Hollywood has the Emmys and MTV Awards, we have the Carcass Contest Awards! Yesterday marked the last of the award season for FFA and 4H with the Carcass Evaluation Awards. This is my favorite because it truly reflects the commercial aspect of raising livestock. It doesn't matter if someone is popular or not, it doesn't matter how clean and groomed the animal is. What matters is how much and what kind of meat you get off the animal. Veronica Tilton does an excellent job at explaining how the evaluation and grading is done, and it's not a simple process. Meanwhile, all the participants and their families do an excellent job at bringing a potluck! That is a simple process; they bring the food and I eat too much of it! Thanks to everyone for their hard work, now it's time to get ready for next year.

It has been a hectic several weeks. The Fair? A success. Attendance was down a little, not a big surprise considering the state of our economy.  I'm totally baffled as to our grandstand shows. The message was consistant from dozens, if not hundreds of people... get a national country music act, get a full blown rodeo, bring back the logging show. The prices were well below industry standards, we just didn't fill up the stands. That didn't mean those weren't terrific shows. It was a great rodeo and Trailer Choir is amazing. These people will go to the top.

Anyway, it's back to the drawing board and we want you to know, we have not lost our enthusiasm for putting on the best show we can. Wait until you see what we have planned for next year!

Amazing what you can get done on a quiet Sunday afternoon at the fairgrounds. Since I've gotten here, I've always stressed details. When you go to a Six Flags amusement park and wait in line for any roller coaster, all the posts herding you along are usually painted a dark brown to hide the dirt of thousands of grimy little kids. At Disneyland, those same posts have incredibly detailed designs painted on them. It brings everyone up a step or two. That's what I want from the Plumas Sierra Fairgrounds. Fortunately, we have just the staff to do it. When you see Willo, Kathy or Oran, I hope you remember to say thanks for their hard work.

What sort of details? Things like extra shade for the food and entertainment areas, the sun screen that's available, a cooling sprinkler out by Splashdogs, and more entertainment to name a few. We have a list a mile long that we will get to in the next year, but this year, take a look at the Floriculture building and the Grandstands. Thanks to grant money, the Floriculture building has a new roof, new paint, new cabinets, new lights and new walkway, plus things you can't see. The Grandstand has undergone probably the most dramatic changes since it was built back in 1953. Totally repainted (no small task), repaired back rests, new metal siding and with luck, new seats. Those were shipped from back east last Friday and we don't know if they will arrive before the Fair. If they do, we might just troll the campgrounds for volunteers and have a seat installation party!

Listen for music and announcements on our new fairwide PA system. I've chosen songs from different eras that will hopefully bring back memories of fairs past. Anyway my list of "to dos" is smaller but still more than I could probably get done in the next week, so we shall see. If you could do me a couple of favors.... come to the Fair, buy a ticket to at least one grandstand show, say something nice to one of the Fair employees or volunteers and do business with one of our sponsors. We are very excited that there's only 11 more days to the biggest event of the year, but I think I'll chill out in the quiet office and save my strength.

Restrictions on where you can smoke are a fact of public life now. Most people are aware that smoking is not allowed in any barn or building on the fairgrounds. It definitely makes sense in our barns with all the straw and wood that's been drying for the past 70 years. There is no smoking in the food court or the grandstands. One area that had not been considered, until now, was the carnival. Several people, some smokers, noticed that little children came awfully close to getting burned by adults carrying their lit cigarettes at kid head level. Yeah, we see how that can be dangerous. It was brought before the Fair Board this past winter and the Board decided to prohibit smoking in the carnival area. The carnival operator has let us know his workers will respect that and be sure to take their smoke breaks away from the rides and public. Thanks to them.

So, where can you smoke on the fairgrounds? Certainly on the paved roads and any grassy area not specifically mentioned as a prohibited area. Will we have smoke police? No. We're counting on the kind of respect and consideration residents of Plumas and Sierra counties are known for. Other fairs have folks from the health department who will point out if someone is smoking in a non-smoking area and pass out patches, gum and pamphlets. Who knows, maybe we can get that together.

I talked with someone from the Marin County Fair where they completely banned smoking on the fairgrounds. They set up a tent just outside the fence for smokers. I suggested they felt ostracized and were probably upset. She reported just the opposite. I guess it turned into the party tent and was overflowing during the event. What do you think of that?