The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 2

I was attending the Giant Pumpkin Festival at the St. Lawrence County fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York (see Part 1, posted yesterday) and walking along a row of vendors:

There were handcrafted birdhouses and other wood crafts:

Signs and wooden pumpkin boxes:

And of course - more pumpkins. No giants yet, though:

I walked over to see the crane which would drop the giant pumpkin (filled with numbered golf balls) at 3:00. I wouldn't be there long enough to see it drop, though:

I walked by the chicken barbecue. It sure smelled good!

And then I entered the barn with the giant pumpkins. There were a few, but that's when I realized I shouldn't have arrived on the morning of opening day because many of the giant pumpkins hadn't yet arrived. But there were some, so I walked around to see them:

Outside the barn, a big (but certainly not giant) pumpkin had just arrived and was being unloaded and tagged with the grower's name:

A forklift hauled the pumpkins into the barn:

These were some seriously big pumpkins and I'd sure be proud to have grown one of them. But I missed seeing the super-giants, which hadn't yet arrived:

Well, these two were pretty darn big, but there were surely much bigger ones coming:

I didn't stay long, but I enjoyed the rural geniality. Next year I'll go later in the day:

The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 1

You may remember that I attended the Giant Pumpkin Festival last year but couldn't find the miniature horses. This year, I parked right next to the ring where the children were handling the tiny steeds:

Most were young children, but there were some older kids also. The mini-horses were perfectly behaved and did everything they were asked:

I gathered, from listening to the announcer, that many of these little horses belonged to a local stable and may not have met their youthful handlers before. Nevertheless, they were certainly perfectly behaved and brought a lot of smiles to the children and their parents:

There was a series of activities, but my favorite was the costuming of both horses and handlers:

And then I moved on to the bouncy castle:

This was the third annual Giant Pumpkin Festival, held at the St. Lawrence fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York. I arrived early on the first day but vendors had already set up shop, beginning with this "Win Your Own Mini-Tractor" lottery:

There were pumpkins, but no giant ones yet:

An entire row of vendor booths:

High Peaks Winery:

Colorful crafts:

And food. There was still more to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

St. Lawrence County Fair - Part 2

I was touring the St. Lawrence County Fair in the village of Gouverneur (see also Part 1, yesterday) and arrived at the Poultry Barn. Alas, New York State had banned poultry exhibits because of bird flu, so there were no fancy chickens to look at. But the Poultry Barn held rabbits:

And sheep:

These were Suffolk Sheep and there was also a dairy goat exhibition:

I walked from there to the Maple Syrup Building. This was, after all, St. Lawrence County, one of the largest maple syrup producers in the state:

And then I hit the colorful midway:

It was too early for much action, and most rides were just getting ready to open. But it was a great time to see the colorful displays against a blue, cloud filled sky:

The Monkey Maze looked like fun:

There were rides and slides and refreshments and games and junky souvenirs. The crowds were just beginning to arrive:

Tee-shirts and floor mats with any smart-alecky saying I could imagine:

Lemonade, popcorn, hamburgers, pizza and hot dogs:

But I'd seen everything by then, and began making my way back to the car. I walked between two barns, where a backhoe was cleaning up soiled bedding from the cow barns:

I almost stopped again at the petting zoo, but changed my mind when I saw how crowded it had become. So I continued on to my parked car and headed for home:

St. Lawrence County Fair - Part 1

It was a lovely Friday and I was in no mood to be doing chores, so I drove to the village of Gouverneur to see the St. Lawrence County Fair. It was a fifty mile drive to Gouverneur, where I turned down a pleasant neighborhood road and and continued on it until I saw the fairgrounds:

I paid my admission, parked my car and walked toward the action. When I saw the words, "Free Petting Zoo," however, I made it my first stop:

There were Ring-Tailed Lemurs and screeching parrots:

Camels, sheep and goats:

A kangaroo:

And spotted Llamas:

Zebu miniature cattle:

Miniature horses and these partial albino, miniature donkeys. Unsurprisingly, the donkeys were the friendliest of all the animals:

This is dairy country and I toured several barns filled with cattle of various breeds:

And, of course, lots of Holsteins:

I arrived early, before the big crowds arrived, so the barns were busy with people cleaning their animals and stalls:

This woman was washing her Holstein heifer. But I still had lots to see at the fair, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

The Great Weighing O' The Pumpkins

I was at the Giant Pumpkin Festival (see yesterday's post) and all the time I was there, I noticed huge pumpkins being hauled back and forth on pallets:

I soon discovered that they were bringing them, one at a time, into the commercial building to be officially weighed:

The tractor brought a new pumpkin over to the barn, where the forklift lifted it with straps and carried it in to be weighed. While the pumpkin was on the scale, the tractor returned the most recently weighed pumpkin and brought over a new one. It was quite an operation:

They saved the biggest pumpkins for last:

The winner, the biggest by far, officially weighed 1018 pounds:

This was the winning pumpkin's grower, posing beside his prized produce with his son:

When all the pumpkins were weighed, they were set outside with their weight and growers' names attached. Lots of families were taking photos with the giant pumpkins:

And giant they were indeed:

The second place pumpkin weighed 698 pounds:


625 pounds:

554 pounds:

484 pounds. But it was time for me to head for home. I never got to see the prizes awarded for biggest and ugliest pumpkins, and I never got to see the giant pumpkin drop. Well, there's always next year: