Thursday, July 31, 2003
The birth of a Jersey calf caused quite a stir around the dairy barns.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- It was a day for settling in and digging out as the Columbiana County Fair opened under sunny, then overcast skies.
Dishing up meatball subs, chicken sandwiches and sweet potato fries near the grandstand, Julie Paris of Lisbon was glad she and husband Rich set up their food trailer at the Columbiana County Fair on Saturday.
Rain Sunday, including an afternoon downpour that further soaked already-saturated ground, turned the fairgrounds to mush. Mercifully, most of Monday was free of rain.
Monday was entry day for participants who labored to move trucks and trailers through the mud.
"We've been out here a few years and it's always fun," Julie Paris said. "I enjoy this because I enjoy the people, and all the kids. I enjoy feeding them. We meet a lot of nice people."
The animals
In the pony barn, Jamie Defenbaugh, 10, of Industry, Pa., was helping her cousins clean stalls. David, Beverly and Julie Converse of Leetonia brought draft and hackney ponies and miniature horses to the fair.
Jamie said she might show one of the ponies later in the week. She said one of the Converse's hackney ponies, a 6-year-old mare named Ginger, would likely foal during the fair.
Sisters Aubrey and Danielle Walker, of Goshen Township in Mahoning County, walked their half-grown Holstein steers.
First project
Danielle, 12, said her steer was her first junior fair project and that Aubrey, 17, taught her a lot during the year.
Aubrey said they were walking the steers to get them used to their surroundings and because Danielle's steer needed to lose a few pounds before the weigh-in.
Nearby, Todd Unkefer, 14, of Fairfield Township, kept an eye on his Jersey named Dixie, who had just delivered a bull calf.
The birth caused a bit of a stir around the dairy barns as fair participants and visitors stopped by to view the newborn, nestled in the straw. Todd said not only was the calf on its feet almost immediately, he had to tie it in the stall because it kept trying to run away.
Nicholas Compston, 7, of Carrollton, helped his family settle into the fair by unloading Jersey calves from a trailer. He and brothers Matt, 13, and David, 20, saw two of their Jerseys take champion cow and champion heifer honors two weeks ago at the Carroll County fair.
While participants moved livestock into the barns or decorated booths, fair visitors wandered the midway or watched harness racing.
Horses with names such as Amazing, Jack-in-the-Pulpit and March Time trotted around the track in 10 different races. Appropriately for the first day of the fair, one of the winning horses was French Fry.
Andrew Wiley, 19, of Leetonia and Megan Baer, 18, of New Waterford were named the fair's 2003 4-H king and queen.