Giant Cabbages and Duct Tape

Back to the fair on Wednesday evening if for no other reason than to look for dinner. It was 88°F when we arrived but cooled down to a much more reasonable temperature later in the evening. There were a few things that either I didn't catch or weren't on display yet. The giant cabbage weigh in hadn't occurred yet and the hot dry summer shows in the small sized entries. The winner is a paltry 54.15 pounds (24.56 kg). But it does look pretty dense and is looking pretty wilted sitting outside of the agricultural building.

Dinner was souvlaki and stuffed grape leaves. Both were passable as "fair food" but I probably should've had the pita falafel a couple of booths down.

Another item was this very "Alaska-ish" quilt. It was displayed outside and is made of pieces of plastic tarp held together and decorated with duct tape. It seems to fit the spirit of Fairbanks. After all, at one time, Fairbanks had more fans per capita of the Red Green Show than anywhere else in the country. If you've never heard of the Canadian TV show, duct tape was a popular topic and the star, Steve Smith, was a local hero. At one point, he was treated to a 21 chainsaw salute upon arrival for a Fairbanks PBS fundraiser. No video of that frightening event but here is a sample of Handyman Corner where he uses duct tape to make tires.

 

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Botanic Gardens and the Tanana Valley State Fair

On Friday, I walked down to the Botanic Gardens below the building and I noticed a new functional sculpture. I would definitely keep out some wildlife from your vegetables though it may make weeding and harvesting a little difficult. I don't think it was protecting anything but looked pretty cool.

The giant cabbages look like they're doing well in spite of the lack of rain. I think that the mostly volunteer crew at the gardens do a phenomenal job keeping the place up and running. And they give the residents a hint at what grows well in this climate. I was there for our annual, departmental barbecue. The plan was to have it close so folks could simply walk down the hill.

iPhone Panorama

The fair is in town for the week and we picked up season passes so we could come and go anytime this week. In Alaska, all of the regional fairs have the title "State Fair" so this would be similar to a county fair anywhere else. When we arrived this afternoon, it was surprisingly uncrowded (though that didn't last long). There was an antique tractor pulling contest though the weight transfer sled was sitting idle. They were just towing a trailer full of hay bales. Pictured is a small one engine running at only about 100 rpm powering a hand pump.

There was a nice display showing what your Alaska garden should look like. Any garden I've ever had anything to do with never looked like this. There was the usual mix of carnival rides, "as seen on TV" vendors and fair food. I was searching for something good for dinner but didn't find anything that really "spoke" to me. I ended up having leftovers at home.

We went for a sidecar ride after dinner to look for a couple of geocaches. Bridget is trying to log at least one find per day for the month of August. This was also the first passenger test of the newly installed sidecar spring and shock. At first, the rig really pulled to the right so at the first stop, I added one click on the spring preload. With that change, handling was neutral. I'm told that the ride was improved. We tried using the Sena SMH10's again but the battery died on Bridget's unit after about five minutes. I think it was left on after it's last use.

George Rahn, the local motorcycle guru, took a look at the new shock and spring setup, bounced on it a couple of times and commented that it was a whole lot better than stock. Plus, he liked the chrome plating. He is the one that recommended swapping the spring and shock out with one from an airhead as he had done the same thing with his Cozy sidecar.

Here is a quick shot showing our beautiful weather and the crowded motorcycle parking.

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Tanana Valley State Fair

Tuesday was "UAF Day" at the fair so I took advantage of the minimal discount to check it out. Sunday and Monday were gorgeous days so I figured that attendance would be horrible by Tuesday and I was right. This is one of the main paths and, as you can see, their numbers were really down. There were only a couple of new booths and some friends of ours set up an alligator food booth called Tundra Bayou this year so I had to try it out. I think they will do well as their offerings were pretty good. I ended up staying for almost seven hours since I had brought my middle son with me and he didn't want to leave. I probably got in over ten miles of walking since there were few dry areas to sit down as it sprinkled just about the entire time.

The local feed store had these dog beds for sale and I thought that some of the pink Croc® lovers would appreciate them. If you didn't care for pink, there are a number of other colors available.

Today was another WIN for Alaska walk. I left early and took a scenic route down to lower campus before walking down to the farmers market with the group. A little over ten miles in two and a half hours. Not too shabby. I don't know if I'm a fool or not but I just signed up again for the 50^th Equinox Marathon on September 15, 2012. I have no plans to actually run any of it, just walk and finish within the ten hour limit. The last time I did it was in 2008.