My experiences at county fairs are relatively limited. As a child I attended the Hall County Fair in Nebraska. The county had a population of well over 60,000 — making for a pretty big event.Most years my mother would have a booth at this fair, giving her children hours and hours of time to explore the exhibit hall, run amuck on the midway, take in the concerts and, best of all, enjoy the food.For the life of me, I can’t remember ever viewing any of the livestock or farming projects while we were there. I vaguely recall a petting zoo located on the other side of the fairgrounds, but for some reason I never wandered over there.After I moved to South Dakota, my attendance at county fairs dropped to zero. To my knowledge, Lake County doesn’t even have a fair. If they do, I was never privy to it.I once ventured to Huron for the South Dakota State Fair — now that was an experience. Lots of animals, ribbons, rides, booths and ways to spend a small fortune in less than three hours. Everything was very expensive.In Texas, a trip to the state fair in Dallas was anything but a pleasurable experience. The place was crazy crowded. You couldn’t even move unless you were a part of a sea of people thousands deep.I remember seeing the Busch Beer horses and a great display on how milk is produced. They even had a pretend cow that kids could milk. The rides, although spectacular by fair standards, were impossible to reach. Their lines curled in and around midway games like giant snakes. The food was delicious, though expensive. It is where I first saw fried Twinkies and Snickers bars.After moving to Rock County in the fall of 2005, David and I didn’t even think about going to a fair, until July of 2006 when the folks at Tollefson Publishing informed me that I would have to work at their fair booth.I was instantly excited. A county fair — the idea seemed magical and, based on my 4-H reporting, this was going to be a fair just like that on "Charlotte’s Web," not like the big commercial fairs I had attended in the past.The excitement was warranted. Last year’s fair was great! I took my niece and nephew around to see the animals. Hannah even got to hold baby chickens. We spent a good deal of money riding rides, playing games and eating.This year David and I went a step further. When the day came around to enter items into the open class fair competition, we did it. Perhaps it was the thought of winning a ribbon for the first time in well over a decade or maybe it was the idea of getting the $5 prize for grand champion.The Wednesday before the fair David went to his garden and picked the biggest zucchini he could find, the shiniest green peppers his plants could produce and a very strange-looking squash. He also pored over our hundreds of digital photos to find three he felt worthy of submitting as entries.Together we marched into the floral building, not knowing what to expect or what to do. We were greeted by a group of very sweet ladies. I don’t know if my husband was flirting with them (I stopped recognizing that quality in him long ago) or if they were smitten with a young man who was that excited about gardening. There was lots of giggling and bragging about garden tips.I largely kept my mouth shut. After all, this was his deal. He planted the seeds, nursed the seedlings and made sure the garden survived the drought. I just watched and waited with hungry breath.His smile grew bigger the more he learned about the process. He was convinced that he had several winners among his submissions and that next year he could take every category. I could detect a bit of frustration in his voice over not bringing a sample of his rhubarb or some of the apples from our apple tree.The next day when I took a break from my stint at the Tollefson fair booth, I wandered over to the floral hall to see how he had done. The purple ribbons were not attached to our entries, but we did get some ribbons – and that was good enough for our first try.On Friday night we brought the niece and nephew to the fair, just like last year. Even though they were a year older, they still loved walking around the barns, petting the animals as we went. It is a bit magical to be that close to the farm animals.The kids had a great time on the giant slide, won a few cheap prizes and hit the 4-H food booth, the mini donut hut and the ice cream barn before we headed to our car.Even then the youngest among us was not ready to leave. She wanted to say goodbye to the sheep and the bunnies. I agreed. Who knows how long it will be before we get a chance to touch some livestock again.Story ideas or comments can be e-mailed to Lexi Moore at lexim@star-herald.com or called in at 962-3561.