Addison County Fair & Field Days Official Program

OFFICIAL PROGRAM A Special Publication of the Addison Independent

ADDISON COUNTY FAIR & FIELD DAYS TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 - SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2016

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

KINGQUAD Welcome The Addison County Fair & Field Days Board extends a cordial invitation to you and your friends and family to attend this year’s Addison County Fair & Field Days on August 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13, 2016. It is our pleasure to showcase the quality products that area citizens have made and for the people of Addison County and beyond to see those products and meet the people who make them.

We welcome everyone to Field Days and hope you have a first-class time at this first-class fair.

STRONG

Addison County Fair & Field Days, Inc. PO Box 745, Middlebury, Vermont 05753 802-545-2557 (Phone) 802-329-2113 (Fax) Visit us on the web at www.addisoncountyfielddays.com

Inside: Admission ...................................................................6 Antique farm equipment............................................33 Board of Directors........................................................6 Dedication to Brad and Cara Mullin............................7

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Draft horses................................................................35 Entertainment ...................................................... 28-31 Father of Field Days turns 100...................................20 4-Hers tend to their animals.......................................32 Map of the grounds......................................................8 New bleachers at tractor pad......................................19 Schedule of events................................................11-17 Snapshots from 2015.................................................18 Spinning wool............................................................19 Sponsors and supporters...................................... 40-42 The art of sheep shearing...........................................24 Note: The schedule of events is up to date as of July 18; late changes may not be included here.

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

About this Field Days Program

• • •

• • • • • •

Addison County Fair and Field Days draws folks from around the county and around the state to the fairgrounds in New Haven every August. The fair draws more people than any other event in Addison County. The best farmers, sugarServing Addison County Since 1988 makers, cooks, bakers and all kinds of craftmakers compete for bragging rights — as do those brave men and women who Keeping Your Family Healthy Is Our Goal get behind the wheel in the demolition derby and the tractor pull (not to mention the folks who work with the powerful Free, same-day delivery & 24/7 refills (call for details) draft horses). And don’t forget Wednesday’s skillet toss. More Frequent In-Store specials on a wide selection of products often than not, the winners turn out to be our neighbors, or the No hassle prescription transfers folks down the road whom we see at the grocery store and at PLUS! a $25 giftcard for new pharmacy customers with current our kids’ school concerts. prescription transfer.

Kids with cows, calves, sheep, lambs — livestock of all Affordable generic extended day supply program kinds — work for weeks and months leading up to the fair, Compounding Pharmacy grooming their animals for show-ring competition. Adults Sensitive & Discrete Counseling compete for the coveted Leona Thompson Bowl. Younger crafters try to earn the Frances Monroe Youth Award.

Free Children’s Vitamin Program – start them off right Contestants young and old — and every age between — Take Charge® Lifestyle Counseling & Weight Loss Program gather fruits and vegetables from the garden and sugar and Solutions Rx Restore® Learn how to relieve the most common side spices from the pantry; then whip them up into a smorgasbord effects of medication-induced nutrient depletion and feel better. of jams, pickles, cakes and cookies for competitions in the Food Department.

We are your independent, hometown community pharmacy There are exhibits, pulls (tractor, truck, horse, oxen and and our friendly staff looks forward to being of service to you pedal-tractor), animal judging, horse shows, carnival food by & your family. Our pharmacists are always ready to answer the ton and plenty of midway rides. your questions. We offer competitive prices & free delivery.

Let us be your partner in your healthcare.

This booklet, which is filled with photographs taken by Stop in today and see why our customers are so loyal!

Trent Campbell and others at last year’s fair, is designed to serve as a guide to Field Days. A complete schedule of events OP E N S can be found as well as profiles of this year’s entertainers.

Y A D 7 Entertainment at the fair comes not just in the form of bands, dancers and a popular magician, but also includes the ever-popular armwrestling. The popular karaoke contest returns, as does the Addison County Gospel Choir.

In Bristol Works!

There is plenty to see and do over the five days of the fair Marble Works, Marble Works, 187 Main Street Addison County’s No. 1 Pharmacy — Aug. 9-13. Don’t miss a minute of it!

Marble Works 187 Main• 877-1190 Street 61 Pine Street Middlebury • 388-3784 Middlebury • 388-3784 Vergennes ury Middleb es nn & Verge

Middlebury • 388-3784

amily!

Vergennes • 877-1190

Bristol • 453-2999

We welcome you and your family!

For hours and more info, visit: www.marbleworkspharmacy.com

hometown community dly staff looks forward u and your family. Our ready to answer your ompetitive prices, free rtner in your healthcare. y our customers are so

A Message to Superintendents

We are your independent, hometown community pharmacy, and our friendly staff looks forward to being of service to you and your family. Our pharmacists are always ready to answer your Theand Addison questions, we offerIndependent competitive prices, free delivery want to the be a results partner inof your willand publish ashealthcare.

Stopmany in todayField and see why competiour customers are so Days loyal!tions as we can get our hands

With our full range of home health care supplies, equipment, and services, The Medicine Chest’s experienced staff can on. Event superintendents help you find solutions for all your home healthcare needs. should take their results to • Sun. 9-12 6 • Sat. • Sun.closely 9-12 with Hours: M-F 8-6and • Sat. 8-5 • Sun. 9-2 Vergennes M-F 9-6 • Sat. 9-3 By 9-3 working your Middlebury physician, hospital home the Field Days office imhealth personnel, we can meet all your in-home medical care mediately after the events. needs and are committed to delivering quality products and Marbleservice.

Works Field Days staff will makeMarble Works superior Middlebury copies and the Independent Middlebury 388-9801 388-9801 We understand…and we can help! will publish the informa- Medical Medical Supplies tion as quickly as possible. Supplies & Equipment

388-9801

Marble Works • Middlebury

Thank you!

& Equipment

2016 Field Days Program Guide:Field 4:25 •PM Field Days • Official Program •Days TheGuide Addison04/29/16 Independent JulyPage 28,1 2016 2016 Field Days Program Guide:Field Days Guide

04/29/16

4:25 PM

Page 1

2016 Field Days Program Guide:Field Days Guide

04/29/16

4:25 PM

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Be a member. Not just a number.

Be Be aa member. member. Not Not just just aa number. number.

At Co-op, we’re member owned and member committed. Since 1915 we’ve been providing protection for individuals, farms and businessesSince with 1915 a large network At Co-op, we’re member owned and member committed. we’ve been ofAt local agents, fast and fair claims service, knowledge of farm safety practices and Co-op, we’re member owned and member committed.

