I confess - I had no intention of attending the 2011 Harney County Fair & Rodeo - but when I happened to arrive in Burns the night before, and the hotel concierge at Rory & Ryan's told me that both of her brothers were going to be in the rodeo - well, I couldn't resist! Armed with nothing other than my camera, wallet and recommendation to try the special donut holes made by the local Lyons club - you got it - "Lyon's balls" - I headed off to the fairgrounds. First, I checked out the exhibits - there was a lot of random crap there, I have to say. While there were some good photos - there were SO MANY photos - and just about everyone got a ribbon. There were crafts but there was also a huge amount of ephemera - like a pair of mason jars purporting to date to 1916 - with a blue ribbon for first place, and old books dating back to 1910 -- seriously? I am looking into this for local county fairs so I can get some ribbons for random antique or odd items. There were some quilts - but they were all one one rack and not displayed very well - not at all like the big quilt show in John Day that I had seen the previous evening. There were also plenty of hand-sewn items - some rather odd entries but I'll leave it to your imagination. The produce was more interesting and fun - though you can probably only look at about 12 giant zucchini before you wonder how pithy they are inside and whether they are worth eating. I think the giant cabbages were probably excellent though. The preserves were very interesting and lots of fun to see the patterns and types of things folks made. Not a single entry for ground cherry jelly, so I think I'll go up there and enter that next year (Ha!!). I was tickled to see that one person made zucchini pickles like I do! The flowers - wow - poor flowers - they were all wilty and sad by the time I got to them - petals falling and drooping stems. Fortunately the judges had seen them earlier so I'm pretty sure they were going to be compost before the end of the weekend. It was pretty warm in there! There was a pretty offensive political exhibition near the flowers & preserves which was in line with the high number of anti-choice/abortion billboards I had seen. Nobody was attending the exhibit and it had tons of images of embryos and taglines like "it's a child not a choice" - but this was the only in-your-face moralistic display in the exhibition hall - so it felt really out of place and offensive. Nobody was standing near or around it. The 4-H exhibition hall was really fun - I was very amused by the menu & place setting displays - I had no idea they did that and it was very very cute. The 4-H animal exhibitions made me sad - instead of "cows" the stalls were labeled "beef" and instead of "pig" with "pork" - and the rabbit hutches had a big sign that said "meat rabbit express." Very sad to see animals on death row like that. :( Finally, I went to the grandstand where they started some of the rodeo contests for roping and barrel racing - the little kids on horses were so much fun! I had a couple beers and made conversation with some local folks. Someone recommended that I check out the BLM wild horse pens just past town on my way out. There were a LOT of Clarks participating in the day's events! It was really fun to watch the little kids on horses! Finally, the race started, and the horses hadn't even gone all the way around when one horse got pushed by another into a wall, threw his rider, then freaked out and caught his leg on the fence - apparently breaking his leg all the way through. The rider did not get up and was carted off in an ambulance, the horse was sedated and taken away in a trailer, probably to his doom. It was at that point that I decided it was time to take a break and head back to make dinner and watch things not involving death and hospitalization. The evening rodeo performance was mostly steer roping and steer riding - it was very amusing and I kept rooting for the steers! Again - lots of Clarks present. I made friends with a 3 and 4 year old who were sitting behind me and utterly fascinated with my yellow high vis jacket. I shared some of my pictures with them and they were so cute that when the rodeo ended - I said it was nice to meet them and you know what they said? "Thank you for showing us your pictures!" Mom had not even coached them - I can't even get a prompt thank you for a gift from certain younger relatives - and here these little gentlemen were thanking me for showing them pictures of groundhogs and burros! In the end - I'm very happy that I stayed to check out the Harney County Fair and am left with the distinct impression that cowboy hats only look good on cowboys under the age of 11. read more

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