Alaska State Fair 2015, Plus other so-so happenings

So, this year we decided to hit the Alaska State Fair again.  We don't go every year cuz it's mostly just  ol' same ol' thing every year, with slight variations.  So every year we basically decide at the last minute whether or not we want to go, depending on if we have time to go, or if we are just plain in the mood for it.  This time we went because Chuck had the day off work and because the weather was nice.  But we could only stay for a few hours cuz Chuck had to go to a church budget meeting that evening.  So we got there when they opened at noon, and frankly, it was more than okay that we had to leave when we left because, by that time, we were pretty much ready to leave anyway, although there were a few shows that I wanted to see but didn't have time for.  We both regretted that we totally missed the rhubarb demonstration, but luckily the lady was still there when we got there, and we got to talk to her.  She was giving demonstrations on what to do with rhubarb besides making the usual pies and jams and she had some rhubarb pilaf made up, which was pretty good.  She asked me what I do with my rhubarb and I told her "the usual pie, jam, rhubarb crisp, and parfaits".  She never heard of rhubarb parfaits before, so she gave me her email address so I could send her the recipe.  Anyhoo, it was fun and interesting talking to her.

Anyhoo, after entering the gate, this is the first thing of interest I saw:

The Haunted House maze

It's nothing new; it's there every year (no, I have never been in there).  But I liked the skeleton.  Plus, I'm in "Halloween mode".

BTW, I forgot to bring my camera to the fair, so I had to make Chuck take this picture with his phone, as well as some others.  Since he sighs and snaps his tongue every time I ask him to take a picture of something, I didn't get very many pictures.

Then we walked past something new:

These kids were playing inside these huge balls over a pool of water.  It looked like a lot of fun. That would be a great fun way to burn a ton of calories!  Wish I had something like it at home!  I wonder if they got hot inside those balls?

Then of course, Chuck had to get some "joe" at the first coffee joint he found.  While we were waiting for his order, this "life form" appeared out of nowhere:

This picture doesn't do him justice, and we only got a picture from behind him because it would've been rude to take a picture of him if he saw us doing it.  But anyway, he was wearing a hat with big sheep horns on it, no shirt, and his "pants" were made by wrapping a fleece blanket around his legs.  And he was walking around with a cane/staff.  I shudder to think of what might (not) be under that blanket and hoped I wouldn't be around if it should slip and fall off.  As they say, for some reason, the Fair always brings the weirdest people out of the woodwork.  Some people seem to think the Fair is a free license to bring their weirdness out in public.  And anything goes.  But on the other hand, some people have another perspective, and that is that some people just like to have fun and try to make the Fair more interesting.

We saw plenty of "interesting" people, but I just tried to ignore them.  

One of the yearly variations is what they put in the Exhibition Hall.  This year they had reptiles.  I was interested to go in there, but I knew that reptile exhibitions ALWAYS come with spiders.  I don't know why.  Spiders are not reptiles so why do they always insist that they go together? Can't they ever just have a reptile exhibit, with just reptiles (for people like me)? So at the entrance, I asked the ladies if there were any big spiders in there, and she told me exactly where I could find them.  And we decided to forego the reptile exhibition. I don't wanna see the reptiles THAT bad.

In another building they had some exotic birds on display.  They had some pretty cool ones.  I was particularly interested in this vulture:

.......especially since I've entered the Halloween mode. He's beautiful and ugly at the same time.  I've never seen a vulture before, except for the ones in the Looney Tunes cartoons (does that even count?).  I really wish I could find some fake ones to use for Halloween, but I can never find any.  And I wish Stampin' Up! would come out with a vulture stamp!  (hint-hint for Tammie!)

Let's see, what else?  Oh yeah, Chuck wanted to see the antique tractor pull.

He was mostly interested in the Allis Chalmers tractor cuz that was the kind of tractor his dad had.  (Chuck's brother is currently refurbishing it and getting it running again.)

