Fair puts organizational skills to the test

The Cumberland Fair is only 4 days away, well 5 days for the regular folk. For my 4-H kids, every BODY and every THING related to the fair has to be at the fairgrounds on Saturday.

* Projects for the 4-H Exhibit Hall. There are about 24 projects between the two girls, including posters, crafts and baked goods. It's always a challenge to make sure everything arrives unmolested during the car ride to the fairgrounds (i.e., no crushed pies, fairy wings don't break off the craft project, posters don't get bent or torn, etc.).

* The Club Display and Parade Float. The girls served on their club's committee for both the display and the parade float again this year. That has meant we've had to do some extra coordination with other busy families to find time for the kids to plan and complete their work before Saturday. So far so good on that front. The kids are (thankfully) nearly done with both projects and Fino helped them make the framing easy to disassemble and re-assemble for easy transport.

* The pigs. We do not own a livestock trailer and we need one to transport about 520 pounds of pig (each weigh about 260 pounds right now). We just confirmed plans with a friend to come to our house on Saturday to pick up the pigs to bring them to the fairgrounds. I was sweating how this was going to work out and am grateful for "Mr. & Mrs. G." for making the trek over to help us out!

* The Camper. We decided this year to camp at the fairgrounds, mainly because L. has to be around to feed the pigs every day (twice a day). We've coordinated a camper rental with a friend (thanks Meg!) and have plans to pick it up Friday.

Those are the highlights. I won't bore you with the details of trying to figure out to pack for a week at the fairgrounds for us, and the pigs. Oh, and make sure we have our neighbors on board to feed our chickens and cats while we're at the fair. And organizing my work at the office for my time away is turning out to be no so small challenge as well.

Even though I am putting my organizational skills to the ultimate test in pulling all this off in the next few days (and I'm not so naive to think everything will happen as I've planned), the kids are really looking forward to the fair and having fun with all the preparations. And that matters to me and Fino. I'm not sure there would be any other reason in the world I'd juggle the sort of schedule and To Do List I've got right now if it were for anyone else, no matter how much money they offered to pay me to do it!

The girls' 4-H club display has a service theme with a replica of the 4-H kitchen window. The club members volunteer in the kitchen during Cumberland Fair week and they all love it.

The pigs are getting restless and the message on the pig pen door L. wrote recently sums up her experience with them the past couple of weeks, "crazy pigs live here."

The 4-H leader from L.'s pig club suggested the kids 'decorate' their animal's stalls at the fairgrounds. L. loved this idea and enthusiastically got to work on her personalized decorations to hang in her pigs' stall.

Our living room is overrun with projects in various stages of completion that are heading to the fairgrounds on Saturday (exhibit hall entries are judged the day before the fair opens).

One of my favorite fair prep activities is G.'s baking. She's been experimenting with a variety of recipes this summer and has been baking even more the past couple of weeks to refine her choices for the fair (and I've got the extra poundage to prove she's been working on this project a lot!). The cinnamon buns she made were delicious, although I'm not sure they'll be making the final cut. She's leaning toward her apple pie (with crumble) recipe along with a fudge and cookie recipe for her three baking entries this year.