Editor's Notebook: Let's go to the fair

This week youth from all over Elmore County will meet up for a week of competition, camaraderie and fun after months of hard work and dedication.

These kids have spent months taking care of show animals that they went out and chose out of a herd of other babies and more then likely paid for themselves. They spent hours each week feeding, gentling, and getting to know each of their animals. They then spent hours halter breaking and readying these animals for a show ring and to tolerate grooming. They all fall in love with these animals, and the kids showing market animals fell in love even knowing what will likely happen at the end of fair week.

I was once one of these kids and understand the amount of time put into these animals. I experimented and showed a variety of animals, but fell in love with showing lambs from the beginning. I always picked my animals off of what they looked like and not their gender, but I have to admit I always hoped if I ended up with a ewe that she would end up being bought as a breeding lamb instead of being sent to the butcher. Sometimes I got lucky and it worked out.

Fair week was always our favorite time of the year. We got to camp out and hang out with friends that we didn't see everyday. There were massive water fights and mischief and for that week all of us kids felt like the center of everyone's attention. It made all the hard work, sweat and sometimes tears at the end worth it.

This week when I saw the poll results on our website from last weeks question: "do you plan on attending the fair," I was really discouraged. It was a landslide with people voting "no."

When I was a kid the fair was a huge part of summer activities like AFAD or the local Fourth of July festivities. I know that for awhile our fair went downhill, but that is something people are actively trying to change.

Our County Commissioners have made a commitment and an investment in bringing our fair back on par with where it used to be. There is a fair manager, fair board and rodeo committee who are actively trying to make the fair week experience in Elmore County a "must do" event like it used to be.

After years of the carnival being gone, one of the best around is now part of our county fair again. They've also added other events recently like "Elmore County's Got Talent" and the parade to kick the week off . New this year is a Calf Roping Shoot Out featuring some of the best Calf Ropers in the country.

I am encouraging the community of Mountain Home to make the short trip to Glenns Ferry and give a day at our fair a chance. Everyone missed the carnival at Crazee Dayz this year so why not head down and enjoy this one,. Then eat some of the great fair food and enjoy a good rodeo. If you don't care to watch the grown up version there is a great junior rodeo on Thursday night.

While you are out and about snacking on a snow cone or a chorizo take a walk through the livestock barns and ask the kids about their projects. They'd love to tell you about their steer or pig and all of the work they've put into them this year.

I'll be going down at least once this week-probably more like two or three times. I have family members showing animals and I hope to see a crowd.

I'd also like to remind everyone that we are accepting everyone's favorite photos from the fair. They can be of any candid moment from the week. To submit them to the newspaper either use the hashtag #mountainhomenews on Facebook or send them to me through e-mail at editor@mountainhomenews.com.

Our favorite photos will be chosen to run in an upcoming issue of the Mountain Home News and they will all be added to our photo gallery on the website. The number of photos chosen will be based off of the amount of space available.

Let's acknowledge these kids and the people who are working so hard at making our fair great by heading down to Glenns Ferry for some old-fashioned country fair fun.