» State Fair

Victories at the Michigan State Fair

Annette Johnston — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:11:42 +0000

I had great success this year at our state fair. It is particularly nice, because this may be the last year for the state fair here in Michigan, due to budget problems. Lambchop’s fleece won the handspinning competition, and he took Reserve Champion of the whole show! Liam’s fleece won 2nd place in the coarse wool category, and Lassie took 3rd in her medium wool class. Her twin Lucky got 4th place. I talked to the judge and he really liked Lambchop’s and Liam’s fleeces.
Also, my basket of 10 dried gourds won first place, as did my dill, mini Indian corn, and mini pumpkins. My peck basket of veggies took 2nd place. So it was a very successful fair. Although there were lots of sheep fleeces entered, there were very few vegetable entries. Many people thought the fair was canceled for this year, so maybe that explains the low turnout.
Come see my exhibits at the Michigan State Fair! They are all located in the building near the Coliseum, near the Circle of Life exhibit.

Victories at the Michigan State Fair

Annette Johnston — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:49:11 +0000

Well, it is another successful State Fair for Frolic Farm! I won the mini Indian corn and the eggplant, took 2nd with my peck basket of vegetables, 3rd with my dill. There were a lot fewer entries than in previous years. I hope it picks up again next year. My sheep fleeces did very well again too, and had lots of competition. Lambchop only took 2nd in the handspinning competition, however. Lucky Lamb won her medium wool, natural colored class, while her sister Lassie took 6th.

Next year, I’ll enter dried gourds too, since they are growing so well this year.

Be sure to go and check out the Michigan State Fair. Kids especially like it, but it’s fun for all ages!

Michigan Fiber Festival is a Big Success!

Annette Johnston — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:47:00 +0000

I attended the Michigan Fiber Festival last week with several friends, and had a wonderful time! We took classes in wet felting, and made items that turned out great. We each made a basket too. I practiced my carding techniques; I brought a washed fleece (from Liam the Icelandic sheep), and worked on carding it. I plan to do more felting with it this fall and winter. We camped at the festival grounds, at the Allegan County Fairgrounds. I should have worn more insect repellant though; I now have mosquito bites on top of my mosquito bites!! Oh well.

I entered a felted picture in their fiber arts competition, and got honorable mention. For my first attempt, I was pleased.

Now it’s time for the Michigan State Fair. I’ll let you know next week how my entries do. I’m entering my usual; 3 fleeces, dill, Indian corn, eggplant, and peck basket of veggies.

Please write and let me know if you go to the Michigan State Fair, and if you saw my entries. The vegetables are near the Miracle of Life exhibit. The fleeces are in the sheep barn, which has been combined with the cattle barn near the Coliseum. Mine will be the ones with the blue ribbons! (I hope). Listed as Annette in Ira Michigan.

Mysterious Gourd Disappearance

Annette Johnston — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:12:03 +0000

It’s fall harvest time at Frolic Farm here in Michigan, so we picked all of the remaining gourds and stored them in my little red wagon in my garage. There were several nice large gourds that I planned to dry out and enter in the State Fair next August, plus assorted small gourds for decorations. The next day, I happened to glance at the wagon, and noticed that all of the nice large gourds were gone! Who could have broken into my garage and stolen them? Quite a mystery. Then I thought of Kandi, my golden retriever, who likes to pick things up that don’t belong to her. Sure enough, my beautiful gourds were spread out all over my back yard, with Kandi-sized tooth marks ruining them. She left all of the small gourds alone, and just went for the nice ones. When confronted with the evidence, Kandi was sorry she had acted up. She is so sweet-natured, that I can’t stay mad at her long. It looks like I won’t be showing gourds at the State Fair next summer.

Be sure to put your comments in below. I would like to hear about your dog experiences too.

More Victories at the State Fair

Annette Johnston — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:19:23 +0000

When I went to pick up my entries on Labor Day, I was pleased to see how well Lucky’s and Lassie’s fleeces had done in their medium wool, natural colored fleece competition. Lucky got 2nd place, and Lassie got 4th! Lambchop’s fleece, although he won the handspinning competition with a gorgeous 12lb fleece, did not win Grand Champion. He was a little disappointed, and felt that politics had once again entered in. My results were pretty much the same as last year, except Lassie’s fleece has improved apparently.

I had a really nice time at the State Fair. I especially enjoyed the Barnyard Act with a well-trained border collie doing tricks, and demonstrations of goat milking. They had a cute piglet too that a child fed with a bottle.

I am not getting a pig, although they are cute when little. I just don’t like the smell, and they root so much that you need really good fencing. Too much trouble. I have my hands full with my geese that keep escaping, and the donkey that rubs against the fence so hard she pops the staples right out of the post.

Victories at Michigan State Fair

Annette Johnston — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:08:15 +0000

Exciting news from the State Fair – my mini Indian corn took first place, and my basket of gourdsÂ and my dill display both took second.Â The three sheep fleeces hadn’t been judged yet, when I went toÂ check onÂ them, but I have it on good authority that Lambchop’s fleece won the handspinning competition!Â I will let you know how Lucky’s and Lassie’s fleeces do, when I go to pick them up after Labor Day.

I do have to confess, however, that there was limited competition in the mini Indian corn category.Â Â Actually, mine was the only entry!Â I had 6 perfect little Indian corn ears on a tray though, and am confident they would have won even with lots of other entries.

One little boy entered 3 full size Indian corn, and the judges gave him second place, even though his was the only entry!!

The dried gourd display consisted of 10 large dried gourds from last year’s crop.Â Mine looked good, but I noticed the other entries had a wider variety of gourds.Â So I decided to jazz mine up with a large red bow on the basket to make it look cuter.Â The bow must have worked its magic for me to get second place.

I could tell my dill wouldn’t win first place, looking at one of the other entriesÂ that was gigantic.Â I don’t know how they grew such nice dill plants this year, with no rain.Â I had watered and fertilized mine repeatedly, but Mother Nature just didn’t cooperate.Â My 3 dill plants looked good, mounted on a board as required, but I was very pleased to get second with some of the other entries looking just as good as mine.Â There were 6 entries in the class.

It is fun to enter the State Fair, and I do enjoy going to the fair too.Â The livestock entries seem as popular as ever, but the agricultural products are really declining.Â Many categories have no entries at all.Â I do my part to keep the tradition going.