Benton County Fair Part 3

To finish off the Benton County fair series of posts I'm going to show some of the produce that was on display at the fair. As I mentioned yesterday this includes the biggest onion I've ever seen and I'd say it would be great in a salsa or fried with mushrooms and a steak.

The food on display looked great and I wouldn't mind living on this food rather than packet stuff every day. Not that we eat packet food everyday, we actually eat home cooked fresh food the majority of the time.

The eggs were really big and fresh looking compared to supermarket eggs that tend to be quite small and very thin shelled.

+Linda Dean was in absolute heaven and spent a long time studying the produce on show. She is currently building a home hydroponics system and hopes to match the produce on show at some stage in the future.

Produce was not the only thing on display though, there was also a large selection of very impressive and colorful flowers on display including this sunflower.

I like unusual looking flowers with interesting shapes and colors, they make for good shots and can look very impressive.

The organizers and staff of the fair really did a fantastic job with the displays and really showed off what people in the community had to offer.

And to finish up I'm going to show two great images that were captured by +Linda Dean. The first is of one of the hardworking staff members at the fair. If it wasn't for these guys there would be no fair rides every year.

The second shot by +Linda Dean is a great capture. Most days and nights we either see or hear the fire trucks racing by to help someone and deal with a problem. We tend to take these Firemen for granted so it was great to see them taking the time out to spend time with the kids at the fair.

We spent six hours at the fair on the first day and we had a great time and some good food. It was really enjoyable and we would definitely go back next year.

Benton County Fair 2013 part 2

Following on from yesterday's post here is part 2 of the Benton County fair. As I mentioned yesterday one of the highlights of the fair is the animal judging. It's a great way for kids to learn how to take care of their farm animals and learn how to treat them properly.

+Linda Dean managed to get some good shots as we strolled around the edge of the arena.

The sheep judging was interesting, the owners hold up the sheep's head to show off the sheep's back and legs.

And while on the subject of sheep, we got to see our first sheep rodeo, kids rodeo or mutton busting to those in the know.

Since I was a child I've always loved old cars and trucks so coming across a couple of old Hull-Oakes Lumber Co. Mack logging trucks and a Ford TT was a real treat for me.

 Classic Mack trucks restored and kept in great condition for future generations to enjoy.

Given the age of the vehicles and the lighting I thought black and white worked really well for the next few images, I love the shadows and lighting.

+Linda Dean checking out the logging truck below.

The Ford TT was really great to see, there can't be to many of these left on or off the road anymore so it was great seeing one at the fair.

I think that's a good place to leave it for today, I don't want to be boring people with endless scrolling down the page and there is still a fair few images to go including the produce section that had the biggest onion I've ever seen, it could have fed a house full and looked really delicious. But I'll save that for the Benton County Fair part 3 which I'll post tomorrow.

Benton County Fair 2013 part 1

I don't normally go in for fairs especially since I'm trying to avoid junk food but we decided to go to the Benton county fair this year as it was my first time going to a fair in the US. And since I have the new camera it was a good opportunity to get some shots. It may not be the biggest fair but it has real charm and plenty to keep you occupied and enjoying yourself for hours.

Our first stop had to be food, we walked the full line of food trailers to the very end and found a nice little Italian sausage place. Home made, fresh, spicy Italian sausage and yes, it was as good as it looks.

After we had our breakfast it was time to take a look around and see what the fair had to offer. Llama's have to be one of the most unusual looking animals I've seen, kind of half way between a Camel and a Sheep with the weirdest looking teeth.

 +Linda Dean has always been a horse lover so the fair was a real treat for her. She got to spend some time saying hello to the ponies before we headed into the 4H small animal barn.

The 4H small animal barn is a great way for kids to show off their pets and enter them into friendly competition. We keep guinea pigs ourselves so we had an interest in seeing some of the animals on display and there was some real cute guinea pigs and bunnies on display.

Apparently we looked very suspicious to the pigeon below. I have no idea what kind of pigeon this is but the coloring is beautiful, I'm used to the normal everyday grey and white pigeons you see around cities.

This next image was taken by +Linda Dean and is one of the cutest bunny pics. It really does look like it came straight from a Disney movie and Linda captured it perfectly.

Heading back outside we encountered a hay wagon giving people rides around the fairgrounds. It was drawn by two of the most friendly draft horses, they had beautiful coloring and were very curious about us.

And that's about it for part 1 of the Benton County Fair posts, I will post part 2 tomorrow with images from the animal judging.