Since 1915 we’ve been providing protection for individuals, farms and businesses with a large network Atindividuals, the Co-op, you’re a member, just aa number. protection farms and businesses with large network ofproviding local affordable agents, fastrates. andforfair claims service, knowledge of not farm safety practices and of localaffordable agents, fastrates. and fair claims service, knowledge of farm safety practices At the Co-op, you’re a member, not just a number. and affordable rates. At the Co-op, you’re a member, not just a number.

INSURING YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBOR INSURING YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBOR INSURING YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBOR

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Member owned. Member committed.

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

2016 BRACELET POLICY

2016 ADMISSIONS

Your ticket price includes parking, gate admission, re-admission, grandstands, all Field Days shows & exhibits.

ADULTS (ages 12 and over)

Tuesday-Friday Daily Admission $10.00 Saturday Only Admission $12.00 SEASON PASS $40.00 SENIOR DISCOUNT Free on Tuesday with

Green Mountain Passport (Green Mtn Passports can be purchased at your local Town Clerk’s office)

CHILDREN (ages 6-11) Daily Admission SEASON PASS

$5.00 $15.00

CHILDREN (5 years and under) FREE all days

RIDE BRACELET TIMES – Pay one price TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. — $15/bracelet Noon - 11:00 p.m. — $20/bracelet 6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. — $17/bracelet Noon - 6:00 p.m. — $12/bracelet 6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. — $17/bracelet 6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. — $17/bracelet

Proudly Serving Addison County Farmers for over 5 Decades!

“Family owned and operated”

Weekly Mon. - Thurs. Livestock Auctions Trucking rates available Specializing in dairy replacement & herd dispersals Addison County Commission Sales Sales Manager/Owner: T. G. Wisnowski & Son 802-388-2661, VT Toll Free 800-339-COWS or 802-989-1507 RT. 125, East Middlebury, VT 05740 www.accscattle.com

Addison County Fair and Field Days is quickly approaching with all the traditional agricultural exhibits and competitions. A change instituted in 2014 will continue this year: Everyone will get a wristband (bracelet) upon entrance to the fairgrounds, and must wear a wristband while on the grounds.

The New Haven firemen will continue to manage the gates and administer the bracelets. Everyone will have a bracelet put on their wrist after paying the gate admission or surrendering their complimentary or purchased pass.

If you are a volunteer or participant, you must have a pass to receive a bracelet at no charge. If you are participating in the fair and have questions, please see your superintendent.

Seniors may purchase a Green Mountain Passport at their local town clerk’s office; it will allow free admission on Tuesday only.

Fairgoers should note that the main admission gate is off the middle of the main parking lot across from the Lucien D. Paquette Exhibit Building, and the upper gate by the midway rides is closed.

Many other new attractions are at Field Days this year. We hope you have a good time.

— Field Days Board of Directors

2016-2017 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT: James Foster Jr., 388-9764 VICE PRESIDENT: Diane Norris, 897-7014 SECRETARY: Kathy Nisun, 352-6630 TREASURER: Brenda Deering, 545-2279 MEMBER AT LARGE: William Roleau, 453-3713 MEMBER AT LARGE: Kenneth Button, 989-7055 Mike Reed, 759-2054 Gilbert Goodyear, 453-2111 Neil Allen, 989-5167 James Weening, 453-3483 Benj Deppman, 462-2122 Megan Sutton 545-2475

BUSINESS MANAGER: Cara Mullin, 545-2557 GROUNDS MANAGER: Leonard Barrett, 349-4179 ELECTRICIAN: Herb Fisher, 247-6390 or 247-6596

WE STAND FOR

you.

®

Contact us for a free farm insurance review JAIMES L. FEWER AGENCY Mary Cobb PO Box 3, Granville, VT 05747 (802) 767-3815 • cobbm17@nationwide.com

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Page 7

Cara and Brad Mullin Our dedication for this year’s fair is to Cara and Brad Mullin. Sadly, Bradley passed away in June after a hard fought battle with cancer. We all miss having Brad with our Field Days family and share our sorrow with Cara, Scott, Matthew, and Ava. Our dedication to Cara and Brad and their family remains.

Cara first started working for Addison County Fair and Field Days in 2006 and although she came with great skills and qualifications, we didn’t know we would also benefit from having the Mullin Team as an integral and important presence for our fair. Cara has done an awesome job as our Business Manager. She calls every vendor by name and calmly deals with whatever a fair can throw at a person every minute of the fair and enjoys it! During the rest of the year, she keeps the board of directors on task with “Cara’s List” at every meeting and taking on administrative and financial tasks and record keeping. Cara also comes up with ideas for new entertainment and investigates and schedules all our entertainment acts for the fair keeping this fresh every year while staying within a

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Brad joined the fair team working alongside Cara, a ready and willing part of our fair team. Whether helping Leonard with grounds tasks, the directors with setting up the parking lot, or during the fair in the parking lot, running errands around the fairgrounds, helping with the caber toss or whatever else there is to do, he was always there with a smile and an “OK, let’s go!” never saying he didn’t feel like it, even though sometimes we knew he did not. Keeping busy and being involved was as important for Brad as it is for all of us.

And then there are the Mullin kids. Scott, Matthew, and Ava have all done their part to help out with activities and be active participants in Guitar Hero, Skillet Toss, Caber Toss, Arm Wrestling, Karaoke, Hypnotist acts, game shows, and peewee show. Ava especially, has grown up as Miss Fair for all of us.

Cara and Brad joined our Field Days family wholeheartedly bringing their family along with them. We love them all and are very proud to dedicate this year’s Addison County Fair and Field Days to Cara and Brad.

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Page 8

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Field Days Map 1. Kelly James Natural Resources Pavilion 2. Public Safety Building 3. Dusty Chuck 4-H Food Booth 4. 4-H Exhibit Building 5. Youth Food Booth 6. Field Days Main Office 7. Milking Parlor & Dairy Bar 8. Dairy Palace Arena 9. Bandstand 10. Twist-O-Wool Guild Tent 11. Solar Barn 12. Show Tent 13. Handmowing Area 14. Lucien D. Paquette Exhibit Bldg.

15. Horse Area Manager’s Booth 16. 4-H Dairy Barn 17. Open Dairy Show Barn 18. Beef Cattle Tent 19. Antique Equipment Building 20. Show Arena 21. Frances Monroe Home & Garden Ctr. 22. Sara McCarty Children’s Barn 23. Sheep Tents 24. Pony Rides & Free Youth Activities 25. Infant Comfort Station 26. Field Days’ Little General Store 27. Addison County Toy Barn 28. Poultry Tent

Restrooms Ticket Booths Phones Designated Smoking Areas

Page 9

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

On the Cover Field Days founder and champion hand mower Lucien Paquette sizes up the task ahead during a Field Days handmowing competition a couple years ago.

Addison Independent’s Trent Campbell took the photo.

