More pictures from the fair

The weather this year for the county fair has been ideal. We have not had the extreme heat of some past fairs.

Their rides are different this year. My guess is that there is a new carnival ride company.

 I always check out the old tractors. My interest is probably mostly due to family. My grandfather and his two sons both were in the farm implement business and my grandfather and one uncle sold John Deere tractors for many years. They probably sold tractors like this model A tractor, which was one of the oldest tractors in the retired iron building. They must have been disappointed that I had no interest in things mechanical because that was their life. My uncle bought and restored old farm steam engines and once made a miniature steam engine that worked. (There is a picture of a steam engine on my uncle's farm on the Internet. I cannot be sure that it was one he owned.)

Showing animals is one of the main activities at the fair.

 I did not understand the raffle of a demolition-derby car.

There were more food booths this year than I remember from the past.  I recognized this food booth as the booth that had been Martin's. Although the owners of Martin's Restaurant sold the restaurant, they kept the booth. I asked why and was told that the return on effort was higher for the booth than for the restaurant.

 South of the Commercial Building there were many storage buildings and gazebos for sale. I do not recall that from past fairs.

 While in the Commercial Building I asked the lady at the Ivy Tech booth if there was any possibility that Ivy Tech might be expanding to Rensselaer. She said, "No." The booming economy has cut community college enrollments so there are no thoughts of opening anything new at this time. Community college enrollment rises when the economy is bad and drops when it is good.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights were rodeo nights at the Grandstand. This year there are eight nights of grandstand entertainment. In some previous years the Fair Board booked a big name entertainer but did not this year. I heard that they found that the big name entertainment brought very few additional people to the fair.

 The free stage is always fun. The quality of acts varies. In the past I have seen both very poor acts/music and some very good musicians.

This year the fair has added an extra day. In the past the fair ran Saturday to Friday, with the next Saturday the day that entries were released and everything closed down. This year parts of the fair will run through Saturday. Also this year the Jasper County Fair and the Newton County Fair were in the same week. In the past the Newton County Fair was always the week before the Jasper County Fair. Next year the Jasper County Fair will start on the 20th, a week later than this year.

The County Fair is the big festival for the County. We still have a number of other festivals/events on the calendar for this year. Rock the Arts will be later this month. The Touch of Dutch festival is in August. Little Cousin Jasper and Oktoberfest are in September. New this year is a Cemetery Walk planned for Weston Cemetery on September 22. It will feature actors portraying a few of the many interesting people buried there. It will be both entertaining and educational--mark your calendar. If you would like to see how this format works in other places, check here, here, here, here, or here.

We need rain. The river has little water in it but the grass has not turned totally brown.