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Stepping outside
Aug. 22nd, 2022 03:03 pmWent to the fall fair in the next town over last weekend to hang out with Ron. I got to wander around for awhile before he got there. Some thoughts:
The smell of horses. I'd forgotten it in my body; I grew up with a couple horses, and it's such a sweet calming smell. It was lovely.
I maybe haven't been at something so intensely all-ages since I was that age? Not just kids-too-young-to-babysit-themselves and parents, or city folks and a very few of their only-child kids, but the whole spectrum of ages. Lots of teenagers and preteens in all the 4H barns, many kids concentrated in the kids play area full of transparent balls that floated on water and bull rides, but also just lots of folks around. I probably looked like that wandering around hand-in-hand with my first boyfriend. Because it was spread out over the fairground I could go closer or further from clumps of people, which was nice. I often prefer further.
I watched the heavy horse pull event for awhile. I'd never seen something like that before: draft horses are always lovely, but in this case they were in teams of 2 taking turns pulling a big metal device that got increasingly more weight stacked atop it. Each pair had to pull it a certain distance, I think ten feet, but could pull it further if they chose. Everyone was steered by reins on the ground. As each team went, they announced the "above team weight" so that must have factored in; there was one tiny but draft-shaped team that tapped out early but were so much smaller than everyone else that they were quite high above their team weight early on. I'm not completely sure how they decided who won; folks dropped out as they couldn't complete the pull or as they thought it was too much for their horses, and a winner was announced at the end.
There was tremendous variability in the nervousness of the horses, in their synchronization, and in how well they complied with their commands. It was really common for them to start forward before they were fully hitched to the weight, and several times teams had to circle around again to be hitched up after they took off too soon. Then again, a couple of them were super bullet-proof.
While chatting with Ron a couple things came up: possible work stuff, and he floated the idea of maybe a co-property-ownership housing type situation with him, me, and two other people (one of whom I know a little and like a fair bit). I guess I'm folks' go-to person for that sort of thing now? A different job would be a requirement for something like that for me. And perhaps obviously, the only reasonable first move in doing a land thing with someone is sitting down for dinner with them and actually meeting them all. So I don't expect that to go anywhere, but who knows, and it was fun.
The small animal barn was enticing. There were some duckles that were the same breed as I did this year: cayuga x pekin. They were lovely.
There were also a lot of baby rabbits for sale that made me very much miss my bunnies, I took pictures of all the rabbits for sale and the numbers but did not come home with any. That's probably for the best, since there's not a good rabbit vet around here and I'm not set up for having all my cords chewed. Still. I like rabbits and I miss them. They have real personality.
There were also some poor geese there, a mom with one gosling who was nervous and calling out a lot, and a pair who seemed a little less nervous but were probably why the first one was calling so much. Well, that and being down low around so many humans. None of them had water to submerge their faces in. None were for sale; if they had been I'd have just brought them home to get them out of there. All the other quite small animals were on raised platforms of some kind, so they were less loomed over, I guess geese are just too big for that? Either way, I like geese and if I ever take any to the fair I'll make sure to take a group of at least 3 or 4.
I did hang out with an alpaca for a bit. They are smaller and cuter than I remember.
On the way home a couple things happened: I listened to a super useful ADHD podcast that I'll get into later, and I stopped to pick up a ton of hog feed. While the feed guy was loading an ant (looked like an ant) flew into the neck of my shirt and started biting between my boobs. I brushed it off and it ended up under my shirt, biting my nipple. I could not get it out, and I felt really weird trying to deal with that in public. I think I've become a lot more body-conscious up here, trying to handle the weird local Christian whatever culture, and I'm pretty sure I don't like it.
Anyhow, good afternoon at the fair. I would have stayed longer but Ron got a text saying that a person he'd hung out with the day before had covid, so he left, and I figured I could get to the feed store before they closed. As I left I saw something intriguing which, in later research, turned out to be the farmhand challenge with folks hauling logs and things. In hindsight I'm sorry I missed that. Maybe next year.