67 Years of of Service 73 Years Service 67 Years of Service 67 Years of Service 1943-2010 1943-2016 1943-2010 1943-2010 Serving Addison County Serving Addison County Serving Addison CountyCounty Serving Addison

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Page 10

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

The helpful staff from Paris Farmers Union invites you to

Visit us at Field Days Stop in, visit our booth and say hello.

We’ll be located, as always, between the 4-H Food Booth and the Animal Show Arena.

Hope you can make it to Field Days & our store for special storewide savings and to meet our team!

Wood and Pellet Stoves Alan Bean, Manager

from Canada

Jennifer Litch, Asst. Manager

handling equipment for horse & cattle S

One of New England’s LARGEST Stocking Dealers of ADS Plastic CULVERTS!

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Offer good while supplies last or through August 31, 2016, whichever comes first (discount cannot be combined with any other offer or discount).

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Animal Grooming Supplies • Shampoos & Body Washes • Shears • Wormers Hoof Shine • Harnesses, Halters & Leads • Fly Control Spray • Straw Hats Like us on facebook!

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Page 11

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Schedule of Events

DAILY ACTIVITIES 10:00-10:00 Children’s Barnyard Open 10:00-10:00 4-H & Youth Building Open 10:00-10:00 Antique Equipment Building Open 9:00 - 9:00 Maple Sugar House Open 10:00-6:00 Twist O’ Wool Guild Demos (Twist O’ Wool Guild tent) 10:00- Forest Festival Exhibits & Demonstrations (forestry building) 10:00-10:00 Antique Equipment Demos

(antique equipment area) 10:00-10:00 Home & Garden Building Open with continuous craft demos 10:00-10:00 Lucien Paquette Exhibit Building Open 10:00-5:00 Wood Carving (antique equipment area) Daily Maple Products Demonstrations (maple sugar house) 12:00-12:00 Midway Open (approximately) 1:00-4:00 Milking Parlor Demonstrations 1:00-6:00 Cairo Northern Clowns (walk around entertainment)

BEN CRAWFORD WAITS his turn to enter the Cow Palace during the 4-H Youth Dairy Show at last year’s Field Days.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

TUESDAY, August 9 Addison County Day

MORNING 8:30 Western Only 4‑H and Open Youth Junior Horse Show (horse area) 9:00-5:00 4-H Dairy Conformation Classes

(animal show arena) (Continued on, Page 12)

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Page 12

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Schedule of Events 10:00 Open Miniature Donkey Show (Butterfield Arena) 10:00-10:00 Antique Equipment Demos

(antique equipment area) 11:00 Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) 11:00-7:00 Kindness Bakery

(Connor Home Stage in Paquette Bldg)

AFTERNOON & EVENING 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:00

1:30 2:00

2:00-4:00 3:00 3:30 3:30 4:30 4:45 5:00 5:00 5:30 5:30 6:00-11:00

6:00 6:00

6:15 7:00 7:00

7:00

7:00 8:00

Midway Opens (approximately) Dig For Treasure! (youth activity area) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) VTPA-Garden Tractor & ATV Pulls & Antique

(tractor pad) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Sheep Shearing/Handling Demonstration (sheep tent) Children’s Activities (children’s barnyard area) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) Vermont Products Dinner-1st Sitting (dining hall) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Gymkhana (horse area) Pet Show (animal show arena) Vermont Products Dinner-2nd Sitting (dining hall) BRACELET NIGHT for rides ($15 - rides unlimited) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Seth Warner Mount Independence Fife & Drum Corp (bandstand) Vermont Products Dinner-3rd Sitting (dining hall) Addison County Gospel Choir (show tent) Addison County Line Dancers – Line Dancing Demo & Lessons (bandstand) Miniature Horse Team Hitching Demonstration (children’s Barnyard area) Vermont Products Dinner-4th Sitting (dining hall) Field Days Opening Parade - “My favorite things about Field Days is___“

WEDNESDAY, August 10, 2016 #1 Auto Parts Day

MORNING 8:30

9:00

English Only 4-H and Open Youth Jr. & Sr. Horse Show (horse area) Open Dairy Show-Holsteins, Brown Swiss (Continued on, Page 13)

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Page 13

Schedule of Events & Guernseys (animal show arena) 10:00-2 Children’s Activities (children’s barnyard area) 10:30 Ox Pulling (Butterfield arena) 11:00-7 Kindness Bakery (Connor Home Stage

in Paquette Bldg) 11:00 Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand)

AFTERNOON & EVENING 12:00

12:00 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:00 1:30 1:30 2:00

2:30 3:00 3:30 3:30 4:30 5:00 5:00

Midway Opens (approximately, All day/night bracelet-$20) Dig For Treasure! (youth activity area) Men’s Caber Toss (tractor pad) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Ladies Cast Iron Skillet Toss (tractor pad) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) Sheep Shearing/Handling Demonstration (sheep show tent) Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Extreme Trail Riding (horse area)

CHAINSAW CARVER CHRISTOPHER Nelson of Lincoln prepares a log during a demonstration of his art last year.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

5:30

6:00 7:00

7:00

Miniature Horse Team Hitching Demonstration (children’s barnyard area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Karaoke Talent Night with DJ Amanda Rock (signup at 6:30) (show tent) #1 Auto Parts Demolition Derby (tractor pad) (Continued on, Page 14)

Page 14

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Schedule of Events 7:00

Jim Libby Band (bandstand)

THURSDAY, August 11 Vermont Agricultural Day

MORNING 8:00 9:00

9:00

10:00

10:30 11:00 11:30 11:00-7:00

Annual ACFFD Open Horse Show (horse area) 4-H Dairy Fitting & Showmanship Classes (animal show arena) 4-H & Other Youth Sheep Show (sheep show tent) Hand Mowing Contest (antique equipment demo area) Pony Pulling (Butterfield arena) Pedal Tractor Pull (show tent) (sign-ups at 10:00) Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) Kindness Bakery (Connor Home Stage in Paquette Bldg)

AFTERNOON & EVENING 12:00 12:00 12:00-4:00 12:30

Midway Opens (approximately) Dig For Treasure! (youth activity area) Children’s Activities (children’s barnyard area) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area)

1:00 1:30 1:30 2:30 3:00 3:30 3:30 4:30 5:00 5:30

6:00 6:00-11:00

7:00 7:00

7:00 7:30 8:00

Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (children’s barnyard area) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (children’s barnyard area) Miniature Horse Team Hitching Demonstration (children’s barnyard area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) BRACELET NIGHT for rides ($17 - rides unlimited) The Hitmen (show tent) Addison County Line Dancers – Line Dancing Demo & Lessons (bandstand) #1 Auto Parts Demolition Derby (tractor pad) Animal Costume Class (animal show arena) Home and Garden Awards & Leona Thompson Bowl Presentation (home & garden bldg) (Continued on, Page 15)

