What's Happening at the Fair?

Many people attended the Wahkiakum County Fair this year, but on the last day, people came from our county and beyond to stand in line and be served a plate of barbecued Alaskan caught salmon. We enjoy preparing this delicious dinner for our fair visitors and are happy to see our community support this important fund raiser for the fair. This dinner was possible because of the generosity of Art Pedersen and E&E Foods. Art caught the salmon in Alaska, then delivered the fish to be processed to E&E Foods. Art donated the salmon, E&E Foods donated the cost of processing the salmon. Thank you, Art and E&E Foods for your generous donation and your continued support of the Wahkiakum County Fair.

We had some interesting demonstrations to watch in the T-Building during our Fair. Arlene Stefan volunteered to demonstrate quilting techniques and answer questions about starting a quilt. MaryAnn Nelson volunteered to show T-building visitors a spinning demonstration. Vicki DaVall demonstrated easy and intricate sewing stitches and Kyla Gribskov demonstrated some pretty tatting patterns. Thank you all for sharing your talents! I know you inspired some of our fair visitors to give some new projects a try. Maybe we will see their projects exhibited at our 2013 fair.

The weather has been sunny and very hot during our last two fairs. To keep the air temperature cooler in the small animal barns we are planning to install ceiling fans and windows that can be opened. I will get suggestions from the Barn Superintendents on where to place the windows and fans so they are installed in just the right place to help get the ventilation where it is needed in these buildings. We can hope for a cooler 2013 fair but we will be prepared for another hot one!

We have an old brush cutter attachment that we have used almost beyond its usefulness. Fair board member Bill Chamberlain noticed a few of the reasons this old machine was so ornery to use and fixed them. Thank you, Bill for giving our old brush cutter some very much needed attention and adjustments!

Planning our fair each year involves working with many Livestock & Pet Superintendent volunteers. The duties of Livestock & Pet Superintendents include finding and encouraging exhibitors to bring their animals, spending many hours decorating, working with the judges during the livestock and pet shows and reminding the exhibitors they need to keep the animal areas looking nice all three days of Fair. Thank you for the many hours you volunteer each year; Patty and Gordon Calvert, Jim Moten, Ursula Petralia, Lore Twiet, Robert Rich, Shawn Deal, Kay Walters, Patty Dursteler, Deb Gribskov and Naidie Everdell.

The Fairgrounds is open for limited hours in September. If you need to gain access to the fairgrounds contact Manager Becky Ledtke at 560-0371, or you can call 360-795-3480 and leave a message on the fairgrounds answering machine.

The next Wahkiakum County Fair Board meeting is October 10, 7 p.m., T-Building, at the fairgrounds in Skamokawa. The public is welcome to attend.