Acting the goat

I'll spare everyone the long and uninteresting story (for once), but I have only just gotten my Benton County Fair pictures from this summer loaded onto my computer. Fairs down here are more than just sausage & onion hoagies and cheap silver jewelry - they have farm contests where they give prizes for... well, a bunch of things that I'm not sure how they judge.

There was the bovine area - these things were enormous. Much, much bigger than my neighbors' cows. Like over 15 hands tall... or something.

Of course no Northwest Arkansas event is complete without the hogs. They were surprisingly cute, and very friendly. And surprised to see me out in sneakers - rightly so.


I did kind of feel under-dressed when I saw the goats in their fancy but weird stretchy coats... they looked like sleazy wrestlers... complete with holes in their unitards, skinny legs and patchy body hair.


The most fabulous attraction, and the reason we went to this fair, was the goat costume contest. And I don't just mean the wrestler costumes - those are apparently functional and not at all tongue-in-cheek. There was a goat costume contest where not only the goats but their owners/chaperones/friends/half-siblings were also in matching costumes. As expected, it was mostly children... but there were some really old children who didn't seem in the least embarrassed at what they were doing. Probably all that meth numbing their senses. These were some of the most amazing specimens, but there were actually a lot of good contestants.

Sheriff (they look like cowboys down here) and bandit.

Dorothy and the Tin Man.
Skunk - it's a toss up as to whether skunks or possums are the state animal. I'm keeping a roadkill tally - possums are winning at the moment, but it's neck-and-neck.