Fall II

Fall's official start date the fall equinox was September 23 in 2010, but in Northern New England fall weather starts near the end of August or early in September. This is marked buy cool dry air masses and pleasant temperatures during the day and cool and sometimes frosty nights.

Lancaster Fair
 Another marker of this seasonal change is the annual Coos and Essex County Agricultural Fair: (Lancaster Fair)

The fair runs annually over the Labor Day weekend Wednesday through Monday (Labor Day).








Rocking to the oldies Lancaster Fair 2010
The fair has entertainers from national acts to local bands of many flavors.



















Roger Irwin,  Wildlife Photographer and retired dairy farmer
I always enjoyed this fair yes it has its midway but it still has a rich collection of exhibit halls with displays of vegetables, quilting, photography, and art.







Holsteins
Barns full of cattle, oxen, chickens, goats, horses, pigs and oh lord most any animal Noah carried on the ark seems to be here from time to time.
Activities include horse shows and horse pulling, judging of dairy cattle and other livestock, judging of crafts and 4H projects and my favorite people watching!!






Farmall 460
The annual tractor pull  is an event that I rarely miss, Antique tractors from all over New England and Canada compete for trophies and bragging rights, it's great fun for the participants and audience alike. The brightly colored tractors bearing names like Oliver, Massey Harris, Ford, Farmall, Minneapolis Moline and others that have faded into history along with many of Americas family farms.






The Midway People watching!!
"Fair Time" as it's locally called is a time to reunite with family, old friends and other acquaintances you may not have seen for many years.













Horse Pulling Arena
More popular than the tractor pull are the horse pulling events.  The fair built a special covered arena for these events.  My favorite is the three horse hitch free for all open to the world event.  Horsemen train with their teams all summer for the pulls at various fairs Lancaster New Hampshire, Fryeburg Maine, Barton Vermont, and dozens of other small agricultural fairs in Maine New Hampshire, and Vermont.  While driving along a country road in any of these states you're likely to see a horsemen with his drag being drawn along by his team.. The horses seem to enjoy the competition as much as the fans bolting with their load as soon as they hear the hitch drop.


Washburn Farm and Forest Museum
Millard F. Martins  1956 Ford 860 left
my Dads 1944 Ford 2n is in the middle.












All original pictures and script  © 2011 Philip H. Slocum all rights reserved


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