Annual Viset to the County Fair

    It is Fair Time!

    Every year, our town hosts a county fair with rides, contests, animal showings, games and exhibits. As a family we look at the newspaper -- find the events that we enjoy best and decide which day to attend. This year, we took some friends with us.     

   

We went the last day so we were able to try all the rides we wanted for a lot cheaper. 

I love our little county fair, it reminds me of the county fair in "Little House on the Prairie"

    The fair brings this huge slide in every year and it's a favorite of ours. My little brother took a while to warm up to it, but he loves it now. He tried to go on his own a few times before actually pushing off the platform, but he does it by himself now.

We look really excited in this picture but that's because the ride hasn't started yet. 

After the ride was over we both looked a bit sick.

    

    Today we got to see the craft show, the tractor pull, the lama showing and the goat costume contest. We were going to stay for the round up, but it just got to hot and we got too tired.

Some of the rides are just a little too loud :)

    This brother of mine just does not like the rides that spin or go in circles and unfortunately, there are a lot of those at the fair. He decided to save up his rides and do the bungee jump instead. He got harnessed in and did some crazy-high jumps on this fun trampoline thing.
    He loved it!

    Here we are. We found the largest wheel we could and got a picture with it. It was a grand day. Goodbye County-Fair-2011, we will catch you next year.

Picking Raspberries in the Fog

 

    We have friends in town this week. It's one of the best times to visit the farm because there's a lot going on. One thing that July always brings is red raspberries, and this morning we were picking them in the fog. It was a beautiful morning.

    We pick the raspberries into buckets that we belt around our waists. That's a trick we learned frm the You-pick blueberry farm just down the road. Maybe we'll have our onw blueberry plants some day too.  

    

    We weren't just picking raspberries this morning though. My brother had a bucket of soapy water belted to his waist as well as a picking bucket. The soapy water wasn't for hand washing, it was for Japanese Beetle drowning. The soap kills them quickly.

   
    Japanese Beetles eat our raspberry leaves and do all kinds of damage so we pick them off our plants and kill them whenever we can. They are jumpy in the heat, but in the morning they are lethargic and easy to catch. 

   I think the boys picked more beetles than berries this morning :)

   Oh well -- a country life for me!