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Page 15

Schedule of Events

FRIDAY, August 12 Youth Day

MORNING 8:30 Exhibitors’ Breakfast (dining hall) 9:00 Draft Horse Show (horse area) 9:00 Open Sheep Show (sheep show tent) 10:00-2:00 Children’s Activities (children’s barnyard area) 10:00 Youth & Open Working Steer and Ox Show

(beef/working steer show tent) 10:00 Horse Pulling (Butterfield arena) 11:00 Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) 11:00 - 7:00 Kindness Bakery

(Connor Home Stage in Paquette Bldg)

AFTERNOON & EVENING 12:00 Dig For Treasure! (youth activity area) 12:00-6:00 BRACELET TIME for rides ($12 - rides unlimited) 12:00 VTPA-Farmstock, NYPTA Super Farm (tractor pad) (Continued on, Page 16) DEMONSTRATIONS OF ANTIQUE farm equipment are always a popular attraction at Field Days.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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12:00 Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) 12:00 “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) 12:30 PeeWee Dairy Showmanship

(animal show arena) 1:00 Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 1:00 4 Abreast, Show Division (horse area) 1:30 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) 2:00 Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) 4:00 Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) 3:00 Open and Youth Beef Show (animal show arena) 3:00 “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) 3:30 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) 3:30 Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 5:00 Armwrestling-Kids 16 & under

(sign up at 4:00)(show tent) 5:00 “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) 5:30 Miniature Horse Team Hitching Demonstration

(children’s barnyard area) 6:00 Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 6:00-11:00 BRACELET NIGHT for rides ($17-rides unlimited) 6:00 RE/MAX Tethered Hot Air Balloon Rides

(parking Lot, weather permitting) 7:00 VTPA-Farmstock, NYPTA Super Farm,

VT V8 Minis, Pure Stock, 2WD Minis (tractor pad) 7:00 Armwrestling-Adults (weigh-ins 5:00)(show tent) 7:00 Vorsteveld Family Band (bandstand)

SATURDAY, August 13 Champlain Valley Equipment Day

MORNING

9:00 Open Dairy Show-Ayrshires, Jerseys & Milking

Shorthorns (animal show arena) 9:00 Draft Horse Show (horse area) 10:00 Poultry Breeders Show (poultry tent) 10:00-2:00 Children’s Activities (children’s barnyard area) 10:00 Baked Bean Bonanza Contest & Samples

(solar barn) 10:30 Youth Sheep Blocking and Fitting Contest

(sheep tent) 11:00 VTPA-Altered Farm, Modified, Diesel 2.5 Diesel

Stock Street Legal, 2.6 Diesel Pro, S.S. 4x4 Pickup,

Street Legal Semis (tractor pad) 11:00 Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) 11:00 - 7:00 Kindness Bakery

(Connor Home Stage in Paquette Bldg)

AFTERNOON & EVENING 12:00 12:00 12:00

Midway Opens (approximately) Dig For Treasure! (youth activity area) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) (Continued on, Page 17)

Page 17

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Schedule of Events 12:30 1:00-3:00

1:00

1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00

3:00

3:00 3:30 3:30 3:30

4:00 5:00 5:30

6:00 6:00-11:00

Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) Lucien Paquette’s 100th Birthday Celebration (tent next to the cow arena) Six Horse Hitch, North American Classic Six Qualifier (horse area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Michael Blaine-Hypnotist (show tent) Sheep & Wool Garment Lead Line Class (sheep show tent) Sheep Shearing/Handling Demonstration (sheep tent) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) 4-H Hands on Workshop (4-H exhibit building) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) Square Dancing w/Cast Off Eights & Lake Champlain Squares Tom Joyce, The Magic Man (bandstand) “Rosie’s Racing Pigs” (dairy area) Miniature Horse Team Hitching Demonstration (children’s barnyard area) Stunt Dog Productions Show (show area) BRACELET NIGHT for rides ($17 - rides unlimited)

JULIE GILES AND Emily Abair go for a spin on the “Rock Star” ride at last year’s Field Days.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

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7:00

7:00 7:00 Dusk

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

2015 Snapshots THE 2015 FIELD Days was one of the most successful ever.

Great weather and plenty of attractions drew big crowds. Riley Marchand, right, watched over Brown Swiss Betty while resting in the 4-H dairy barn and spectators, bottom, took in the pony pulling competition.

Independent file photos/Trent Campbell

Page 19

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

New bleachers will help you view tractor pad action

By CHARMAINE LAM During Field Days the spotlight often falls on the tractor pad.

Visitors flock to demolition derby and the tractor pulls and crowd around the pad, standing on tiptoe to try to catch a glimpse of the events because there are only so many bleachers at the pad.

This year there will be a few less gawkers straining to see over the fence.

The Addison County fair has doubled the size of the bleachers around the tractor pad. Now the bleachers will extend along the entire west side of the track, all the way to the finish line for the tractor pulls.

“There was never enough room and people were standing and trying to crowd

in,” said business manager Cara Mullen.

“The tractor pad is our largest attraction and it’s always packed. Now the majority of people will be able to get a seat.”

The fair receives grants from the state every year that go toward operation and improvements. The state provides grants to fairs around Vermont, and Addison County Fair and Field Days receives around $20,000 each year.

The Field Days board of directors has put aside $5,000 from the grants in past years to go toward bleachers and other structural improvements. Their efforts have paid off, and they have finally been able to purchase the bleachers in time for this year’s big event.

The board has also raised enough funds to build an extension to the main office and a new maintenance shed at the fairgrounds. The offices, located near the south entrance to the midway, are always busy during Field Days, with people coming in and out. Grounds manager Leonard Barrett said the extension would give the staff more quiet in the office.

The new maintenance shed will replace the maintenance trailer that has supported the fair in past years.

“I doubt (the shed) will make a difference to anyone but me,” Barrett said with a laugh, “but the new offices will make a big difference.”

Drop, twist spin: learn about spinning wool at Field Days

By GAEN MURPHREE Not too far from the antique farm equipment and the draft horses, Peggy Lyons sat in the Twist O’ Wool Guild’s big, white tent at last year’s Addison County Fair and Field Days, spinning thread.

“For me, the fair is the animals and the people,” the Weybridge resident says. “We love this new location because it’s down by the horses and the machinery and the sheep. I organize the tent for the guild, and we get members volunteering.

The fair is the best excuse in the world to sit and spin all day.”

All around the tent, a chatty but focused coterie are variously engaged, carding wool, weaving on different types of looms, selling raffle tickets for the group’s annual Field Days afghan (one of the guild’s big fundraisers for the year), answering questions, dyeing and spinning.

