Wow, can you believe that it’s already “Dead Week”?  I feel like this semester has flown by! As classes are winding down, students are starting to stress out about finals, but I wanted to give all of you a little ray of sunshine to look forward to once all the hard tests are over with.

In just two short weeks, we will be on SUMMER BREAK! This means free time, sunshine, and all sorts of fun events you can attend outside! This week, I am going to be writing a two part blog on several agricultural events you can look forward attending this summer.

So, for part one of my blog, I decided to talk about the familiar event that all of us Ag kids focus our whole summer’s around: FAIR!  As a kid who grew up in a rural area, and participated in 4-H, it was a tradition to attend the 4-H fair every July.

Most people go to the fair for all of the great food, rides, and events in the arena, but there is a lot more to most county fairs than that. 4-H Fairs provide the opportunity for all the youth 4-H members to display their projects that they have been working on throughout the summer and get awarded for their achievements.

Also, fair-goers can pet live animals, see livestock shows, learn about agricultural crops and mechanics,  and explore all that 4-H has to offer. Some of my favorite parts of participating in Fair  was just getting to know people in my community and learning about aspects of agriculture that were unfamiliar to me at the time.

If you have never been to a 4-H County Fair, I really encourage you to go check out a few in your surrounding area.

Purdue is located in Tippecanoe County and the Tippecanoe County Fair will be taking place July 16- 22^.

My home county is Warrick County and their fair will be July 11-16.

Finally, at the end of the summer, is the Indiana State Fair. This is the huge fair for the entire state where all of the Grand Champion projects go to compete against one another. This is a large event that has tons of exciting events such as contests, demonstrations, and the ever popular concerts!

The Indiana State Fair will take place in Indianapolis on August 5-21, 2011.

Check out their website and Facebook to see all of the fun events that take place during those weeks!

All of these events should be a really fun time, and as you can see, most fairs rotate on which weeks they are held on so people can go to more than one. Each county has a little something different that makes it unique so I encourage you to go to more than one.

I hope this little taste of fun has gotten you excited for summer, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Part II of my summer event spotlight!