Sunday, August 9, 2015

Fun at the Indiana State Fair

This summer--more like this entire year--has FLOWN by. I'm not sure where it has gone. One moment it was New Years and it seemed like I blinked and now summer is almost over. August means it's state fair time in Indiana. In Washington, our state fair isn't until September. We also didn't start school until the day after Labor Day, less than a week before we hauled cows in for the state 4-H fair. So, the first day or two of school usually went a little something like this:

"Hi, I'm Kimmi. So, I'm going to be gone for 5 days starting this Friday (this was on Tuesday...) to show my cows at the Puyallup Fair (our state fair)."

Teacher (who usually didn't know anything about farming): "What? Wait, did you say you have cows? What are you doing? What?"

Haha, if nothing else, they learned a thing or two about dairy cows...

Fast forward more than a decade and I'm no longer the 4-H kid in the show ring leading the cows (although I wish I was! I'm sure I could pass for being 17, right?!). My role at the state fair has changed a bit. I'm there a lot, but mostly for meetings with livestock associations/farmers, to work our booth (and talk about cows!) and spend time with my producers in the barn. All I wanted in college was a good industry job. I never thought I would be this involved. I wouldn't trade it though!

Friday was the first day of the fair. I was working the 3-9 shift at our booth, so I skipped the 6:30 a.m. Ham Breakfast, brought to you by Indiana's Pork Producers, and the opening ceremony. I had a 10 a.m. meeting with one of my livestock groups and spent the rest of the day before 3 p.m. working with one of my producers to finish up his livestock certification.

I had a few minutes to have some fun with the photo booth in the Glass Barn (brought to you by Indiana's soybean farmers). If you haven't checked this out, this is a must see! I love pictures and had so much fun with this!

This is my kind of photo booth!

Beef cows are in the barns this week, but Purdue does have a few dairy cows in the mix that they use for the 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. milking demonstrations in the cattle barn. They also have a Pet-a-Calf area where you can see each of the six major breeds of dairy cows. This is one of my favorite spots. This is also one of the best places for people watching on the fairgrounds. I'm so entertained! Ha!

Indiana's Family of Farmers has signs all around the fairgrounds encouraging people to take a selfie with one of the farmer cut outs, or a real farmer. What about a cow and dairy princess selfie? I like it!


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