Lyons used a drop spindle to twist and spin thread out of some silvery gray cashmere-and-silk roving. Roving, which looks a bit like cotton candy or like a very soft but very fake Santa’s beard, is wool that’s been washed and carded and is ready to spin or to be used in felting or other crafts.

The drop spindle, which looks a bit like a cross between

Vice President

WHETHER WOOL IS spun with a drop spindle, as Peggy Lyons did at Field Days, or a wheel, the result is wool thread ready to be knit.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

a top and a yo-yo, dates back to the Neolithic era. Indeed, in many ways this task defined women’s work for thousands of years. Think Greek mythology. Think the three Fates. Spin(See Spinners, Page 19)

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Page 20

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

LUCIEN PAQUETTE, WHO founded Addison County Fair and Field Days in the 1940s, will celebrate his 100th birthday on the last day of the fair. His actual birthday is one day later.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

“Father of Field Days”

Paquette to celebrate his 100th birthday

By EMMA COTTON NEW HAVEN — Lucien Paquette sat back in a wooden chair at his kitchen table one day last month and laughed.

He was telling a story about a phone conversation he’d recently had with a doctor who asked him for his birth date.

“Eight, fourteen, sixteen,” Paquette had responded.

The doctor was puzzled, and not amused.

“I had to specify, it was 1916,” Paquette said, chuckling about the confusion.

That’s right — Paquette, longtime Middlebury resident and father of Addison County Fair and Field Days, was born Aug. 14, 1916. This August, the day after Field Days ends, he’ll turn 100.

He doesn’t look or act his age — at

the oldest, he seems a inspection of all of the sprightly 85. Paquette’s Paquette’s championship individual results, he mind and physique of the hand-mowing realized that his youngest are still sharp. There daughter, who competed aren’t many ways his competition dates back to his in the ladies’ class, won nonagenarian side childhood, when he handwith a score even higher shows through — than his own. except, maybe, at last mowed his family’s farm in “I’m tickled at that,” year’s hand-mowing Craftsbury. He started the he said. “I talk to people competition. it and I say ‘I’m event at Field Days and has about Paquette’s championpleased, because it ship of the hand-mowing taken the first-place prize means I’m a pretty good competition dates back home every year. teacher.’” to his childhood, when This kind of he hand-mowed his famagricultural education ily’s farm in Craftsbury. He started the probably happened naturally with event at Field Days and has taken the Paquette’s family — he has a long first-place prize home every year. history of teaching the public about the Last year, he competed in the “80 importance of farming. In 1940, soon years and above” class and won the after he graduated (magna cum laude) best score, as usual — but upon careful (See Paquette, Page 22)

Page 21

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Paquette…

(Continued from Page 20) from the University of Vermont, he was hired as the UVM Grand Isle County Extension Agent in Agriculture.

Though most counties had three extension agents, Paquette was the lone agent in Grand Isle, responsible for helping the county’s farmers increase crop yields while also building the local 4-H program.

“I got to know all the farmers in those five counties,” he said.

Six years later, UVM’s then- “There was so much dean of agriculture asked Paquette to move to Addison County, and in rationing, on the 1948 the Addison County Fair and farm, in the home, in Field Days, then called Addison County Farm and Home, was born. businesses — there In the wake of World War II, were certain things that Paquette created the agricultural event out of a desire to educate were just not available.” farmers about resources that — Lucien Paquette were previously restricted due to rationing.

“There was so much rationing, on the farm, in the home, in businesses — there were certain things that were just not available,” he said.

While the event grew, Paquette encouraged business owners to either attend the fair or participate so that they could watch demonstrations and learn about the tools that had become plentiful in the post-war era.

With all of the networking, Paquette quickly became acquainted with the majority of business owners in Addison County. Some of those businesses, like Foster Motors, are still exhibitors at the fair.

Since the start of Field Days, Paquette has been involved with a slew of professional, community and personal engagements.

He was the superintendent of the UVM Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge. He was an income tax practitioner for 30 years.

He started a radio program. He chartered Addison County’s Right to Life organization, with which he is still involved. He raised more than $16,000 for mental handicapped programs.

With his wife, who died in 2002, he organized, recruited for and led trips to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

He has also fathered 12 children.

“I had my hands full,” Paquette said.

From 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, Field Days will host a celebration for Lucien Paquette’s 100th birthday in the tent next to the cow arena.

Paquette’s family has invited those who can’t make the party at Field Days to come celebrate Lucien’s 100th on the actual day — Sunday, Aug. 14 — from 2-4 p.m. at an open house at 2538 South Bingham Street in Whiting.

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

PEGGY LYONS USES a drop spindle to spin yarn at last year’s Field Days. Using a drop spindle requires more dexterity and coordination than traditional wheel spinning.

Page 23

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Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

Spinners…

(Continued from Page 19) ning’s not just old, it’s ancient.

Lyons drops the spindle and sets it spinning. The weight of the spindle pulls the roving into yarn as Lyons feeds and twists and smoothes it with her fingers. It looks easy, the way bouncing a yo-yo looks easy. But it’s not.

“I learned to spin from a Bristol woman named Bobbi Kennedy, who was well known for her quilting and spinning abilities,” Lyons said. “I started out on the wheel and every once in a while, I would try the drop spindle, but I had no patience for it. Then a few years ago, I decided that I had to be smarter than a drop spindle, and I stuck with it until I got it. Once you connect with the timing, it all comes together. It’s a matter of setting your spindle at the right speed, drafting enough, and letting it pass through.”

“There’s a sense of meditation when you spin,” Lyons added. “You just relax and focus on what you’re doing, and you end up with a beautiful product. It makes you feel good at the end of the day.”

Several of the spinners near her looked up and beamed.

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Page 24

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

A look at the art of sheep shearing on tap at the fair

By GAEN MURPHREE NEW HAVEN — You can hear the sheep tent at the Addison County Fair and Field Days long before you enter it. Once you enter, the place is defined by sounds as much as sights.

Over the roar of the huge barn fans — going continually to circulate air, keep down the flies, and cool off animals and humans alike — sheep call to each other, baaing and bleating, some high, some low, in tones and pitches varying enough to fit out a well-rounded community chorus. Up near the fitting stands, you can hear the continual click-click of shears, as various young people prepare their sheep for the show ring.

At Field Days last August, 22-year-old Grace Kuehne worked among the sheep, where she said she feels very much at home. On the first day of the fair she educated and entertained visitors with her sheep-shearing demonstrations.

Around Kuehne on Tuesday the sheep hang out, contentedly enough, “The Addison County in their well-tended wooden pens — fair is almost home dark-faced Romneys with their chocolate-colored wool; the classic “Little to me, especially Bo Peep” look of the border Leicesters, within the sheep Oxfords, Columbias and Lincolns; and the small-horned Karakul with their tent.” black shaggy coats. The little Karakul — Grace Kuehne lambs’ tightly curled black pelts look, somewhat disconcertingly, like the signature hats, capes and coats made out of them.

