2024 fair off to a fine start

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tractors
A fair without tractors is not a fair. The Boundary County Fair has tractors.

By Mike Weland

Only one wore a sash, but Natalie and Emma are both royalty. Emma Robertson, right, is Fair Fun Night Queen. Natalie Hauensbonne is her friend. “Bestie!” Natalie countered. Very bestie!” Emma affirmed.

The Boundary County Fair has been an event looked forward to for five score and four years, and each year there has undoubtedly been a would be prognosticator, typically but not always one of the local news folk, trying to do the impossible … determine on day one if, at the end of the week, this year’s fair will be remembered by most who attended as spectacular or if it will go in the books as merely excellent.

While I’m by no means an oracle, a seer nor a fortune teller, I came home from day one of the 2024 Boundary County Fair with the near certain sense that when this week ends, the needle on the fairomometer will trend closest to spectacular.

No deep psychological insights, no arcane techniques of observation. Just an unmistakable yet indescribable sense imbued by all around .. the smiles genuine … feeling welcomed, accepted … Home.

Here’s what to look forward to at the Boundary County Fair, Red, White and Blue, This Fair’s for You! 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, August 7:

  • It was hard work getting the prize wheel in the Vinyl Expressions booth to spin freely, but this young lady figured it out and walked away with some free swag!

    6:30 a.m.: Fair office opens

  • 8:30 a.m.: 4-H/FFA swine quality judging, indoor arena
  • 8:30 a.m.: All display and exhibit areas open
  • 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.: Food booths open
  • 9:30 a.m.: FFA/4H rabbit fitting and showing judging, outdoor arena
  • 10:30 a.m.: 4-H/FFA/open class rabbit quality judging, rabbit barn
  • Noon: Check-in 4-H/FFA horse, horse barns
  • 12:30 p.m.: Talent Team “Movie Magic,” gazebo
  • 1 p.m.: 4-H/FFA/open class guoat quality and breeding judging, followed by pet goat quality
  • 1:30 p.m.: 4-H/FFA goat fitting and showing
  • 3 p.m.: 4-H/FFA livestock judging contest
  • 3:30 p.m.: 2130 Alpha+ robotics demonstration, the Black Top
  • 4 p.m.: Talent Team “Movie Magic,” gazebo
  • 4-6 p.m.: Salsa Contest, memorial lawn
  • 5 p.m.: Corn Hole Tournament, the Black Top
  • 7 p.m.: The Copper Mountain Band, the Black Top
  • 9 p.m.: Fair day closes

 

 

 

 

In most communities nation-wide today there is left politics and right politics and never ever shall a Twain be met … neither Mark or Shania. In Boundary County, though, both sides agree to disagree on politics, but remain neighbors first.
On the Democrat end of the slab, Clarice McKenny (right), regaled those who’d listen with the frightful tale of her expensive outdoor heavy duty extension cord… a necessity at her house. When one end was left lying in the drive and run over and rendered inoperable, she, being handyman of the house, effected the repair, replacing the end. When done, she took pride in her work … the new three-prong male plug looked like it had been done at the factory. A few days later her husband held up the plug and complimented her workmanship … then he fished up the other end of the cord … a three prong male plug. Embarrassed, she promised to fix it. “How?” her husband asked. “Sexual reassignment surgery is illegal in Idaho!”
Ralph and Beverly Byquist say the Boundary County Fair has kept them going …   but countless Boundary County Fair goers would contend that the Boundary County Fair is hands-down the best county fair in the land because no other can offer as delectable a once-a-year treat as the beautiful powdered sugar dusted elephant ears you can only get … having watched it made … at the Byquist booth in the southwest corner of the fairground slab during fair time. They have occupied that corner for around 17 years now. They might make it look easy, but the dynamic duo begin mixing and freezing dough in May to be ready for each week-long fair. No elephants are harmed or battered in the process.