A Visit To Our Local Agricultural show.

Once again  our local agricultural  show rolled around.
We  are very fortunate that  we have a very dedicated team of volunteers  that  work hard through out the year to make the show the great  success that  it is.
Our  show has  a wide variety of attractions to  offer the many  visitors who walk through the gates.
There is  really strong participation in the ring events,

 Good friends of ours  had brought their beautiful Brahman  cattle  to be judged,

They had  great success  winning in many  categories  and ended  up with Champion,Grand Champion and Supreme Champion.
There was a variety of sheep judging, this group from a neighboring high school Ag class.

There was great competition in the sheep dog trials,

A great time  was had by the kids in the petting area,

 There was also the wood chop competition,

The local car club  had a great display of old cars and trucks which drew  quite a bit of attention.

Poultry was also well represented  with  great competition  between breeders .

The  bantams were  cute, but I fell in love with the Indian Runner ducks.
The local Lions club  ran the  BBQ stall, keeping up a constant stream of  rissole and steak sandwiches to the hungry hordes.

The Rural Fire Service  manned the cold drinks stall , and as it was a very hot,humid day  they were practically ran off their feet.

The  Rural Fire Service also had an information booth.

There were the usual  fun  activities for the  kids,
Dodgem cars,

Inflatable  slide,

Bungy style jumping activity,

Pony rides,

And many other sideshow attractions ,displays and stalls.

The pavillion also offers  a great days entertainment to the show visitors, with the show committee ladies working hard in the kitchen providing morning and afternoon teas  and lunches .

Inside the pavillion , the individual volunteer stewards each look after their area  and organize the  displays ready for the visiting judges to  make their decisions  on who wins each particular class.

There were beautiful floral displays,

The local public school and pre-school  were well represented by lovely paintings, collages and drawings.

We  obviously have some very talented sewers,  quilters and embroiderers  as there was an amazing display of  finished works,

There were some very clever art and sculpture ,

With such an exceptionally dry year  behind us, we did not expect to  see much in the garden  and farm produce section, but were pleasantly  surprised  to see the quantity and variety on show.  We entered a few things and got first prize  for our chillies,  honey and eggs.

Once again this year I set up my preserving display, showing the old and new  equipment used in preserving. It was very well received and many people stopped to ask questions and check it all out.

I entered  some of my own preserving into the competition and was fortunate to  be awarded  first , second and third places  for several of my entries, I was also very honored to  have been awarded Grand Champion Preserve for my green  Jalapeno Jelly.

I also entered the cooking section for the very first time,

and  was awarded  first place for my Boiled Fruit Cake,

and a second place with my plain scones.

The photographic competition  is highly contested, and  This year I also entered that  for the first time as well. I selected  18  of my favourite photos and  popped them in to the steward  the week before as required.

The  evening before the show there is an art and photographic  preview , where the displays are open for us to have an early look and see the art and photo  competition placings. It was a lovely social evening with wine  and nibbles and we caught up with many people we haven't seen for many years.

I was very surprised to see that I  received several placements in the various categories.
Over all we  were very successful  at the show this year which was a wonderful surprise  and this is  the total of the certificates we  were awarded.

Hubby had taken his drone into the show and  put it up  to take an aerial photograph of the entire showground.

I must make it clear, we do not belong to this wonderful group of volunteers, our  time is donated to other local volunteer groups, but I really  want to sing the praises of the Binnaway PAH&I Association  , they are an amazing group  of hard working, dedicated ,talented people  who  work  the entire year to make sure that our small town has the best possible agricultural show that it possibly can have,
Small  towns are struggling to keep alive and running and many have lost their  annual shows, but with the  hard work and determination  of this  great  team, ours appears to have a bright shining future. Congratulations to each and every one of you for all your hard work and generosity of time.
We have had a few falls of rain this week, with 27 mm falling  yesterday, the paddocks will look a little happier  in the next week or so.
We are keeping busy with many small projects  happening which I will update  on  over the next few posts.
So until we meet again,
Take care of you and yours,
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.