Ag Fest

Long time no post. It seems these last few weeks have been especially busy around here and we haven’t had much time out and about.

We did venture out to the Ag Fest this weekend though. This is only the 2nd time I’ve ever been. I’d previously sworn off the Ag Fest because the last time we went not only was it extremely busy and there were so many strollers that we could barely move through the crowd, but 3 people in our family got pink eye when my nephew didn’t wash his hands after petting some of the animals. I thought Bug would be old enough now to enjoy it a bit more than she did before so off we went.

We arrived early on Saturday morning determined to beat the crowds. We got there around 10:00 a.m. We parked in the back closer to the barns instead of up front where there was a huge line for the ticket booth. At the back gate there was no line at all and we got right in. Parking was free. Admission was $7.50 per adult and kids under 12 are free.

There are so many things to do at Ag Fest that I’m sure we missed a bunch of stuff.
We had a chance to see llamas, goats, sheep, cows, horses, chicken and some rabbits while we were there. All around the areas where there are animals there are places to wash your hands either with good old soap and water or with some sanitizing gel. I also brought along a little bottle determined that we would avoid pink eye this year.

One of the buildings is full of activities for kids. They can milk a “cow” (cow model set up with udders that can be milked for water), play in little kiddie pools full of corn, spin wheels for stickers/toys, etc., dig for potatoes, make “dirt babies” (panty hose filled with seeds and dirt that will grow “hair” later), etc. The wheat growers booth saved us when Bug was starting to melt down just before lunchtime because they were cooking up pancakes. She was thrilled to get in a warm snack and it bought us enough time to finish looking at everything and then head for the door.

The other building was mostly full of booths selling various things, most of which weren’t related to agriculture. What surprised me the most when we came in through the doors of the building was the very strong smell of gasoline coming from the trackers they’d parked inside of the doors. It was strong enough to give me an immediate headache and I even looked around to see if they were running them inside of the building because it was so overwhelming. We shuffled Bug through the doors quickly to get on the other side of the gasoline smell, passed through the vendor area and made our way to the stage where we were able to watch a few minutes of the Cherry City Cloggers perform (I always love watching them! It looks like a lot of fun) before Bug let us know it was definitely naptime.

Another great thing about going is that you get a hand stamp so you can leave and come back. Bug could not stop talking about the “mamas” (llamas in toddler speak) and we almost went back for another round, but decided against it. It was nice to have the option to go back though if we wanted to brave the afternoon crowd.