Dixon Mayfair

About a week and a half ago I went up to the 2011 Dixon Mayfair.  I have never been to Dixon before, heard about the event from one of my friends.  So Hav, fellow photographer friend Jacqui Galle and myself went up for the day.  If you haven't been there, Dixon is about 20 minutes outside of Sacramento.  It's a tiny little town right off the freeway. Visiting the Dixon Mayfair was an interesting day - it satisfied the inner carnival loving suburbanite in me as well as opened my eyes up to a whole new world of 4-H.  When we arrived I noticed that there was a whole campus of Mayfair buildings.  I'm assuming that Mayfair is the big "holiday" around Dixon... here's the entrance: We paid our ($12) entrance fee and went in. The first thing we saw when we got past the gate was this. Not five minutes after we got into the Mayfair, the Budweiser Clydesdales came out! They started walking right towards us and there was a cute dalmatian on top!  This was pretty cool to see them... totally random. A little farther along we came upon the carnival rides! Hav and I bought tickets to go on some rides.  Mind you it was 2pm in the afternoon and the place was nearly empty, LOL.  We went on the Thriller (above) and the ferris wheel.  Going on Thriller was probably a mistake, I haven't been on this ride since the 90s and when I got off my brain was definitely shaking around in my skull and I had a really bad headache... but it was fun anyway.  If you haven't been on this ride, it used to be called the "Gravitron" back in the day, and you stand around the inside walls and it spins so fast you slide up wall.  The gravitational pull is so strong it's hard to even see straight or even lift up your head.  I must be getting old! We visited the "Livestock" area next. I am from the burbs, but not the country, so I thought it was going to be like a dog show - animals on display with a petting area or something.  The carnivals I went to growing up were in church and school parking lots, sometimes there were pony rides and petting zoos, but never a 4-H area.  We went into the goat tent first. I saw a sign that said "4-H Goat Project" and immediately assumed that these were rescue goats and that the Goat Project was about saving animals (see pic below). A girl about 10 or 11 years old walked over to us and asked if we had any questions.  I asked what made these goats "grand champions".  She immediately said "these goats are going to be slaughtered." and then explained that they will be auctioned off for slaughter.  I heard the word "slaughter" more times in one sentence coming from the mouth of this little girl than I wanted to hear, but we heard her out and it definitely helped give me a new perspective on this farming culture that I didn't even know existed before. This goat below is the grand champion, as pictured above.... which means it will be up for auction and slaughtered. Now that I knew what this "livestock" area was all about, I went over to check out the pigs. As I walked through the "swine pavilion" I was lucky enough to meet someone who hired me on the spot to take photos of the 4-H Swine competition.  Whoa!  So this was awesome and I couldn't beleive it....the pic below is a pig named Haas, just before he was taken out into the competition. These next few photos are of the actual competition.  I know that the competition is to find the best pig, I'm not sure what the actual criteria is, but the kids walk around and tap their pigs with sticks (like jockeys) and there is a man, the "judge" who watches everyone and eliminates them one by one (I could be wrong, it was just my observation). I know that the winning pig will be worth more during the auction... So this day trip turned out to be a life enriching experience on many levels!