Missouri State Fair 2015

Wow! I can't believe it's September already, where has this year gone? Just over a week ago I returned home from being at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, MO for 11 days. I volunteered to work at the Missouri State Beekeepers Association booth for the entire fair. I was required to work a few days as the 2015 Mo Honey Queen but I wanted to do the entire fair. It was a long and tiring 11 days but a very enjoyable time as well. The majority of my time was spent at the booth but I was able to venture out and experience some of the activities and visit the buildings with exhibits. Our days started early arriving at the building sometime before 9:00 am. We were housed in the AG building which opened at 9:00 am. The building didn't close until 9:00 pm so we had to stay until the doors were locked. That made for a long day.

Our Booth

4 different days during the fair I gave a talk, in the Home Economics building, about honey bees. They have a consumer showcase where people from different organizations or businesses can demonstrate or educate about something. 

I got to see several different livestock shows including the Open Boer goat Show, pig shows, cattle shows, and a draft mule show. It was nice being able to see some of my friends show. 

Here's a pic from the draft Mule show

My dad came down for a couple of days to work in the booth and we went and saw the cowboy mounted shooting. Which is always unique and interesting to see. 

Horrible picture. They move to fast and it was smoky in the building.

2 of my favorite buildings to visit were the Home Ec. and floriculture buildings. In the home ec building they had all the food and quilt contest entries. The floriculture building had many flowers on display. Here are just a few pictures from each. 

One day while I was out searching for lunch I saw that the antique tractors were going to do a parade. I made my way to the front and found a park bench and sat and watched the whole thing. It was a  beautiful day and perfect to sit outside and watch it. They had several unique antique tractors. 

Probably my favorite thing I got to see at the fair was the Draft Horse Hitches. I went 2 evenings to that event and enjoyed it immensely. They had several different classes including 1 horses hitched to carts, youth drivers, unicorn hitches (3 horses), and all the way up to 6 horse hitches. My favorite was the 6 horse hitches. The sheer power of having 6 huge draft horses working together to pull a wagon was neat to see. Also the sound of the pounding hoof beats and jingling of harnesses in the small indoor arena was amazing. I think it would be so cool to have a team of draft horses. The Budweiser Clydesdale's were at the fair and they had them come in during the show and they demonstrated how they would dock the wagon. We got to see them exercise them and they paraded them around the fairgrounds each day. 

At the end of the 6 horse hitch class all the entries came into the arena! There were 13 hitches which meant 78 horses and 13 wagons. It was the most impressive/beautiful thing I've seen!  

Here are some other random pictures from throughout the 11 days. 

Myself and the State Fair Queen pictured with the Observation hive

Tiger Stripe Ice Cream from the Mizzou Area- Great stuff

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The honey I entered in the open show. I didn't place.

I wanted to take this vintage camper home so bad!!! 

The Beef house. Great food. 

The winners from the Governors wife's Pie Contest

The Budweiser Clydesdale's 

The Missouri Elk Farmers booth was right across from ours. I learned a lot about elk!

This is at the entrance of the fair. 

It was a great time and I got to meet so many wonderful people! It was so great to promote something that I'm so passionate about. While I was at the draft horse hitches I had this little boy and his sister come up to me and ask for my autograph! The little girl also wondered what it took to become the honey queen some day and so I told her about it. It absolutely made my night and really let me know that hopefully during my reign as honey princess and queen that I've inspired some young beekeepers to get involved and to continue with their passions!