Some sleep, some chew, some watch the curious crowds and each other. One of the few lambs still young enough to nurse butts its mother for a snack.

A sign cautions visitors that petting sheep on the head can cause them to be aggressive. Try under the chin first. A 4-H poster tells visitors that “Wool is a 12,000-year-old miracle fiber! It’s renewable. It’s natural. It’s bio-degradable. It’s earth friendly.” Another cites interesting sheep facts, everything from Dolly the sheep cloned in 1996 to the ancient evidence that humans have been raising sheep for at least 11 millennia.

Sheep shaped Vermont — close to 200 years ago the craze for Vermont-raised Merino wool resulted in the clearing of thousands of acres of woodland for pasture.

Kuehne, a Benson resident, starts the shearing demonstration by deftly maneuvering a 150-pound Southdown ewe onto its rump, its back braced against Kuehne’s legs, its four feet sticking out in front of its body. Poised on its rump, hooves splayed, in a very un-sheeplike posture, the hefty ewe looks for all the world like one of those overfed obese cartoon cats popularized by B. Kliban.

Southdowns, Kuehne explains, are a meat sheep, and so they need to be fully shorn for the show ring so that the judges can take a look at their shoulders, hocks and haunches up close and personal.

The moment Kuehne wrestles the sheep onto its butt, a crowd of close to 50 kids, adults, toddlers and babes in arms suddenly materializes. The kids watch, all eyes.

GRACE KUEHNE OF Benson uses gentle pressure from her legs and arms to control a sheep during a shearing demonstration at the 2015 Addison County Fair and Field Days.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

“One of the key things to shearing animals,” Kuehne says, before she clicks on the electric shearing clippers, “is to know how to hold the animal and how to maneuver them while you’re shearing. Right now I’ve got my left foot underneath her left shoulder blade; and because I’ve got my foot under there, she can squiggle and squirm all she wants but I’ve got control of her and she can’t roll forward.”

Indeed, the sheep rests there, amazingly docile as Kuehne starts with the sheep’s underside, moving in downward strokes down the chest, under the arms, down and across the belly, and inside the legs. Underside finished, Kuehne flips the Ovis aries onto its side. She uses her whole body to brace the sheep while she shears — legs, back, knees, working just as much to balance and hold the sheep as her right arm maneuvers the highpitched whirring clippers. Given Kuehne’s assured handling, the sheep hardly lets out a bleat or so much as twitches — let alone makes a run for it. Only once in the 20 or so minutes it takes to completely shear off its fleece does it even attempt to squiggle out of Kuehne’s grasp. The confident young woman wrestles it right back in place, no fuss, no nonsense, and goes right on shearing, as she explains each move to the audience.

When Kuehne’s done flipping and shearing and flipping (See Sheep, Page 34)

Page 25

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Senators

Middlebury - Addison 1

The Addison County Democrats look forward to seeing you at the Fair!

Visit our booth while you’re taking in the fair.

Jill Charbonneau

Robin Scheu

Claire Ayer

Amy Sheldon

Addison – 3

Diane Lanpher

Fritz Langrock

Addison – 4

Mari Cordes

David Sharpe

Stephen Pilcher

Addison – 2

Addison – 5

Taborri Bruhl

Chris Bray

Paid for by the Addison County Democratic Committee.

Peter Conlon

Page 26

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Adrenaline junkies can’t get enough Demo Derby

By SAM HARTLEY Most people attend Field Days as a way to have fun and relax, but demolition derby drivers aren’t most people.

Like most adrenaline junkies out there, seasoned derby driver and Addison resident Gary Grant gets a visceral thrill out of riding that thin line between entertainment and danger.

“You bring your car and you’re pretty excited,” said Grant of how it feels on derby day. “You’ve got find somebody to inspect it. You’re “You’re taking a car, to shaking real good, oh your nerves are stripping it down wound right up. I mean, you’re taking a car, stripping it down and you’re going and you’re going to smash it into another car. That’s just to smash it into not something you do every day, you another car. That’s know?”

Now 23 years old, Grant has been just not something driving in the Field Days demolition derby since he was 16. Derby driving is you do every day, also something of a tradition in his famyou know?” ily.

“My dad used to do it. My uncles all — driver Gary Grant did it. A lot of family friends were always into it. When we were little kids, we actually learned how to drive cars in our parents’ derby cars that they’d drive around.

We used to take them out in the back field and test drive them,” he said.

Grant is good at it too — last year he placed first in two heats

ASHLEY BODINGTON OF Vergennes climbs out of her car and raises her arms after coming in third place in her heat at the fair on the first night of the Demo Derby at last year’s Field Days. She won the big-car feature the next night.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

and even won a feature. He’ll also be competing at this year’s Field Days, this time with a Chevy Aveo, a Buick, a Hyundai “Accident,” and a Ford Taurus wagon.

While not for the faint of heart, demo derbies are accessibly (See Demo Derby, Page 27)

See YOU at Field Days!

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Page 27

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

TOM BESHAW, RIGHT, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., takes a punishing hit from Addison’s Ethan Gevry during a heat of last year’s demolition derby.

Independent file photo/Trent

Demo Derby…

(Continued from Page 26) inexpensive for those with the mettle to open the throttle.

“An average derby car costs anywhere from $200 to $400 to buy,” said Grant.

“Then you have to strip it and get it all ready and then you have to enter it for another $50. Then you’ve got to get it to the fair.”

Demo derbies are mostly safe so long as the drivers follow the rules and don’t behave recklessly.

“They have referees that come and inspect the car before you take it out on the track to make sure it’s safe and ev-

erything,” said Grant. “Your seat belt has to work properly, you have to wear a helmet. They really try to go the best route they can to not have anybody get hurt while you’re out there smashing cars into each other.

“It’s not very often that somebody gets hurt,” he continued. “Normally if somebody does get hurt, it’s definitely a mistake or an accident that happened. Or somebody just being dumb, you know?

Sticking their hand out the window or something.”

Grant thinks demo derbies are a tremendous amount of fun and that any-

one considering entering one should go ahead and give it a shot.

“You get your car out there and you get lined up and you hear the announcer counting down. ‘Five… four… three… two… one…’ You put it in reverse and you hold it to the floor and you don’t let off until it stops running. You’re quivering the whole time and everybody’s cheering and it’s really a good time. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

“It’s a lot of work to get one ready, but for somebody that’s never done it before and is on the fence if they want to or not — just try it once. You’ll be hooked.”

