This photo of the obese man is awful and funny at the same time. This is a cutout for a person to go and stand behind that represents and Iowa farmer! Really!??
Luke and I went to the Iowa Sate Fair to volunteer at Little Hands on The Farm. 4H members have the opportunity to sign up as a volunteer and Jayden and I volunteered 4 years. Jake never had any interest in it, but Luke thought it sounded fun. Luke and I woke at 5:30Am, got on the road at 6, and arrived at our location at 7:45 ready to start our 8AM shift. Turns out they started at 9AM. The jobs are all first come first serve, so we had the first picks and Luke chose pedal tractors, and I ended up at the chicken coop. Little Hands on The Farm is an interactive farm the kids go through to learn about agriculture. They make stops in a garden planting and digging up pretend vegetables, they go through a grain bin, sheep, dairy, beef, and chicken barn. They also fill their pedal tractors with Bio-diesel and pedal the tractors around a tiny track. My job was to point out the fake chickens and ask the kids what the chickens were eating (corn) and have them spot the rooster. I asked those questions over a hundred times in my shift. It wasn't my first pick, but I was being gracious when they asked if I would. It was the least exciting position. It was fun to see the little kids get excited and the cute things they say. For our 3 1/2 hour volunteer shift, we get front row parking, free admission, and a t-shirt, valued at $60. After our shift ended at 12:30 we had the rest of our day to explore. We had an hour in the morning before our shift and went to the sheep barn where we saw cousin Alivia, neighbor Cash, and Luke's friend Joe all grooming and prepping for the big sheep show. Again, after our shift, we went back to the sheep barn and watched a couple classes. We also made our way through the livestock barns and 4H building. I ran into several people, 3 college friends I had not seen in years. Dee was a Rhomate with me at ISU and her kids were showing hogs and cattle. Cecily was a rodeo club friend that has 4 active 4H kids. Jamie R was a college friend I met while in school in Colorado. Her family shows Belgian horses and I always make a point to walk through the horse barns looking for her family. I run into her every year I am at the state fair. It was super fun catching up with her and seeing her 3 girls that are all grown up. It was a great day to be at the fair, not too hot. While at the fair we enjoyed beef sundae's for lunch, and mini donuts. We walked here and there and saw many different things until we were both too tired to walk anymore. It was a good day. Luke is already talking about when he does it next year.
Another Day Jacob went to the State Fair with his two buddies David and Beau, neither had ever been. Beau hasn't been too many places outside of the county. The boys were not too impressed. They thought it was so expensive to buy food, none of them ate, they found it boring, they were hot, and they didn't like the crowd at all. Needless to say, they didn't stay long.
Saturday the 21'st Mark took both boys and they all had a good time. I think the boys had plenty of foods on a stick to eat. I chose to stay home and have a quiet day of cleaning and organizing. One day at the fair is all I need for the year. The boys had fun with dad and saw and enjoyed many things. Because it was a Saturday, the had to deal with mass crowds.
Comments