What's Happening at the Fair?

What a great week-end for the Dollars for Scholars events! With rain showers all week and a pretty wet day on Friday we were all very happy when the sun came out and continued to shine all Saturday afternoon.

Spectators enjoyed a beautiful assortment of cars and trucks at the Rods and Reels Rod Run Show. Many bright colored flashy cars, a few high performance fast cars, plus a large group of antique cars and trucks were lined up in the fairgrounds park.

Many big sturgeon were brought in to be measured for the Sturgeon Derby. There were numerous raffle prizes donated to the events by many very generous people and businesses. The barbecue dinner was great and the strawberry shortcakes were delicious. It was a wonderful event to attend and many lucky people went home with great prizes.

I was looking forward all day to the 3:30 p.m. raffle drawing that would be taking place on the entertainment stage. Our goal was to have the new bleachers completed for this event and we succeeded! It was great to see people fill all the seats on the new bleachers.

With this event over we will continue with our preparations for the Fair in August. At the top of our to do list: many new signs need to be made for the buildings, we have some lights to replace that are going to be hard to reach and it’s time to rebuild the stalls for the sheep, goat and pigs. Lots of fun stuff to do!

The Fair garden is growing great, I am using some cedar shavings around the edges to keep the bugs off the plants and it seems to be working. In my last week’s column I mentioned I would like to grow some giant pumpkins. I am happy to report Gary Marzolino/ Fern Hill Nursery in Cathlamet, generously donated giant pumpkin, sunflower and artichoke starts to plant in the fair garden. Thank you, Gary!

Another big project was finished last week, Ed Stevens renovated the very long flower bed that is on the side of the cow barn. There seems to be an infestation of horsetail that will not quit growing in that flower bed. Ed cleaned the horse tails out of the flower bed again, then doubled up the typar material we use to control weeds around the flowers. We hope the extra thickness will keep the horsetails under control! The flowers and roses in that bed are blooming already!

The book and rummage sale will be open this Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We have boxes and boxes of items for your dog. All colors, sizes and kinds of collars and leads, dog toys galore, dog treats, brushes, dog dishes and numerous other dog items, even tooth paste for dogs! We have hundreds of books, all kinds of household items and antique collectibles too. Stop in, visit and shop. All proceeds support and maintain your Wahkiakum County Fair. You can also purchase raffle tickets for a cord of firewood at the sale for $1 a ticket. The drawing will be held August 18 during the Wahkiakum County Fair.

If you need to gain access to the Fairgrounds contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 560-0371 or you can call the Fairgrounds Office at 360-795-3480 and leave a message.

The next Wahkiakum County Fair Advisory Board meeting will be held on June 13 at 7 p.m. at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds in Skamokawa. The public is always welcome to attend.