What's Happening at the Fair? October 13, 2011

We are starting our Fairgrounds winterization projects! A huge thanks to Ed Stevens, Mark Crary, Barbara Clark and Georgie Billings for moving our big freezers, refrigerators, ice machine, ice cream freezer and stoves out of the food booth and onto the entertainment stage. Our new stage built by Contractor Mark Crary can hold the weight of these appliances because Mark used 2” by 10” floor joists to support the floor. We will hope for a dry winter but we are getting prepared for a wet one. The stage will be the new high and dry home for our appliances until springtime. One more project off my list!

Val Rowe and her horse 4-H Club members spent several hours riding last Thursday in our covered arena. This group is from South Bend and loves to ride in our covered arena when the rainy season starts. Their arena in South Bend isn’t covered so they trailer their horses over KM Mountain to ours. Val and I discussed a new fund raising event. We will be talking with our local horse 4-H clubs to see if they would like to be involved and get some plans together for a possible spring event.

It’s nice to have a volunteer help at the fairgrounds that is also a computer technician. Bryan (my son) patiently answers my “what is this” questions, fixes my fair computer problems and connects all the new machines I bring to the fairgrounds. He just completed a full system backup of the fair computer files onto an external hard drive. We store this hard drive off the fairgrounds so we have a backup of our records. Bryan also donated a network cable and set up our network printer, this was a surplus item I acquired from the courthouse. It prints amazingly fast. Thanks Bryan for volunteering your time and sharing your skills to keep the Fair office machines connected and working.

Volunteer Ed Stevens has the park ready for high water and winter. The big logs that could float into the tide gate area have been stacked up in a pile. The weight of the logs all piled together will keep them from floating and causing problems.

We had a bonfire at the fairgrounds! Sunday we were able to burn up our brush pile out in the fairgrounds park. Ed also cut some lower hanging limbs off some trees, these improvement to the campsites made the park look great.

It’s time to think about a Fair theme for 2012! The whole Fairgrounds will be decorated to fit the theme that is selected. Email your theme ideas to: wahkiakumfair@centurytel.net. In early 2012 we will be choosing the Fair theme, if we pick the one you submitted, you will receive two fair passes and two Wahkiakum County Fair T-shirts. Last year's theme was “Country Pride, County Wide.” You can send me one or a hundred theme ideas!

Coming up next month we will hold the Wahkiakum County Fair board’s Turkey Bingo! This is a fun night for all ages and you just might win your Thanksgiving turkey at the bingo. Keep reading this column for the date and details.

The fair office is open by appointment only. If you need to gain access to the fairgrounds contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 360-560-0371 or 795-3480 and leave a message.

The next Wahkiakum County Fair Board meeting is November 9, 7 p.m., at the River Street meeting room in Cathlamet. The public is always welcome to attend.