Fun on the hoof at Kane County Fair
Animals big and small make the Kane County Fair different from the usual suburban festival.
Saturday, you could get your fill watching rodeo cowboys wrestle steers at the Big Hat show, or swoon over a hog of a different sort at a raffle for a motorcycle rights group.
ABATE was selling $5 chances for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Besides providing safety training, the group is perhaps best known for its stance against mandatory helmet laws.
But mostly, people were interested in the rodeo, with the bleachers in the arena nearly full for the 2 p.m. show. Rob Duh of McHenry won the steer-wrestling portion of the contest. The crowd ate up corny jokes and stunts by a between-contest comedian, like saying that on his way to St. Charles from Midway Airport, he saw "an Illinois tumbleweed. What's that? It's a Wal-Mart bag, rolling about 40 miles per hour."
The few people who were wandering through the 4-H exhibit hall could learn something from Lisa Holmberg, a member of The Challengers 4-H club out of St. Charles. She included notes with her entries in the "fruit and nut plate" category of contests, one of which explained why you should pick up fruit that falls off a dwarf pear tree, not let it rot on the ground: "Or the baldfaced wasps will eat them and get drunk."
Morgan Bollech, 14, of Hampshire Junior Farmers 4-H Club, was proud of her several award-winning Holsteins and Guernseys. She also explained the hard work involved.
"Dairy farming is a 24-hour job," the Kingston resident said, noting she'd gotten up at 5 a.m. the day before to groom her cattle for competition, including a full body clip and poofing out the tails.
"I took a nap that day," she said.
Charles Ownley of Spoon River Dairy Goats told spectators about goat farming while bottle-feeding 2-week-old kids. Later, he discussed their propensity for nibbling on everything and anything in sight, including the wooden slats and wires of their pens. "They'll figure out how to get things open," he said. "I'm convinced they conspire."
Then there was the spider hanging from the rafters of one of the swine barns.
A group of teens sitting on lawn chairs and hay bales was unusually interested, perhaps because said spider was of the dime-store-fake genus, being lowered on nearly invisible fishing line being wielded by one of them. How many visitors did they get to jump?
"About 50," said a proud but sheepish Zac Risley, 15, of Esmond, there displaying crossbred gilts and barrows.
The fair wraps up today. The grandstand entertainment is a demolition derby at 2 and 7 p.m. The blue ribbon livestock auction is at 1 p.m.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=307889">Fun on the hoof at Kane County Fair</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=307886">Seen and heard at the Kane County Fair Saturday</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=307566">Blue Ribbon Sale place to reap bounty of 4-H in Kane County</a></li> </ul> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/galleries/festivals/?id=301769">Photo gallery </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>