BUCYRUS — Festivities at the 160th annual Crawford County Fair are well underway.
The first weekday of the 2017 fair featured close-up encounters with Bengal tigers, a sheep and lamb show and the fair’s first-ever calf scramble, an event that offered a chicken and sheep scramble for younger participants.
Among the calf scramble participants was fair manager, Rebecca Starner.
“I thought, I’ll sign up it’ll be fun and entertaining,” she paused, “for other people to watch.”
Also participating in the calf scramble was country girl, Lydia Feik, who caught and correctly haltered a calf in 2 minutes and 31 seconds. She was the fastest in the one group of girls.
“It’s not my first rodeo,” she said, explaining that she’s a farm girl who raises beef cattle.
But this was the first time she participated in a calf scramble.
“I just wanted to give it a try,” she said.
She left the grandstand with a huge smile and $150.
Kaden Frey was the fastest to pin down a calf and halter it within the first group of boys. According to his grandmother, Deb Feichtner, this 16-year-old has watched his older brother, 18-year-old Ashton win twice at a nearby fair.
“I think they’ll make me proud,” Feichtner said, waiting for the show to start.
The calf competitions continued into the evening, along with the sheep scrambles.
The chicken scramble was the first of the three main events to take place. Almost 30 children under age 8 gathered in the arena to catch and cage chickens.
“I thought it was really fun,” said Hayden Finney, 7.
When two chickens escaped the gated area, the children continued the chase outside, finally cornering at least one of the two birds before the next event began.
Best friends, Corbin Bloomsfield and Braden Siefert, both 10, showed their lambs. According to Bloomfield’s mother, Siefert was last year’s grand champion.
A show featuring Bengal tigers and a wood carving exhibition were also available throughout the evening.
Asher Farnwalt, 5, says he loves everything about the fair.
He watched the 5 p.m. Bengal Tiger Show Monday evening and waited anxiously in line to feed one. When he finally got there, he had to stretch to hold out a treat for the tiger to eat.
His favorite was the single white tiger. All six of the tigers were Bengal tigers.
Matt Smith, of Creative Carvings, was sculpting a bear on Monday evening. He had several other projects already started and hopes to further add details later this week. He’s been doing this for about 13 years and began offering this display at the Crawford County Fair two years ago.
Buildings and barns were filled with projects of all sorts – photos, hand-made items, jams, and homegrown vegetables. The week-long event kicked off Sunday, July 16 and continues through Saturday, July 22.
Rides opened Monday at noon and will continue through Saturday.
Tuesday, Eric Sowers and Kari Holmes will perform at the Grandstand. Wednesday and Thursday, the harness racing takes place. Glassblowing demonstrations will be featured Thursday through Saturday.
A full schedule of events can be viewed at crawfordcofair.com.
Starner encourages people to come to the fair to see the hard work that takes place year-round.
“These kids work on these projects all year long, and people should come out and support these children and see where their food comes from and see what it takes to raise these animals,” the fair manager said.
