Fair Weather

I've been wanting to visit the Eagle County Fair for the past few summers that we've lived here, but finally I turned the wanting into doing and we made plans to go this year after Gregg finished his Mount Evans Hill Climb on Saturday (July 26th) afternoon.  I was super excited to let Callie get some close-up viewing of real live animals.  I thought it would be fun to peruse the 4-H exhibits and to relive my own 4-H days.  I was looking forward to eating some fair food and just hanging out with my family on a summer afternoon.  And then I saw in the paper that they were having a special 75th Anniversary High Altitude Bread Bake Off.  I was too late to enter the regular open class exhibition for bread or quilts or photography or whatever - I hadn't even thought about entering anything till I saw the bread-making contest notice in the paper.  But this special contest was to be held on Saturday afternoon and I was totally going to enter (and win!) that thing.  Saturday couldn't come fast enough.

Here's my entry: Fresh-made Oatmeal Wheat Bread,
pretty much the only loaf-type bread I ever make anymore.
It has been a hit with many a ward member as Christmas gifts
and I knew it would stand a good chance at the fair.

So we got to the fairgrounds with plenty of time for me to enter my bread.  We found the table where they were collecting entries and discovered that I was the 2nd bread entry so far.  (Turns out there were - I think - five other loaves that turned out. Ha.  Not too much competition in our small-town fair.)  Judging was to begin at 4:00, which meant that we had about an hour to wander the fair and look around.  Which is what we did.

The junior livestock auction was going
on in the Eagle River Center while we
were looking at the animals.  I was amazed
at the prices some of those animals went for!
$5000 for a pig!  $700 for a turkey!

Not a great picture, but included for historical reasons:
This was the turkey that bit poor Cal's finger.  I didn't think we
were that close, but apparently that turkey thought Callie's
cute little finger was a worm or something tasty and reached
out to give her a good nip.  She cried - loudly - for a couple of
minutes and then it was all but forgotten.  Hope she's not
scarred for life like Mom is about geese . . . 

Moo!

This was the smallest fair I've ever seen (not that I've seen a lot of fairs, but still)!  Everything was inside one giant building.  In one far end there were a few rows of animals: a row of pens of cows, one for sheep, one for goats and one for pigs.  In the middle of the building, probably taking about half of the space, was a seating area with tables and bleachers and a big stage where the auction was taking place.  Along one long wall next to the auction area was where the birds were - a few cages of chickens, one pen of ducks, one pen of geese, a couple turkeys.  There were a couple rabbits here, too.  In the last quarter of the building (pictured behind me in the photo below) is the open class and 4-H exhibit area.  I'm used to a couple whole buildings full of things like this back in Cache Valley, but here it was a small portion of the animal barn!  We stepped outside for a few minutes, intending to venture down the parking lot past the carnival rides to watch the racing pigs and maybe find some grub, but we were greeted with huge, wet raindrops and a very threatening sky.  So we darted back inside and there we stayed until the bread judging was complete.  I think we saw every single entry and animal that was in that place.  And we got to listen to an awful lot of animals get auctioned off for boocoo bucks.

The group of people sitting around the table below were the judges and others who got to eat the bread and declare a winner.  And who was that winner?  Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but . . . 

It was me!

I walked by as I noticed they seemed to be finishing up their tasting and judging.  The extension agent lady saw me and said, "Are you the one who entered that yummy oatmeal wheat bread?"  I said yes and she said, "Well, you won!"  Out of five other loaves of bread entered from Eagle County, my loaf was the first prize winner!  Haha.  I got a blue ribbon and a ceramic plate that looks like a leaf.  And a coupon for a free latte from the restaurant in Eagle that sponsored the contest.  :)

We left shortly after winning - no bread left because they all loved it so much.  We never made it to the far end of the fairgrounds where the food tents and rodeo arena were.  But we did stop at Colorado Cheesesteaks in Eagle for dinner before we headed back home.  All in all, a fun afternoon.