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Page 28

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

TRACTOR PULLS

ROSIE’S RACING PIGS

THE MAGIC MAN — TOM JOYCE

Field Days Entertainment

In a time before television and radio — and long before the Internet — people found entertainment in live performances.

A talented family or church group would sing songs, traveling buskers would offer a tune, a magician at the county fair would perform some sleights of hand.

While livestock and agricultural life are at the heart of Addison County Fair and Field Days, entertainment is always a big draw, as well.

The 68th edition of Field Days offers visitors a broad range of entertainers that will delight both young and old throughout the week. There will be plenty for fairgoers to laugh at and hum along to as they stroll around the grounds. Plus there are several acts performing in the evenings that you won’t want to miss.

This year’s lineup of new and returning acts includes music from gospel to karaoke and many stops in between. There will also be all sorts of other types of acts including dancing, magic and the ever-popular racing pigs.

Just about everywhere you turn there will be some sort of entertainment act going on.

Here is what to look for each night at the show tent and bandstand, followed by profiles of the performers on stage every day throughout the fair, often twice a day.

The Addison County Gospel Singers kick things off on Tuesday evening in the show tent with their upbeat music, starting at 7 p.m. The Gospel Singers have been appearing for several years at Field Days, and are a favorite for many people.

After the music, check out the traditional Opening Parade.

The theme of the parade this year is “My favorite thing about Field Days is ___!” All entrants are asked ALL STAR STUNT to assemble at 7:15 p.m. on the east side DOG CHALLENGE of the tractor pad on the road to the north

of the parking area. Contact Benj Deppman at 462-3614, Diane Norris at 897-7014 or any Field Days director if you plan to participate.

Local DJ Amanda Rock takes to the show tent Wednesday at 7 p.m. with his ever-popular Karaoke Talent Night. Rock is a well-known local music maven with favorites from classic to contemporary. Sign up for a spot in the show beginning at 6:30 p.m. You will probably find a few diamonds in the rough among your Addison County neighbors when it comes to singing.

If you want to listen to somebody else do the singing on Wednesday evening, head to bandstand at 7 p.m. to hear the Jim Libby Band. This original country/rock act is sure to please fans of many genres. They have opened for acts such as Charlie Daniels Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Thorogood, and Huey Lewis to name a few. JLB’s live show is always sure to impress.

Local talents The Hitmen will perform in the show tent on Thursday at 7 p.m. Comprised of Brian Donnelly and Bob Young, The Hitmen covers a wide variety of songs, from the classics through today with guitar, bass, keys, drums and impressive harmonies. Among their repertoire are tunes

by John Mellencamp, Van Morrison, Santana, Steely Dan, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers and Los Lonely Boys to name a few.

If you plan to be at the fair on Friday evening, you’ll want to reserve time to check out the Vorsteveld Family Band, featuring a couple generations of a local family playing violins together on the stage. They will play at the Bandstand beginning at 7 p.m.

For something that combines entertainment with Field Days’ agricultural roots, go to the Animal Show Arena at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday for the Animal Costume Class. It (See Entertainment Page 29)

Page 29

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

RECLINCER PILOTS

JIM LIBBY BAND

LEXI JAMES

Entertainment…

(Continued from Page 28) is open to all species except horses (for safety reasons). Young handlers will lead their four-footed (and four-hoofed) entertainers, which will be dressed in a costume that depicts a scene or theme, including historical, culture, beauty or gag. This can be great fun!

For those looking to get up and move, there are a couple options. On Thursday at 7 p.m. at the bandstand, the Addison County Line Dancers will demonstrate line dancing and then offer some lessons. And you can join the Cast Off Eights and Lake Champlain Squares square dancing clubs for some Western style dancing on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Veteran dancers will show off their moves, but novice dancers are welcome to

join in too.

Two musical acts will offer alternative tunes to wrap up stage performance at Field Days. At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Lexi James will entertain crowds in the show tent while The Recliner Pilots rock the bandstand.

What do members of a high school band do after they grow up? If they are a certain set of Connecticut men they regroup after they are well into their non-music careers and start a band called The Recliner Pilots to play the hits of today and the classics of yore. When it comes to blending music, fun and performance, The Recliner Pilots know how. They bring all the elements of a great live performance together, making sure ev(See Entertaiment Page 30)

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Page 30

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Entertainment…

(Continued from Page 29) eryone has a great time and the music mix is perfect.

As for young Lexi James, she is new country-pop singer/ songwriter. Dazzling red curls and jewel-blue eyes are what you see; an amazing voice and infectious personality is what you hear; exuberant and full of life is what you feel when you watch her perform.

The annual finale of Field Days is marked by a dazzling Fireworks display, sponsored by Champlain Valley Equipment. Fireworks will be set off at dusk from the east side of the horse area, but are easily viewed from anywhere across the fairgrounds.

RETURNING FAVORITES There is plenty of entertainment at Field Days that you may have seen before, but you’ll definitely want to see them again.

Look for feats of strength and skill with the Men’s Caber Toss at the tractor pad on Wednesday at noon. Men will toss a telephone pole (our stand-in for a Scottish caber) end over end for distance. Following them at 1 p.m. will be the Ladies’ Cast Iron Skillet Toss, in which athletes of the fairer sex throw skillets for distance and accuracy .

Four-legged athletes and their highly skilled riders will put on quite a show on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the horse area with

GYMKHANA BARREL RACING

the Gymkhana barrel racing competition. Like what you see?

Return to the horse area on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for Extreme Trail Riding.

If you like to see competitions including large vehicles, take in the tractor pulls at the tractor pad on Tuesday afternoon, Friday afternoon and Saturday starting at 11 a.m.

(See Entertaiment Page 31)

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

THE MIDWAY

Page 31

ALL STAR STUNT DOG CHALLENGE

Entertainment…

(Continued from Page 30) REGULARLY OCCURRING ENTERTAINMENT In addition to the single-time entertainment acts on the fair schedule this year are performances and entertainment that recur several times throughout the week’s activities.

This year there will be three new special acts that you can see at various times during the week. Hypnotist Michael Blaine performs comedy hypnosis shows throughout the country. Look for him at various times in the Show Tent and on the Bandstand.

The All Star Stunt Dog Challenge returns with its amazing trained dog show. You’ll see these smart pooches flying through the air and catching anything that comes their way several times

each afternoon in the show area.

Here are a few other performances to seek out: • Our favorite: The Magic Man (Tom Joyce) can be found each day in the bandstand with a kid-friendly show that will wow both his young audience and perhaps their chaperones as well.

He’s a fantastic performer and true entertainer.

• Cairo Northern Clowns may find you walking the grounds and surprise you with a smile or a laugh when you least expect it.

• Rosie’s Racing Pigs will again woo Field Days crowds with their hilarious racing competition that takes place several times each day in the Dairy area of the fair. They’re not just cute, these pigs can really run, squeal, and amuse their audience.

