Not going to lie, I should have gone harder on the sunscreen as these last two days have been sunny & bright outside, and my nose & cheeks are paying the price for it. The forecast is for two more even warmer days, so put on some shorts, and a hat and head on down to the Markham Fall Fair for the final two days of its run in 2023. The midway has been a big hit, as per usual. Old Mac Donald’s farm is getting a good rin this year too.
The heat and dryness has one draw back in the dust not staying settled. Eyes feel a tad gritty, and my shoes are dusty, but otherwise a stellar showing from this years fair.
Usually my painted ceramic sculptures get disqualified because they don’t 100% fit inside the category. This year that wasn’t even a choice to make in the guide book. So I split the difference and purposefully entered the open category for Technique not Previously Named. And I got a fourth place! I placed, which is very nice for a change. There were some very painstakingly gorgeous pieces in the category (No Needlework), so I’m just happy to get recognized and not DQ’d.
Ogre Rogue bust gets 4th place!Got my name on the card too!The whole category, lots of great & inspiring pieces here!
On the other hand neither of my Nuts N’ Bolts, nor my Rice Crispy Squares got anywhere near the podium for food stuffs. My Roses, Hostas, and Dahlias did pretty well this year. My wife entered all of those from our front garden. My BIL’s veggies did really well too. No surprise there, he enters 75-80% of all of the vegetable categories, so he is bound to win, or place in a good number of those. Even the kids got on the board with their crafts and photography entries. Nothing to get upset about. Fewer first place finishes, but still on the podium, or worthy of a 4th, 5th, and 6th place ribbon. No small feat given how large some of the more popular categories can be.
Spent more than five hours there in total yesterday. My hips and feet ached all last night, and my back was terribly uncomfortable for the last hour and a bit of the evening. We managed a ferris wheel ride, monster truck show, dirt bike air show, and the opening night fireworks display. My only gripe was that the Smazhed Burger folks didn’t come back this year. I searched the grounds for them last night, but to no avail. Had left over pizza when I got home instead. Now that’s not the fault of the fair, so don’t take my complaint that way. More disappointing that i couldn’t get a second bite at the burger i really, really enjoyed last year. Oh well. I did partake of a chocolate sauce filled churro, which was tasty. But not the Smashed Burger I was well and truly craving. Also at some point I will get some cinnamon dusted Tiny Tom’s donuts. Always a culinary favourite of mine. Tastes like the fair to me!
The Markham Fair has finally arrived, after much fanfare, effort, and volunteer help, the 2023 Fall Fair is here! Everything is set up, the weather forecast looks to be fantastic, and I for one can not wait to go and look around at all of the new entries, exhibits, demonstrations, rides and new foods! It’ll be an exhausting four days, but well worth the effort. Free parking, nightly fireworks displays, friends, family and a great time for everyone. Wear comfortable shoes, bring a hat, wear sun screen, take a mask for crowds indoors, and go have some fun!
Keeping busy today getting paid work done. Found the time to transplant a sapling too. Kids have loads of after school programming today. Going to he a very busy fall with all the things these kids are doing. Dance, Girl Guides, Gymnastics, and now Taekwondo until Christmas. Yellow belts now have to spare, so $400 for body pads and head gear etc… whee!
Going to eat soup lunch, and get back to work! Busy, busy, busy around here!
Fair time is not the time of year to be asking me for favours, that’s for sure. Between completing entries, crafting, carving, hunting in the garden, picking and pre drying flowers & seeds, colouring, paper mache’ing things, painting, cutting out patterns, and working on my own entries there isn’t much time left over for anything these last few days leading up to the big event. We still have to cart it all to the fair grounds, and hand the pieces over for judging. Tomorrow will be a day of rest, and then Thursday the in person fun begins. Thus far we have enough to fill two or three fairly good sized boxes, plus carved & decorated pumpkins. I have my delicate painted sculpture to go, some Nuts N’ Bolts, and Rice Crispies squares. I definitely need to revisit the Nuts N’ Bolts recipe as I’m not sold on the direction I went with so much cinnamon in it. We’ll see how it goes.
I need to turn over some projects today for review, so once I’m done breakfast I’ll get right on that. I need to get over to the fair grounds to deliver stuff today aswell.
I spent some time on Sunday sharpening my hand planes, so those are good and sharp – again. I would like to leave a rustic finish on the bed frame and not have to spend days sanding it all to a buttery finish. But, again I say, slightly more forward progress being made. Adios.
I did not intend to work on this item much while the sun was out, the temperatures warm, and my kids were home this summer. And for the most part, I did not. However I did pick away at one piece or another during the few short periods we were home and not busy with other people or things (such as the fridge or water softener).
However, new season, new me, sort of deal here. Kids are in school, and September has been quiet on the work front. Until now. Now I have two of the six confirmed paid projects lined up and ready to roll. But inbetween these quiet days I started to pick away at the resin kit again, and now all that is left to prep are the arms and shoulder flaps. So I’m considerably further along than in June when I stopped working on it. I will still have lots of putty work for holes, bubbles and seam lines, but otherwise I am nearly ready to primer the whole lot, then do the actual paint job, and final assembly with the metal parts. It will require extensive panel lining, and the decals are many! Will be a while yet before this thing is done. But forward progress is being made!
The frame.Buckets of red, yellow, white, and gun metal parts.The main weapon is roughly 10″ long! Yikes.
So that is where this resin model kit sits. I need to wire up the chest. Pin the chest together too. Lots to figure out still.