Next big social event will be the music festival in the park next weekend. With this stuff it feels like it never rains but it pours; last weekend were so many potential things to go see and do, likewise next weekend, then it will drop off for awhile again.
The smell of horses. I'd forgotten it in my body; I grew up with a couple horses, and it's such a sweet calming smell. It was lovely.
I maybe haven't been at something so intensely all-ages since I was that age? Not just kids-too-young-to-babysit-themselves and parents, or city folks and a very few of their only-child kids, but the whole spectrum of ages. Lots of teenagers and preteens in all the 4H barns, many kids concentrated in the kids play area full of transparent balls that floated on water and bull rides, but also just lots of folks around. I probably looked like that wandering around hand-in-hand with my first boyfriend. Because it was spread out over the fairground I could go closer or further from clumps of people, which was nice. I often prefer further.
I watched the heavy horse pull event for awhile. I'd never seen something like that before: draft horses are always lovely, but in this case they were in teams of 2 taking turns pulling a big metal device that got increasingly more weight stacked atop it. Each pair had to pull it a certain distance, I think ten feet, but could pull it further if they chose. Everyone was steered by reins on the ground. As each team went, they announced the "above team weight" so that must have factored in; there was one tiny but draft-shaped team that tapped out early but were so much smaller than everyone else that they were quite high above their team weight early on. I'm not completely sure how they decided who won; folks dropped out as they couldn't complete the pull or as they thought it was too much for their horses, and a winner was announced at the end.
There was tremendous variability in the nervousness of the horses, in their synchronization, and in how well they complied with their commands. It was really common for them to start forward before they were fully hitched to the weight, and several times teams had to circle around again to be hitched up after they took off too soon. Then again, a couple of them were super bullet-proof.
While chatting with Ron a couple things came up: possible work stuff, and he floated the idea of maybe a co-property-ownership housing type situation with him, me, and two other people (one of whom I know a little and like a fair bit). I guess I'm folks' go-to person for that sort of thing now? A different job would be a requirement for something like that for me. And perhaps obviously, the only reasonable first move in doing a land thing with someone is sitting down for dinner with them and actually meeting them all. So I don't expect that to go anywhere, but who knows, and it was fun.
The small animal barn was enticing. There were some duckles that were the same breed as I did this year: cayuga x pekin. They were lovely.
There were also a lot of baby rabbits for sale that made me very much miss my bunnies, I took pictures of all the rabbits for sale and the numbers but did not come home with any. That's probably for the best, since there's not a good rabbit vet around here and I'm not set up for having all my cords chewed. Still. I like rabbits and I miss them. They have real personality.
There were also some poor geese there, a mom with one gosling who was nervous and calling out a lot, and a pair who seemed a little less nervous but were probably why the first one was calling so much. Well, that and being down low around so many humans. None of them had water to submerge their faces in. None were for sale; if they had been I'd have just brought them home to get them out of there. All the other quite small animals were on raised platforms of some kind, so they were less loomed over, I guess geese are just too big for that? Either way, I like geese and if I ever take any to the fair I'll make sure to take a group of at least 3 or 4.
I did hang out with an alpaca for a bit. They are smaller and cuter than I remember.
On the way home a couple things happened: I listened to a super useful ADHD podcast that I'll get into later, and I stopped to pick up a ton of hog feed. While the feed guy was loading an ant (looked like an ant) flew into the neck of my shirt and started biting between my boobs. I brushed it off and it ended up under my shirt, biting my nipple. I could not get it out, and I felt really weird trying to deal with that in public. I think I've become a lot more body-conscious up here, trying to handle the weird local Christian whatever culture, and I'm pretty sure I don't like it.
Anyhow, good afternoon at the fair. I would have stayed longer but Ron got a text saying that a person he'd hung out with the day before had covid, so he left, and I figured I could get to the feed store before they closed. As I left I saw something intriguing which, in later research, turned out to be the farmhand challenge with folks hauling logs and things. In hindsight I'm sorry I missed that. Maybe next year.
Next big social event will be the music festival in the park next weekend. With this stuff it feels like it never rains but it pours; last weekend were so many potential things to go see and do, likewise next weekend, then it will drop off for awhile again.
