Ohio State Fair

Our little family has been accustomed to very tiny county fairs in our recent history, most notably the Clallam County fair in Port Angeles, WA. Even at that scale, we felt it was overwhelming. Ha! We were not prepared for a state fair, let alone the Ohio State fair which competes openly with such famous and epic state fairs as Michigan's and Iowa's. The permanent fairgrounds are astronomical--the poultry barn alone took us two hours to walk through only a small portion of, with thousands of competitors. There are gondolas to get you from one side of the fair to the other, and there is a huge temporary state park with a butterfly aviary, a Ohio native animal zoo, a artificial lake for kayaking and thousands of native plants and trees. We walked miles, saw much, and stuck to eating sandwiches since the hundreds of food booths competing against each other were selling, in many cases, upsetting and revolting-sounding variations on meat in order woo fair-goers.

This is what a champion Ohio chicken looks like. She practically begged me to take a picture.

A sense of the enormous scale of the animal barns.

Somebody is less than impressed with three city blocks worth of gladiola competition.

Late in the day, he finally gave up after looking at the model trains for the billionth time. This is one of the giant squash carvings--the artist who did it is named Gus.

The gondolas that take you from one side to the other.

YIKES

See you at the fair!

Extremely glossy Champion Holstein

Extremely glossy life-size butter Holstein

Double prettiness in the butterfly aviary

Self Expression

So Gus, as you know, is big into dress up and playing pretend and telling us about the exploits of his imaginary friends. He is also pretty specific and expressive about dressing for the day. I try to take pictures of him in some of the more fabulous outfits, so I can show his friends one day, but it's like he knows what I am trying to do and will lay himself on the ground in bizarre configurations so that one day, in my dotage, I am sure to have no idea why I took these pictures. I hope Blogger's server lasts forever.

This first example of what I am talking about is a vintage circa late 70s Superman shirt that our friend Tina found for us, striped pants (which I think were actually Tina's daughter's at some point, come to think of it), and his infamous "sparkle"shoes, which I have hidden, now, because they are too small and if he sees them he will fight to wear them and cry when he can't cram his big feets into them.

This second example is a clearance Target Star Wars shirt that he calls the 'star rainbow' shirt, pants with apples on them, and red sandals (which are also in hiding after being a much-loved hand-me-down from his friend Maud).

Science museum with visitors

When Grammy Hudson and Uncle Jason came, in addition to going to the awesome Heritage farm, Gus decided to show them around the science museum, which he goes to about once a week. They were impressed, for sure.

These two pictures are of Matt and Gus trying out the 1960s era broadcasting room. I don't think anchorpeople usually sit on each other's laps.


Grammy, Jason, and Gus in front of the 1880s era post office on the 1880s era street. The museum recreates entire streets, with shops and everything, from different eras.

This picture is for our friend Tina, who is a letterpress artist, and would be very sad to see this beautiful press displayed in a museum instead of being used.

Gus and Matt inside a real submarine.

In the water and oceans room

Driving a tractor--this picture for his buddy Cooper

Heritage Farm with rain and visitors

In July, Grammy Hudson and Uncle Jason came to visit, and on a rainy day we decided to go to Columbus Metro Parks Heritage Farm--a working and producing farm that does everything exactly like farming families did 100 years ago. There is no electricity or plumbing, but there is a beautiful animal barn, Gothic Revival house with a winter and summer kitchen (where folks in period dress are always working canning, soapmaking, and laundry-ing), a smokehouse with hams and bacon, a root cellar filled to the brim, an enormous house garden, wheat fields, and heirloom varieties of all kinds of farm animals. It's really, truly, beautiful and utterly fascinating. We came the day they were threshing wheat, and we went back later in the summer, so stay tuned for more pictures later on.

Here is Gus sampling a green bean he picked from the garden

Grammy and Jason push Gus on the yard swing

My dream kitchen. Seriously.

Taking a break from the rain playing a handmade marble game

These next two are wheat threshing with work horses


The next four are the different animals--all heirloom varieties that would have been on this farm 100 years ago (there were also merino wool sheep, a small chicken, pigeons, turkeys, and cows)




Gus on Dad's back in the beautiful hayloft (naturally Matt has a coffee, but look Ma! No Beard! Look closely because it's back already)--the farm is 100% access, there is no where you can't go

Stalling the bedtime hour

The blog's been on summer vacation, and now it's back!

Hello! We're still here, and still having a busy summer, but our viewing audience friends may be a bit interested in news. So, for the next bit there will be a new post every day, catching you up on our summer adventures all over Ohio and even a brief junket in Minneapolis (the picture is of Gus on the airplane). We've had visitors, been to a state fair, and grown more hair since last we've met. Plus we have a lot of fall preview news. Below, see the winner of the Rumpos Inc. Contest! Tune in daily!

Big Drawing

The big winner of a bag or pillow made from fabrics hand-dyed by Gus is . . .

EMILY GRANT!

Email me your address and preferences Emily, and thanks for being a regular here on Rumpos Inc.