Early August Field Notes: On County Fairs and Caretaking
Oregon’s Polk County Fair is unlike any other county fair that I know of. There is no large musical acts and definitely no carnival. The highlight of the fair is a 2 hour long rodeo show, Hell on Hooves. This small county fair is about family and agriculture. Even in 2025, you can give your child $20 and send them free to explore the fair. This year they had a pop-up Putt-Putt course and a family game room with virtual reality, air hockey, and foosball. A shady tent was set up for babies and toddlers to have a quiet place to safely play that was filled with toys. The local community college, Chemeketa, pulled in a truck driving simulator that was popular with the teen boys. I personally lasted less than 45 seconds driving the virtual semi before getting motion sick for hours. I truly don’t know how the teens do it.
The focus of the fair is 4-H, FFA, and local agriculture. Our family has been attending the Polk County Fair since before we lived on a farm, or even in Polk County. This year as we sat vending (and playing vast amounts of foosball and putt-putt) I thought about caretaking. The Polk County Fair is caretaking not only families, but also the future of agriculture.
Caretaking is not something most people think about in the context of daily life, unless you are a caregiver, in which that is your job. But for the benefit of the future, we all should be caretaking that which is important to us, and especially the Earth. Caretaking the Earth and soil is why we started Wild Wisdom Wool Pellet Co.
In many ways I am just done with the flash and speed. I know I have bemoaned in my last field notes about Instagram. We live in a world where everyone wants to be seen, vying for 2 seconds of your time to stop scrolling. As a business owner it’s hard. I need to be seen to be able to educate people on the wonders of wool pellets. But I also want to dig into slow. I think my current desire to slow down is mirroring the seasons.
Celebrating the seasons using the American calendar has never sit right with me. For us at Mossygoat Farm, the Polk County Fair in many ways marks the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest season. Summer acts as a giant out breath and by the time fall rolls around, I am deeply ready for rest and winter preparations.
Photos from the Farm, Early August
We have been very busy living our life and I have exactly three photos from early August.
Most of the tarweed has been grazed out but a few sheep were just put in an area with flowering tarweed. Here is Esther Two covered in the sticky resin. Don’t worry- it doesn’t hurt the animals and the resin will wash off during the next rain.
This apple tree was present in what we call the Old Orchard when we moved onto the property in 2015. It wasn’t until this year that I got the variety identified. This is a yellow transparent apple, and it is ready for harvest in late July and early August. The seeds are white! I have been busy making applesauce for the upcoming winter.
Rosarita the horse and Bell the goat have been enjoying the yellow transparent apples as well. Rosarita especially loves apple season. You can see the tarweed resin in her forelock.
Enjoy a Smattering of Prior Field Notes: