FAIR WEATHER

It’s August and time for the annual Madison County Fair which takes place just two blocks from our house.

This year the weather was perfect, low 80’s with a light breeze.  We went in the morning while the crowds were still small and the food was fresh.

 

No carnival rides--with safety standards open to interpretation and sketchy operators--this year.  Almost everything was bouncy.

 The grandson was in competition with a young lady in the next lane to run against a bungee to slam balls into a hoop.

 She was a serious challenger!

 My favorite is always the barns with the 4-H animals.

 There were cages and cages of champion chickens of every kind.

 There were bunnies and goats…

 …and ponies and donkeys, all under the watchful care of junior owners.

 Granddaughter was making friends with a shaggy baby yak.

 My very favorites are the dairy cows.  I entered prize-winning heifers from my mom and dad’s herd when I was a youngster.  One year our pickup truck was unavailable when it came time to take my girl to town.  So mom and I took the back seat out of our car, covered the floor with spud sacks and loaded the calf in.  She loved putting her nose out the window to sniff the fields of alfalfa and wheat as we drove.

 In the small indoor arena an auction was going on to sell the show animals.  After months of work and grooming the young farmers were cashing in.  This sheep went for almost $300.

 This champion steer brought enough money to pay for a new car.  After his owner subtracts his investment of purchase, supplies, feed and time he may have enough to buy another calf and a new pair of boots.

 Our next stop was the pig barn.

 They were also getting groomed for their turn in the auction ring.

 Just don’t say “bacon” or “sausage.”  It’s difficult enough for some of these young people to give up their animals after months of care and concern.

 From there we went through the home crafts,

The art and photo entries,

 Checked out the antique tractors…

 …and the vintage cars.

 After all that we had to go back to the food booths and get some nourishment.  Nothing like deep fried scones with honey-butter to finish off a visit to the fair.

MARBLES AND A COWBOY

Thought I'd take a moment to show off a couple of my latest watercolors.  The cold and snow is an incentive to stay inside and work on projects in a warm place.

This is "Shiny Things Three."  It's my third effort at reproducing glass and silver in watercolor.  It surprised even me on how the surfaces appear reflective even though it is just pigment on paper.

Here is a tighter shot of the 11 inch wide and 14 inch high one-of-a-kind painting.  "Shiny Things One" is still available for purchase but "Shiny Things Two" has been sold.

The process began with a sketch on Arches 140 cold press paper.  The big challenge was keeping the marble shapes round.  I masked out the places I wanted to remain white and ran a loose wash of primary colors over the rest.

Then it was a matter of slowly reproducing something similar to my reference photos using layers of transparent washes.

This is called, "Cowboy Poet."   It is a portrait of Bill Hirschi, our friend and neighbor, who manages herds of angus cattle by profession but also can entertain with his original poetry of life in the American West.

For a sample of his work, follow this link:

Both paintings and many more can be found on my Etsy Site--

Watercolors by Leenie

PLAYING FAIR

If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair.  Because five minutes at the fair, you’ll be going, ‘you know, we’re alright. We are dang near royalty’.—Jeff Foxworthy

 I don’t know what it is about a state fair that brings out all the unreal weirdos, but it sure makes for some first-class people watching.  We wondered if it was Look Like a Loony Day and we missed the memo.  I’d show you some samples but there were too many and, frankly, I was afraid to be caught taking their pictures.

 Our group love to see the farm animals so we proceeded directly to the barns.  Grandson, JD, was kind enough to oblige when I asked him to pose with the poultry.

 Having grown up on a dairy farm I always have to check out the big Holsteins.

 JD kinda liked the little white pony.

 But he wasn’t so sure about the BIG ponies.

After cruising through some of the displays, we progressed on to the Fair Food.

 Deep fried is okay, but this might be taking it to extremes.

 JD wanted something cold and green.

 This was the perfect solution.

 Cold and green sounded good to me, too.  I went for my favorite, Fresh Lime Freeze.

 Now that’s what I’m talking about!

 One of the top sellers at our fair is the Tiger Ears sold to raise money for the Boy Scouts.

 JD’s mom needed help with this one.  I was glad to assist.

 DH returned with a Smoked Turkey Leg.

 It was still sizzling so it was consume with caution.

 The weather was muggy hot, and mom and dad and grandma and grandpa were tired, so we didn’t tell JD about what else could be done at a state fair.   He’ll get plenty of chances to pay money to spin until he barfs in the coming years.

GUNFIGHT BY THE OLD COW CORRAL

That afternoon we got off the school bus to find our parents were gone to town to run errands.   Town was an hour away and the errands almost always took several hours.  So my brother and I had the place to ourselves with a list of chores to do before the evening milking.

Of course the thing to do when confronted with a list of unpleasant duties is to discover countless, pointless activities to fill the allotted time. 

After reading the comics in the paper we split up to dawdle in our own individual ways.  Brother settled down to watch “Rocky and Bullwinkle” in black and white on our old television.

I somehow ended up contemplating a large brown paper shopping bag.  If the bag could hold several pounds of groceries could it hold several quarts of water?  How long would it hold the water? And if it held the water would I be able to drop it off the roof of the house and make a big splash?

There was already a ladder propped against the house because of some on-going roof repairs so it was not too difficult to carry a pitcher of water and a paper shopping bag to edge of the roof. 

This time I didn’t fall.  Not like the time I fell off the snow covered shop roof and not like the time I fell in the hole where the new basement would be when I tried to walk the two by four that held the concrete forms in place.

No, this time I made it to the edge over the door, filled the bag with water and at the same time called loudly for Brother to come outside to see what I had.  Fortunately he quickly poked his head out because the bag of water had reached its saturation point.  I let it fly and missed Brother but the splash still got him wet.

He let out a yell and ducked inside.  I scrambled down the ladder and ran for cover but caught a glimpse of Brother coming after me with a bucket of water. I almost made it to the dairy barn before he drenched me. 

I called him a name that I knew would rile him up, ran into the barn and had the hose on just as he followed me in the door.

 Now we were both soaked.  I could defend the whole wash room of our cinder brick barn with the hose but the milking area had a hose too.  He slipped around through the back and got me before I could duck behind the bulk tank. We battled fiercely and yet held our positions.

Posing beside our dairy barn with my 4-H heifer.

I don’t remember who finally called a truce but I do remember the calendar on the wall and a box of milk filters received collateral damage.

Since the weather was warmish we didn’t bother to change into dry clothes and simply went about our duties to prepare for milking time.  Brother started setting up the milking machines and I called the dog and went to get the cows.

A REAL FARMER

On the previous post my friend, Anzu, commented she wanted to see the guy who went with the farm woman.  So to give equal time to my dad here is a post about the farmer.

If you’re looking for a photo of a real farmer, check out this one:

When the home town newspaper needed a picture of a farmer out standing in his field, they asked my dad to show off his wheat crop.

Here’s a photo I took of Dad at work in our barn milking cows.

To be fair to Mom this is one of Dad geared up for work in the winter.  Um, Dad, the calves are getting into the hay stack.

Dad had a real soft spot in his heart for animals.  Bingo, the cow dog, loved Dad with jealous passion to the point of climbing on his lap when he paid too much attention to cats like the black one there on the sofa.

Most visits to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm included a ride on the tractor.

While he was still healthy, Dad took anyone who was willing to his favorite fishing spots.

So, although some artists have depicted farmers and their wives like this…

My favorite farmers look like this.