We've watched kids show horses, and we've watched kids show sheep.  We've even watched kids show house cats.

Carter, alternating between being excited and being scared, pointed out his idol to me - a 17 year old boy who, according to Carter, knew absolutely everything about showmanship.  As we worked our way from the 16 - 18 year old class down to Carter's 8 - 10 year old class, he carefully explained to me all the different breeds of sheep we were seeing, why some looked 'rough wooled' while others looked like they'd just seen the sheep barber.  When I asked him why he chose a lamb to raise and show at the Fair, he replied his family farm needed the lawn mowed! 

Carter getting ready for the show ring

I wish I had a happy ending to this story, but, alas, there were two people in Carter's age class - him and a cute little girl with French braids.  He came in second.  Oh, well, there's always next year. 

Moving on, we next encountered a female fly fisherwoman.  I talked to her for about about fly fishing.  When you talk to people who have a passion, it's easy to get a lot of information.  She started fishing about age four, and quickly found out she loved fly fishing.  She's been practicing her craft for more than fifty years. 

For a long time, she fished for trout in fast running streams, but as she aged, she changed her focus to fly fishing on small glacial lakes for small and large mouthed bass.  Her preferred mode of transportation while fishing is not the flat bottomed bass boat with trolling motor of Texas and Louisiana, but rather a one person kayak.  Now, for her it is all about tying interesting flies to catch a fish's interest, then enjoying the utter peace and quiet of the lake as she casts, catches and releases.

I bypass most Fair food these days - unless a really, really good looking corn dog crosses my path.  I also blame New England for putting me off my very favorite Fair treat:  cotton candy.  Well, that's not exactly accurate.  I still eat cotton candy, but only the gourmet variety.  And, you ask, "What is the gourmet variety of cotton candy?"  It's the kind spun from maple sugar.  Once you go maple, you never voluntarily go back to the yucky pink stuff.  The Saratoga Fair didn't let me down. There was a sugar shack, and they were serving up maple cotton candy.  I did rein myself in, though, and only ordered the small size.

Just as I was cleaning the sticky off my hands, I was just in time for a demonstration event.  Now, usually these involve sets of knives slicing and dicing, or waterless cookware, or some cleaning gizmo.  The demonstration at his Fair was so much better.  A woman from the Cornell Extension Service gave a demonstration on how to arrange flowers. 

She had a lot to talk about, and I learned much more than I thought I would when I sat down.  Since there were only me and three other women taking in her talk, it was pretty interactive.  Ok, so I made it interactive. When she started talking about using  greenery from your yard to augment rearranging your grocery story bouquet, I quipped we had to resort to theft in the dessert to find yard greenery.  Everyone started laughing, and when the presenter started asking questions, everyone started answering.  These things are always more fun when the presenter doesn't have to pull teeth to get the interaction going.

Another demonstration which is unique to places with TREES was the timber demo.  This involves sawing, ax throwing, and unique to the Saratoga Fair - log rolling.  In the 19th and 20th century, these skills became logging contests at local gatherings and fairs.  In log rolling, two competitors try to unseat the other from a large log rolling in water.   When it wasn't a competition,

Competition between a father/daughter team

this was the most dangerous part of timber cutting - using a river or large stream to float large cut logs down the mountain to the wagons, and later to the railroad spur to haul the timber to the sawmill.  Men would climb onto the logs to spin them out of log jams and snags as the cut timber floated down the river.  One wrong step and a fall off the floating, spinning log would leave you either crushed, drowned, or mangled.  

A final highlight of the Saratoga County Fair was the eight horse draft/wagon competition.  That's all about driving eight harnessed draft horses pulling a wagon. 

The 'winner' of the driving competition

The predicted rain dampened the entries in this competition, but even though the rain didn't materialize, seeing the two teams drive these horses took one right back to the 19th century when harnessing and controlling teams of these huge horses was a skill in high demand. 

We finished the day at a delicatessen in the town of Ballston Spa,

Main drag of Ballston Spa, New York

the county seat of Saratoga County.  This tiny burg was serviced by four railroads in its heyday.  This is the place where the manufacture of the paper bag with the square bottom was invented.  Who knew?  I tell you in this life there's always something new to see and new to learn.  You just have to be curious.

As always, there are more pictures.  Click the link if you want to see them.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gW62R2Nt6giPvoG49