Fredericksburg Fair 2014

Earlier, this week I decided to make my chocolate chip cookies for the county fair.  I am entering the state fair but that isn't for another few months.  I figured I could use this as practice for state.  :)

I baked my cookies on Wednesday night.

I packaged them and dropped them off Thursday morning all ready to be judged.  

The cookies were judged on Friday morning.

When I dropped off my cookies I got a free fair ticket.  I decided to go today after I went to the grocery store to see my cookies.  I already knew I'd won a ribbon because a friend of mine went and sent me a text.  But I needed to see for myself.  :)

Here's the entry way.

I went right to the homemaking building.

Cute 'baked goods' sign.

I walked around several glass display cakes filled with pies, cakes, cookies and cupcakes.  I found my cookies.  2nd row, 3rd from left.

Here's the 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  I placed 3rd.  I'm okay with that.  It's still an award.  :)

How awesome?

Here's a close up of the 3rd place ribbon.  I am ready to compete in the state fair.  :)

I walked around and looked at the other entries.  Lots of garden fresh veggies.  I might do this one next year.  I can't believe how big some of these zukes are.

Some peppers and potatoes.  Not that many....maybe I can submit potatoes next year?

When I was dropping off my cookies I met the guy who brought in this display.  Everything isn't looking as pretty as it did Thursday morning.  It's still lovely though.

Here's some more garden fresh veggies.

I then walked over to the animal pens.  You can't go to the fair and not say hello to the animals.  :)

This little pig (though he wasn't really little) was drinking some water.  He looked cute sitting there.

Cute little sheep.

More sheep.

I liked this guy.  It was really humid and all the animals were panting.  :(  Some pens had big fans blowing in and some of the sheep were standing in front trying to cool off.  

Alpaca.......This one needs their hair trimmed.

Peacock

Baby chicks

I then made my way over to the petting zoo.  This guy liked chewing on the gate.

In the next pen were some small sheep and baby cows.  Check out that guy in the middle.  Yep, after I took picture I looked and the pee was flowing from that animal.  haha  There was a family in there and the mother was looking at that animal with disbelief.  It was funny.

On the way out of the petting zoo I noticed a sign that said "Camel rides- $6".  Luckily, for him no one was lined up to ride him so he could just chill.

Yoder's Country Market

After the sunflowers....we went to Yoder's Country Market.  We discovered this place many years ago.  It's run by a family who are Amish/Mennonites.  We've stopped here a few times over the years.  Especially, when we have a craving for Guggisberg Cheese.  

Kristen and I hadn't been in a while so we figured we would go.

I spent a little over $11.  I got 1 pound of sliced guggisberg cheese, a cherry fry pie and a package of angel biscuits.  Nate was happy to see the cheese!!  The little cherry fry pie (MY FAVORITE) I cut in half for us to share last night.  :) Some of the biscuits I served with our pork loin dinner I made tonight.

After I put my stuff in the car, I walked over and checked out the STINKY animals.  These animals were really stinky.  LOL  Kristen waited in the car.  I guess she knew they smelled.  haha

Here's a pig eating some scraps.

Chicken coop

Chickens

I love peacocks.  They are so magnificent to me.  The colors are amazing.

Here's some emu's and my picture was photo-bombed by an alpaca with buck teeth.  LOL

Emu

Alpaca......no care in the world.

There was cute little piglets running around.  They were so tiny.  :)

This guy kept following me.  He wanted food.  The look on his face says:  "Pardon me but could you please stop taking pictures and feed me".  There was little feeder stations set up to buy food for .25 cents.  I didn't buy any though....just took pictures.  Sorry little guy.

When I got in the car Kristen could smell the farm animals on me and then I too got a whiff of it.  GROSS!!!!  I had to put my window down for a bit to 'air out'.  LOL  :)

Sunflowers in Haymarket

Back in the Spring, Kristen and I went to Haymarket to Burnside Farms to see the "Tulips in Holland".  In the summer the farm has a field of sunflowers.  It's pollinator heaven as Kristen called it.  LOL

As you walk in at the front entrance I noticed 2 signs.  Pollinator Habitat sign and a Monarch waystation sign.  I'd seen the Monarch sign recently on instagram from someone I follow.  They had just gotten the sign because of all the monarch butterfly caterpillars they have.  The signs basically let people know that they don't use pesticides and are keeping bees and butterflies happy.  I like it!  :)

Here's the welcome sign on the way in.  Kristen and I both got a single day sun pass.  It's a little card that I will add to my rainman.  We were told the rules as we got our card.  You were allowed to pick sunflowers.  They were $1.50 each.  You also have to watch out for the pollinators (as the worker said) so you don't get stung.  The worker said "they won't bother you unless you bother them".  LOL  We were also told that there were over 25 different types of sunflowers in the field.  Awesome!!

There were cute little wagons and baskets for you to use.

There was also a little chalkboard station where you could write and use for your pictures.

I drew a sunflower.

Here it is finished.  :)

We began walking rows and taking pictures.

So many beautiful sunflowers and bees.

So pretty!

We thought about getting some sunflowers but we both decided against it.  There were so many happy bees tending to each of the flowers we felt we would let them bee.  :)

Fun!!  :)  After the sunflowers we used the 'around me app' and found a Target.  I asked Kristen if we could go because I had a list and so did she.  I knew she wouldn't turn down a Target run.  haha  It was a Super Target which was cool.  It was in Gainesville and everyone there shopping was rude and snobby as hell.  We couldn't believe that no one there had any manners.  So rude....we will never go back to that Target.  

After buying our stuff we then drove to Culpeper to an Outback for a wonderful good lunch where we had a very nice waiter.  We  then decided to make the trek back to my town making one stop along the way......YODER'S!