Tuesday, September 7, 2010

There Were Cow Butts Everywhere!

Yes my little grasshoppers it is time for the annual Geauga County Fair roundup. That time of year when you journey with me through cow butts and pig butts and way too much fried food.

HHBL and I indulge in an orgy of fair food and farm animals once a year on Labor Day. And this year was the first year for I think 20+ years that we haven’t had one of the progeny with us. It was just…..

US!

Wow. And we still had fun and we still ate way too much. Life is good.

We are creatures of habit are HHBL and I. We park in the same place (the high school) and we walk the fair grounds always in a counter clockwise direction, going through the agricultural barn first so that we can see all the produce, the gigantic pumpkin (which wasn’t all that big this year) and all the 6 day old baked goods that have lost all sense of edibleness.

IMG_8697A IMG_8698 I consulted with the “bee guy” about what he thought was the type of ground bees that I killed a couple of weeks ago. It is always good to speak with the authorities on these sorts of things, not that he was there to help me when I was in the trenches slugging it out with the little devils.

IMG_8700 We always check out all the artwork that the highschoolers produce as well as all the photography that is in the last building. Every year HHBL keeps telling me that I need to enter the photography category. One of these days.

And then it is on to the livestock.

IMG_8702AOf course there are plenty of cow butts. More than enough to get us through the cow buttless days of winter.

IMG_8705  Awwwwww, look at how happy they are to just be in the barn with all the people staring at them.

IMG_8712ASome cows will just do anything for attention.

IMG_8717A  And then, of course, we have to go through the “Bunny Barn” which has nothing whatsoever to do with Hugh Hefner and Playboy. The bunnies with the red eyes always freak me out.

IMG_8722 And for some reason there were also rats in cages in the bunny barn. This guy was studiously trying to find a way out.

IMG_8733 And of course there is the Poultry barn where HHBL feels it is his duty to see if he can get the roosters to crow repeatedly.

IMG_8743IMG_8752A

IMG_8740AThis is how much the prize turkey went for at auction. I am not sure it they are going to eat it or gild it and set it up in the front hall.

Turkeys really are ugly birds. Tasty but ugly.

And then there were……..

IMG_8755A Pig Butts!!!

That is one brave pig to put his body and snout down in the place where he has it.

All day I have felt the need for bacon. That must be why we are having BLT’s for dinner.

And then it was time to eat. As we would leave one live stock barn and enter another we would be overwhelmed with the smell of deep fried stuff. And we finally had to give in.

IMG_8766A Oh for the love of all that’s holy! These were so good.

IMG_8770A And then there was the gyros. Every year we talk about having something else and every year we look at each other and say, “Nah, we need gyros.” And every year it is delicious.

We walked a bit after ingesting the onion rings and gyros in fairly quick order. There was a stroll through the areas under the grandstands where you can buy everything from replacement windows to tupperware to beef jerky and all sorts of things in between. These set ups used to be Pilot Man’s favorite when we were growing up. Grab a bag and see how much literature that you can pick up and take home. Who cares if it is for hernia surgery, he who gathers the most literature wins.

We stopped at the book barn where I managed not to buy a book. I think that is a first for me.

And then it was a stroll back through the fair grounds where we watched kids riding the rides and playing the games.

IMG_8777A This ride seemed to be a particular favorite. Shades of the old TV show “The Prisoner”.

IMG_8773AI had a fairly close sighting of a “Homo mullitus” which is, unfortunately, not as rare as it should be.

And then!!!!!

It was on to…..

IMG_8781A Oh yes be still my beating heart. They weren’t sold out this year. And the line wasn’t all that long

IMG_8782AYUM!

And then we strolled up the midway, stopped in the Republican booth and saw Mike DeWine who is running for Attorney General here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio. He is much shorter than I thought he was.

But that is neither here nor there I guess. I am still voting for him.

And then, as our usual last stop, we strolled over to listen to the Geauga Country Fair Band.

IMG_8788A They are actually fairly decent for a county fair band. What HHBL and I like about them is it is a mixture of young and old. Some are really, really old.

And all too soon my milk shake was done.

IMG_8786AAnd HHBL and I drove on home where I spent the rest of the evening fighting off a Fair Food induced coma.

It was a close call I can tell you. 

6 comments:

  1. Larissa (MrsPinecone)September 7, 2010 at 6:10 PM

    We went on Sunday. I am still recovering.

    I had to go and admire my ribbon-winning knitting. Very satisfying.

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  2. Our fair ended a week ago Sunday and if all caloric intake is restricted until Thanksgiving, there is hope we can eat a big turkey dinner then. It's nothing but eating holidays till January 2, and that's if we tippy toe around Valentine's Day.

    Sounds like you had a good time at the fair, which is as it should be.

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  3. Sounds like you had a good time ~ I haven't been to the fair in forever!

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  4. I miss the mid-western part of the USA so much. My favorite festival was the maple festival out in your neck of the woods when I was a kid. What I wouldn't give to go to that again!
    When we lived in Indianapolis, we went to the State Fair...which is like your county fair on steroids. I'm a big fan of cow butts...and at one time in my life, I knew the names of the different bovine butt breeds. I am also very fond of horses, sheep, and goat booties.
    Glad you had fun...wish I could have gone with!

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  5. I want to go to the fair with you! I would kill for that shake right now... and its only 8:30.

    I cannot believe how much that turkey went for. Insanity.

    Ha, all those cowbuttless months...

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  6. Been sick all day and am just now feeling better. I looked at your post and oh, my - I want Fair food! Guess that is a sign that my digestive tract is going to forgive me for whatever evil I forced upon it!

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