I should have known I'd get hooked. It all started when I arrived at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Thursday evening, walked towards the Administration Building, and saw three painted concrete cows.
Awhile later we walked past the giant pumpkins outside the Ag Hall, and saw a few more concrete cows. Turning to my hubby, I asked, "What's up with all the cows?" And he told me there are over 60 all over the fairgrounds in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the first butter cow.
[Read Abigail Livingood's blog about the concrete cow she painted here, pictured above]
Mentally adding up the half dozen we'd passed in the last half hour, I thought, Hmmm...Sixty. I've seen about ten percent of them already. Finding the rest can't be that hard. And it'll be a fun way to explore the entire fairgrounds. Cool. Let's do it! And so the challenge was on. I started counting cows and taking photos of each.
As beginner's luck would have it, it started strong and as soon as I was hooked, my luck ran out. Before long I was stuck. After the first dozen and a half of the easy-to-find cows, I didn't know where to look next to find the rest. Thankfully I wasn't stuck very long. A good friend shared a photocopy of her Concrete Cow Locations map and I was back in business.
Each day I've been to the Iowa State Fair, I've scoured right and left in hopes of spotting more concrete cows. Saturday we counted several more. Yesterday I enlisted my parents' help and together we found more than a dozen.
Tonight Jamie joined in the adventure and we found a bunch too! We're nearly two-thirds of our way to all sixty. And it's a good thing too because the fair's halfway over and we're running out of time!
So if you'd like to start counting your own concrete cows at the fair, be sure to visit the Butter Cow page on the Iowa State Fair website where you can learn all sorts of cool butter cow facts, print your own Concrete Cow Locations map, and start enjoying the thrill of crossing off those cows from the list, one by one as you find them. And who knows? You may discover new parts of the fair you haven't enjoyed before! Happy counting! Moo!
All in one night I felt really young and rather old all at the same time. We went to the Hairball concert in Des Moines at the ate fairgrounds and met up with friends. Some of us left the balcony and went down onto the floor and threaded our way carefully through the masses and ended up 12 feet back from the stage just off center. The view was great and the good songs were rolling one after another.
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| Hairball's "KISS" |
Looking around, we were definitely on the very young end of the age brackets represented in the crowds. On the other hand, after only a couple songs that close to the speaker bank, my hearing was shot and for the rest of the night my ears were ringing. Even back up in the balcony away from the main blare of it all, whenever someone would say something, I'd often have to ask, "What did you just say?" And then I would feel really, really old.
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| Hairball's "Quiet Riot" |
I'm still glad we went out. It was fun and the concert was really good - well, from what I could hear anyway. If you enjoy good rock & roll, you might want to check out Hairball when they're back at the Iowa State Fair on the Anderson Erickson Stage. You'll be in for a rockin good time.
Have you ever had the opportunity to sit in the front row on the edge of an arena at a draft horse show and feel the earth shudder beneath you and the wind whip your face as a hitch of six gleaming Percherons whisks by? There's no other feeling quite like it. It gets in your blood, makes you sit on the edge of your seat and lean forward so you won't miss a thing.
The World Percheron Congress was held in Des Moines, Iowa a couple weeks ago at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and we got to go to the last three nights. What a sight! Over 800 Percherons were there. Blacks. Dapples. Grays. Large hitches and small. The fairgrounds were alive with horses being led and driven from one class to another. The barns were teeming with horses from all over: Iowa, Ohio, Maine, and California to name a few, and even several places in Canada.
There was so much to take in! We found seats in the Jacobsen Exhibition Center and hunkered down for a great show each night.
Three nights in a row the 16 six-horse hitches of mares and 17 six-horse hitches of geldings competed - and the last night the overall winner of each was announced.
The crowd grew larger each night and filled the arena. When a crowd-favorite hitch would pass by each section, the applause would swell and the people would come to their feet. It felt like watching a well-orchestrated wave in slow motion.
Even Iowa Public Television was there. This was too large an event not to miss! Be sure to watch IPTV Nov. 28 and Nov. 30 when highlights from the show will be broadcast. But - just because I like you, you can read all about it here first :)
During the day, other competitions were held from halter to the field competitions. The field competition champions were awarded Saturday night while the arena was being set up for the feed race.
In the feed race, teams of Percherons pulled breaking sleds through a course and the driver and helper had to pick up a stack of straw bales one spot and place them in pairs onto other spots all the while racing against another team and the clock.
When it was all said and done, this pair took a moment to rest and created quite the sight.
Seeing 17 hitches all in the arena at the same time was incredible. 102 horses in all.
A special costume class lightened the moment between the six-horse hitch classes and the eight-horse hitch class. "Lady Gaga" ended up winning. We were rooting for the Grim Reaper - a really incredible entry with a team of black Percherons pulling a hearse from the 1800s on loan from Living History Farms. The group was reenacting the funeral procession of a famous horse thief. Accompanying the Grim Reaper on the hearse were the thief's mother and widow. Walking behind were the priest and two nuns.
The last class of the night was well worth the wait - the eight-horse hitches! This was our favorite part of the whole week.
We're hoping the World Percheron Congress with come back to Des Moines again in a few years. Seeing Percherons of this calibre so close to home was incredible. We can't wait to see it again! In the meantime, Jamie says he'd really like to get a team of Percherons. We're still discussing whether blacks or dapples. I say dapples. Jamie wants blacks. As we were walking to the car after the last night, Jamie suggested perhaps we get both. I just smiled. We'll have to see.