Not to mention I got started on my youngest daughters pine bed for the cottage too. Of course once I got stuck in I now have proper paid assignments to finish, but that’s freelancing for you! Gotta fill your time, and then do your hobby around the real work that actually pays the bills.
Bed frame project is moving along too. Milled up the rough cut pine lumber. Cut my finger joints. Cut up, glued, and hand planed my individual legs. I need to test fit the frame together, and then I can start on the cross beams/slats that will hold up the box spring and/or mattress and then stain it all up, drill holes to pin the legs in place, and get it to the cottage. Potentially I may card scrape, light sand some outer sections, and round over some straight edges to make it less of a toe chopping weapon of a bed. But that will be done later. Like mid October later. I’ve got lots to do right now, with the fair, Thanksgiving, Halloween Haunt, Halloween itself, the damn fridge being stupid. Lots to get through before I can put any sort of significant brain power into my hobbies. Happy Domestic Duties Monday! Ciao Bella!
For the first time ever we participated in the Fall evening festivities at Canada’s Wonderland. We turned up just after 7:00pm and stayed until 11:30pm. The added lights, smoke and music was very entertaining. We were glad that the truly scary stuff was contained indoors or in cordoned off sections of the park so that we could go have fun and not develop nightmares because of it. There were a few scattered undead villagers, gargoyles, and clowns wandering around, but easy enough to avoid. I will say this, it’s a popular event so I don’t think we had any waits fewer than 15-20 minutes to get onto a ride. Walking for an additional five hours last night has made my hips ache, but it was well worth it. Last nights weather was a balmy 20°C, so it was a perfect evening to wander the park. After doing all of our usual rides we finally settled on waiting to ride the Yukon Striker, and it was incredible. Riding in the dark was pretty epic! I’m so glad I managed to coax my oldest into going on with me, as she was grinning ear to ear along with me when we got off the ride. Can’t wait to ride it again in October!
This last stretch before the fair is absolute mayhem. Glue guns, paint, glitter, popsicle sticks, Mason jars, dried flowers, seeds, you name it we have it out ready for crafting today and tomorrow, and more than likely an additional evening come Monday.
The mess is accumulating while we tackle various crafts.
Not to mention a mountain of tags that need to be affixed to each item, and a ticket retained so said item can be retrieved once the fair concludes. Oh my. It’s a gods be damned mess is what it is. Unfortunately that doesn’t leave much time for anything else to get done right this second. We’ve still managed to get two birthday parties in this weekend for our youngest daughters friends.
Come Monday I’ll really need to dig deeper into my first of six larger paid projects. I got a good jump on that Thursday afternoon, and again yesterday evening. I won’t be finished come Monday at 9:00am, but I will have less than half the report left to go. Yay me!
We even put up our very first Halloween decoration today. At the insistence of my oldest ghoul, er, daughter. If they had their way we’d start the Halloween decorations in August as a lead up to October 31st! I love the spooky season, but not three months worth. We will need to carve pumpkins in a few weeks anyway. My gourd vines are all withering, so I’ll need to cut those down soon. Then the squirrels will begin to gnaw on all of my home grown gourds. Bastards. They already dig up and eat all of our Tulips, Glads, acorns, walnuts, and even the early growth of the dahlias. Not to mention my Cherries, Strawberries, Grapes, Raspberries, and my apples too. Bastards. But I digress. Have a great Saturday.
Haven’t seem him face to face since my colonoscopy in early 2020 or so. Even then it was hardly a “face to face” affair. Just a bit of farting about. Going at things arse about face. Bit of a party pooper. They really get on your ass about things. Ha.
So I’m busy this am, and the kids are home for a bit with the PA Day today. The youngest has a birthday party to go to. My oldest was supposed to go do a second sewing lesson, but somehow managed to finish her fair entry in one sitting. Very impressive. The oldest can while away the day completing outstanding fair entries. Should keep those hands busy for a few hours at least.
This whole weekend will be spent painting, crafting, sewing, baking and running around town to get the last few fair entries finished, and in some instances started & finished ahead of next Tuesdays drop off deadline. Could get rather tense! I need to grab pumpkins with my BIL to deliver to the fair grounds too. Lots to do around here in the next four days.
We need to review our photography and get those printed off, mounted, and ready for display come Saturday. We picked up our badges, ribbons and parking tags, so that much is taken care of so far. Probably need to go shopping for rice crispies so that I can make my last project on Sunday/Monday. Don’t want to make them too far in advance as they’ll go stale when it’s time for judging on Wednesday of next week.
I love fair time. If the weather holds out we always get some terrific photos of the midway and the kids smiling & having fun. Blooming onions, funnel cakes, burgers and ice creams, the occasional candy floss, or candy apples thrown into the mix. It’s great. I hope we get to see the horse pulls, demolition derby, and the monster trucks too. I’m pretty partial to wandering around the home craft building looking at all of the complex quilts and art work. My sculpting never wins any prizes but I enter them anyway no painted ceramics this year, so I have to go in for the “Technique Not Mentioned” open category. I just like having one thing to show to people.
The food trucks and the Smashed Burger folks have really good food. I’m sad that I can’t eat more of it in a day. I’ll be searching for their blue banner again this year. As much as I usually enjoy the chicken tenders and fries from the fair, the Smashed Burger really piqued my interest last year.
You should come out to see it. Parking is free, and there are nightly fireworks shows. It’s a really fun agricultural experience. Ciao Bella!
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