Then of course we went through the usual animal exhibits (cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys) followed by the vegetable displays, where you would find the giant veggies.  Here is a giant cabbage weighing 107 pounds:

I was hoping to see some giant pumpkins, but typically people that enter their pumpkins wait until the last few days of the Fair to enter them, in hopes of their pumpkins gaining as much weight as possible.  Since we were there in the first week of the Fair, there weren't any pumpkins there yet.  :-(

Here is a picture of a big sasquatch carved out of wood.  I did not ask Chuck to take this picture.

Can you believe they were charging $1 just to stand next to it so someone can take your picture with it?  Sheesh.  Um, I think we'll just take a picture of it by itself.  For free. 

Not that $1 is a lot of money....

Another thing I like to do at the Fair is look at the quilts that people enter (saw some pretty neat Halloween ones!), but I didn't ask Chuck to get any pictures of those. It just wasn't worth enduring the sighing and tongue snapping. I also didn't get a picture of the food we chose to eat.  Normally we bring our own food, but this time we were too lazy to pack food, so we ended up buying something.  I had a reindeer hot dog, piled high with sauerkraut, onions, and peppers.  I felt like "blech" after I ate it.  I guess I'm just not used to eating that kind of food anymore.  And then we chowed down a whole bag of Kettle Korn.  Luckily we brought our own water, so that alone probably saved us about $4000 dollars.

Anyhoo, other than the Fair, just the same ol' boring stuff is going on.  We woke up to our first frost already a couple days ago, so I harvested the rest of my rhubarb.

After getting it all washed and cut, I had enough to make 4 pies, or 12 batches of parfaits (my new favorite).  Steph wants me to bring her some rhubarb, but I think I might be too selfish to give her any.  We are planning to go visit her next weekend, so I'll do better than bring her some rhubarb.  One of my rhubarb plants desperately needs to be thinned, so I'm going to bring her part of my rhubarb plant.  Then she can grow her own. Not only to help ME out, but to also present her with a housewarming gift (they are buying their first house and we are going to help them move in - that'll be another blog post for sure!)  Although, I SUPPOSE I might bring her enough to make at least one pie - to hold her over for this winter.  How generous of me!  :-)

So, now that my rhubarb is out of the way, I still need to pull all my carrots, even though they're  not finished yet - but I'll get SOMEthing out of them.  And I think I'll have to pull all my tomatoes, even though 80% of them are still green.  Sigh.......!

And then there's my corn, which also still needs more time.  I don't think I'm going to plant corn next year.

My acorn squash:

...is just now starting to get squashes on them.  Really?  Just now when the first frost is here?  See what the frost did to the leaves?

all wilted

I don't think I can count on those baby squashes growing into anything large and edible.  But I shouldn't be too disappointed.  After all, those plants were given to us second-hand, and they were obviously planted too late in the season by whoever started the seeds.  Yeah, I'm disappointed, but I really shouldn't be.  Maybe next year I can try planting some again.

Here is something else that happened this week:  an older retired couple from my hometown congregation (Marshfield, WI) were traveling up here, just as a fun trip, and they were coming through Wasilla, so we invited them over for lunch after worship services.  I have to admit that I didn't really know them very well.  We've briefly met them in the past, but when we went home last time, they weren't there, and I couldn't remember who they were when people were talking to us about them coming up here.  So when we heard that they were gonna meet us in church on Sunday, I had to call my mom and ask her "what do they look like"?  Anyhoo, we had them over and got re(acquainted) with them over lunch, and next time we go home, at least I'll know who they are.  After we ate, we took them to Hatcher Pass.

Here they are in Hatcher Pass with the Valley in the background:

Peggy and Ken

It felt very cold up there, as would be normal, since it was a high elevation.  But while we were up there, it actually started to SNOW!  Peggy was smart enough to bring her winter coat.

Here is a picture of me and Chuck.  I was freezing and silently anticipated hiking back to the car.

BTW, today is Chuck's birthday!  He is 48!

Happy Birthday, my love!

So this week I will be busy "wrapping up" my garden, and getting ready to go to Fairbanks.  I don't think I"ll have anything exciting to blog about until after we get back from that exciting trip.  Unless I catch one of my cats doing fancy cartwheels.....but I doubt that's gonna happen.

See ya next time!