The State Fair

"Who are you here for... my boss Tom"

This blog entry is a little (or a lot) late in coming. I meant to write it directly after the end of the fair... but a bunch of other things have gotten in the way!

about.... a month ago the much anticipated State Fair started in Fairbanks. The fair was one of the events that I had heard about since I arrived at Calypso Farm. This year we were in charge of the Agricultural Hall-so there was a lot of preparation in the days leading up to it... and really during it as well. Those ten days I spent more time in Fairbanks then I have spent the entire time I have been here (about five months).

The state fair in Fairbanks is like a huge culmination of the year. One person I talked to described it as Christmas... without the cold and presents. It's just one of those times where you see everyone that you haven't seen since high school, or all the people you've lost touch with over the years. For me, it was more of a chance to get to see some of "Fairbanks culture."

Everyone goes to the fair... if not everyday, at least one day. They have the same rides and the same food... the same booths... but they do different entertainment and animal shows on all of the three stages. I personally spent a lot of time in the horse barns. They had outdoor stalls set up that you could wonder through and see the horses. Each stall was also labeled with a little description of the horse with their name, breed etc. There was also the petting zoo which Tom and Sus's girls liked to check out.

The other side of the fair was the glutenous smorgasbord of Deep fried, beer battered, powder sugar covered food! I tried to refrain from eating it as much as possible, but I did have some fried dough and a deep fried halibut pocket. If Cheryl (a calypso volunteer) hadn't been volunteering with me the majority of the time, and bringing me incredibly yummy pockets of dough filled with rice and beans, peas, stuffed cabbage leaves etc. I think I would have gained double my weight by the end of the fair! Most people I saw walked around touring the rides, which as is custom, consisted of the well named "fair"eswheel, death drop bungie ride... and other Topsy Turvy man made thrillers.

I might write about this culture as if I wasn't apart of it... but I definitely hopped on the fairiswheel with the girls, joined in eating the glutenous food... and even went up on stage to get hypnotized...

Yep, I did it, and for all of you skeptics out there.... IT WORKED! The first day of the fair I had unsuspectingly told the girls that I had always kind of wanted to get hypnotized... mistake 1. The next day I came in with them again and Tom had already picked out the hypnosis show on that days entertainment line up. I was stuck. So when it was show time I got up on stage... followed Mr. Hypnosis's (for lack of a better name) instructions.... and boom.... I was out. Well kinda. Throughout the show I kept falling in and out of hypnosis... and really it felt more like I was wide awake, just following his instructions and pretending to be a dog... or changing sexes. The farm still knows me as Brad... the man who likes woman who can hike. (hah!)

The highlight for me though, and I know that sounds wierd.., was when Mr. Hypnosis told us we were on the Jerry Springer show. His instructions were to make up as big of a lie as we could about somebody in the audience. Well... I thought about who was in the audience (pretty much the whole calypso staff) and decided on Tom.... my boss. When Mr. Hypnosis approached me he asked me...
"who are you here for."
-my response
"my boss Tom..." (Tom started to hide behind his wife Sus)
-Mr. Hypnosis
"and... what's Tom's problem"
-me
"....He reads romance novels in the outhouse...."
(hysterical laughing)
-Mr. Hypnosis
"is there anything you'd like to say to Tom"
-me
"That's JUST not the appropriate place"

After the show I approached Tom and all I had to do was look at him to send him into one of his frequent laughing attacks... which of course sent me into one as well.

There is so much more to write about in this post... I have a million stories to tell you all about the past month including Ali coming to visit. I am trying to upload pictures and I hope that they will be posted soon!!! In the meantime please hang in there, I only have two weeks left here!!!! ahhh... and then I am off to Seattle!!
much love to everyone-especially those who have lost loved ones recently. I am thinking of all of you.

Fire, Fair and Fall

"Only YOU can prevent forest fires"

It has been an extremely dry, hot summer in Fairbanks. In fact we have gotten so little water that instead of watering the garden with runoff rain water we have had to call the fire department up numerous times and beg them to bring us some more water!!! At this point they've come up and sprayed water into our pond three or four times. They get a good deal out of it though. In exchange for water we bake them all the cookies they can eat =). From what I can gather a normal Fairbanks summer is not this dry. Normally it is hot and sunny through the end of June and then in July it starts to get wetter. Then august is even rainier and colder. By the end of August the leaves are turning yellow and falling from the trees! This normal summer cycle keeps the fires down, but this year we've been dealing with extreme smoke rolling into Fairbanks from the more than 60 fires in the surrounding areas.

The worst part for me is that the last few weeks of summer field trips were really slow because of the smoke. Two weeks ago I had four Pizza Making field trips scheduled for a group from the Fort Eielson base, but partly because of the smoke all but one field trip was canceled! Then This past week two field trips were canceled, including my last summer field trip. Granted the smoke was so thick on those days that I couldn't even see the upper garden from the resource center, which is right across the driveway. No kids or adults should be spending a lot of time outside in that kind of environment... even if it is part of the natural burn cycle of central Alaska.

Like many other things, I never knew that there is a whole section of the army devoted to fire control. These fire fighters are broken up into two groups, the hot shots and the smoke jumpers. Many of the staff, friends and share holders at Calypso have connections to people working in these positions. So I have learned a thing or two about them while I've been here. The smoke jumpers work from the air, dumping water onto the burning fires. The hot shots on the other hand, work on the ground in teams. They dig ditches to stop the fire, cut down trees etc. They dig ditches because forest fires can go underground and continue to burn through the long, cold Alaskan winter. Then when it gets dry at the end of spring the fires pop out in unexpected places.... you can see the danger in that I'm sure.

I have actually been staring at the fire alert board at the bottom of the hill all summer. Every time we drive past it to go into Fairbanks I look to see what the fire danger is for the day. At the beginning of the summer there were a lot of moderate days... but now almost every time I drive past it is EXTREME (written in black letters over red!). I anticipate that the danger will be going down now that we're getting into the end of August though. It is a known fact that the Alaska State Fair in Fairbanks always brings the rain, and this year is no exception.

Right before the Fair got underway last week it began to get colder. Then the day after Susan predicted that there would be no rain until it snowed... it of course rained. After a beautiful clear night, I woke up to pouring rain outside of Steve's house. It has been raining on and off since then. Normally the mornings are a bit rainy, it mellows out in the afternoon and then eventually clears. I actually like the rain here thus far. It's not too cold yet, and it is always so much fun to go wander the woods and see how different everything looks after it's been sprinkled with water.

more on the fair to come in my next post...

ps. I have a new job!!! At the end of September I will be taking off from Alaska down to Seattle where I'll be working as an Americorps in the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patches (aka community gardens)