Salmon Arm Fall Fair

Hello again friends and family and welcome to another episode of traveling with the Findlaters. 

In this blog entry we went to the Salmon Arm Fall Fair.

There is a lot to get through so lets just dive right into it!

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SALMON ARM FALL FAIR

This one is a bit of a dedication to Mercedes' side of the family who are mad keen with all the old things so here they are:

A wood Gas powered Truck

Exactly how it works can be seen in the photos below but basically you put in wood and then it becomes coal which burns as well, but the process of doing all this creates a flammable gas that is used to power the vehicle's engine with a combustible natural gas.

A Coal Gas powered Tractor
A little like the truck above however this one skips the wood part and just uses Coal which also releases the flammable gas that is used to power it. 

We got talking to what I assume was the owner of one or both of the above mentioned contraptions and he mentioned that this is what was common in the Scandinavian area during the WWII era due to fuel shortages. So there you have it another FUN FACT!!

Next of course are the tractors! I'm not going to say much about them except that most of these were very well done up  and as you will see even had shiny bells and whistles.

 Look at the wheels on the Ford!! first time out the shed!

Add caption

That's the end of the tractor pictures! We promise!

Below is how one's laundry set up would have looked once. All that scratching and plunging and wringing and rinsing no wonder Tom Sawyer got in so much trouble.  

Now an iron collection! They say that people can collect anything - well here is the evolution of the iron! Growing up the way I grew up, I have seen a few versions of these before, and some others I have not seen.

 

This one below took the cake! The owner was very proud to show us this one! In fact he even took the top off to reveal to us that the "asbestos" was in its original condition. 

In such a situation one tries not to look alarmed but still takes a step or two back while checking for the direction the wind is blowing.

Surviving all that, we tested our luck on this machine - it appears much like the pumpkin cutter that I have often seen used back home however this one was used to chop up corn stems etc. and then fed to the cattle or they were added to a silo to sweeten up before feeding to the cattle. 

If you have time you should check out the video!

Sorry it appears that the Video got up loaded without editing so just the first few minutes are good. 

While we're in the old stuff section, this next machine was used in the wheat elevators to determine how clean your wheat was and thus how much it is worth. I'm sorry it seems that we only got a video of it so here it is. 

 
I guess here is as good a place as any to mentioned that the whole reason we were at the show was that we got roped into volunteering. So here we are! our job was to drive golf buggies around with money between the "treasury" and the different entry gates to the fair.

Here's the threat that winter is soon approaching

Chuck Wagon races - That's what they call these little fellas.

Next up the hay maze, I thought that this was the neatest thing! Mate if I was old enough and small enough this would have kept me happy for awhile!

Here is a car that was on display: it's a little Citroen.

Well this machine to me looked like a hay-bailer but in retrospect I never did see any hay bails come out of it. My revised analysis of this machine is that it is used to take the harvested hay from the harvester to the truck or a hay baler. 
I could be wrong, sorry guys I did not get the opportunity to ask any one about it as a was suppose to be busy at work.
But in any case here's a video maybe you can decide for your self. 

 
Next up was the shearer. What are the chances of finding a shearer in a tiny little town who is shearing sheep right before a Canadian winter starts and who also happens to be an Aussie!!

I felt sorry for the sheep who were newly naked and about to freeze over the next few months but what can you do. 

 

Alright then, now on to some more of the animals that we saw:

These cows were part of a project between the local community and the dairy.  There is a program where children each get a calf to look after and they are in charge of feeding and looking after these cows. So as you walk along the stall there are children standing beside or laying with their calf and they can tell you all about them. 

FUN FACT: A cow is not a "Cow" until it has had a calf, until that point it is considered to be a heifer. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos taurus. - Wikipedia

This poor mother pig - It was huge though!
Then there was a pizza eating competition. I have never seen a food eating competition before but it seemed to me to be a bit slower then I had anticipated, that or they have never been as hungry as I have.

Thank you for your patience as we get to the end of this blog. Overall it was a larger fair then I had expected it to be; there were arts and sewing and baking which was good to see, but I think that if I'm around next year I might have something to enter myself!

 


The grown produce section was interesting, they had giant sunflowers and tomatoes and beats and zucchini and lots of other things. 


But I must say that the Pumpkins leave a lot to be desired. 

If anyone wants to send me some seeds from those giant pumpkins back home I think that I might also have a pumpkin to enter next year as well...

But really don't send me seeds I do not wish to be deported just yet!

Then there were Clydesdale horses that were ridden in sync and who knows how much time those girls put into perfecting that!

One thing that I did learn and I think that I might get into in the near future is Gold Panning!!
Here is a video of the guy showing me how to do it:

Then just to finish off with a happy cute note there was a tent where you could pat little chickens and rabbits.

Ok well that is it for this blog folks. I hope that you enjoyed it!

The Salmon Arm Fall Fair was a big day out and heaps of fun so if you are ever in the area at that time of year it is worth a look. 

The next Blog should follow soon after this one as we have been up to a few things lately, so keep an eye out for that in your feed over the next few days. 

At the bottom here is a video of Dan the One Man Band.  Enjoy :)

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