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Page 32

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

AS IN MANY of the previous years, Bristol resident Nathan Fefee, then 17, spent the first full week of August 2015 at Field Days with the Shelburne Explorers 4-H club.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

Outside the show ring: 4-H kids tend their animals

By GAEN MURPHREE “Here in the 4-H barn we have long days and short nights,” explained Nathan Fefee at last year’s Field Days. Fefee, who was then 17, is part of the Shelburne Explorers 4-H club.

“We get up around five, head out to the barn,” the Bristol resident explained. “We get here and we start cleaning the stall out, all the manure. We start having some members take out their heifers and bring them down to the wash rack and get them cleaned up and washed. When we get the beds all cleaned out, we lay fresh sawdust down for them to lay on, and we put out fresh hay for them to eat. We bring them back in after they’re all washed and let them come in and relax and dry off.”

The next eight or so hours of every day are dedicated to showing cows in the ring and taking care of them in the 4-H Dairy Barn. But at night the youngsters can grab a bit of fun out on the fairgrounds.

Like other members of the Shelburne club, Fefee shows a cow from the Shelburne Farms herd of brown Swiss. He’s shown at Field Days for the past 6 or 7 years. Last year he showed a cow nicknamed “Plainfield” after the Vermont town.

Her official name is Shirley Twin. With the brown Swiss’s characteristic big brown eyes and long eyelashes, the club has had comments all day on how pretty their nine animals are.

For Fefee, Field Days is “a lot of work, a lot of commit-

ment,” but well worth it. “I just like to come out to the fair. It’s good bonding, the experience with friends. You meet a lot of new people, you get a lot more friends. It’s just a lot of fun to come out here and show cows.”

As Fefee forks some more hay to the small herd, a steady crowd of onlookers strolls through the 4-H Dairy Barn. In one corner, a crowd of 4-H teenagers hang out on bales of hay, talking and laughing. A few young men, pitchforks and brooms in hand, are cleaning out their cows’ stalls. Cows and calves sit or stand quietly, chewing their cud. Outside a steady trickle of kids bring their cows to the water trough. In the tents pitched east of the barn, a few kids hang out, grabbing a brief moment of well-earned rest. Anyone familiar with the habits of contemporary teenagers will notice that in this crowd of busy young people one typical teen appendage is noticeably absent: the cell phone.

Also in the Field Days cow barn last year, Isabelle Gilley of the New Haven Dairy Club was cuddled up with her fourmonth-old Holstein, Peaches.

“I really like just what I’m doing right now, hanging out and laying with Peaches and being able to show her,” said Gilley, who was 11 years old at the time. “A couple of years ago I would just walk through here, and I never thought I was actu(See Kids and cows, Page 37)

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Page 33

JOSH PARKS AND his brother Tyler work on getting a 1938 McCormick-Deering tractor up and running behind the Antique Equipment Barn at Field Days last year.

Parks brothers know how to get under the hood of antique farm equipment

By GAEN MURPHREE Outside, at the back of the Antique Farm Equipment demonstration area, brothers Josh Parks, 35, and Zak Parks, 30, are working on the engine of a 1938 McCormick-Deering tractor, trying to get it running. It is the middle of the week at the 2015 Addison County Fair and Field Days, and they have been working on it since Sunday.

They’ve overnighted a head gasket from a specialty supply company. They’ve replaced a valve, but it’s still not running. Josh cranks hard at the hand crank at the front of the tractor. No go.

The two men’s expressions and focus on the task at hand are as intense as any brain surgeon’s.

“Seems like a lot of things around here have been throwing fits this year,” says Zak. “But you have that with 100-year-old equipment.”

The brothers — today also accompanied by middle brother Tyler, who occasionally helps them out at the fair — have been working in the Antique Farm Equipment demonstration area for four years now, carrying on a family tradition that goes back (See Antique farm equipment, Page 39)

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Page 34

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Sheep…

(Continued from Page 24) and shearing, she shakes the fleece and spreads it out for the crowd to see. A little boy asks if the sheep minds being sheared.

“It’s like getting a haircut,” Kuehne answers.

Kuehne, now an undergraduate studying genetics at Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been around sheep since she was a toddler. Asked when she first started working with sheep, she laughs and answers, “When I was maybe three years old, when I was first able to walk and put my hands out and touch them.”

Kuehne started exhibiting sheep at Field Days at age five — the youngest age at which children can begin competing.

“I think I’ve only missed two years since I started coming here,” she adds.

She learned to shear sheep at a 4-H clinic when she was around 14.

“I went over to Leslie Goodrich’s farm (in Shoreham), and they had a shearer there. He showed us step by step each

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY student Grace Kuehne of Benson shows off a shorn sheep after demonstrating her craft at Field Days last August.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

stroke and what order to go in, and then before we left we all had to take a sheep out and shear ’em ourselves. Honestly, I’d been hacking away at my sheep trying to do it for a few years, but after I went to the clinic and learned how to do it, everything made so much more sense.

“The Addison County fair is almost

home to me, especially within the sheep tent,” Kuehne said. “We’re all a big family. We’re all a big community. Everyone knows everybody. Everyone’s looking out for everyone else.

“I’ve always just loved the Addison County fair and especially the sheep community that comes with it.”

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Page 35

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Young and old can drive a team of draft horses

By GAEN MURPHREE At last year’s fair, Michealla Flint of Wolcott led Duke around and around as the 20-year-old Belgian draft horse powered one of the antique hay presses. They were part of ongoing demonstrations at the fair put on by the Green Mountain Draft Horse Association. At different times throughout the week, different teams of horses and drivers harvested wheat and corn, plowed a field, pulled wagons around the fairground, and powered machinery.

“It’s nice to show people what the horses can do and to show them that young people like me can actually do these sorts of tasks with these powerful animals,” said Flint, who was just 15 years old at the time.

Flint learned to drive a team from her grandfather Ronald LaRock, co-owner of Down to Earth Draft Horses, of Fairfield. LaRock speaks with evident pride when he describes how well Michealla placed and competed at a recent horse show. She’s grown up with horses and has been competing since she was at least five.

Once Michealla unhitches Duke from the hay press, it becomes even clearer how easily she handles a lot of horsepower. She holds Duke’s reins as she answers questions and stays completely calm, even as Duke whinnies excitedly, strains at the reins, and begins to get restless.

“The Taste of Vermont”

MICHEALLA FLINT GETS a kiss from draft horse Duke at Field Days 2015.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

Back at the barn, she harnesses Duke up with his pal Cindy, a 16-year-old black Percheron, and works them around and around the stable area. Duke and Cindy don’t look alike — he’s taller, she’s shorter; he’s older, she’s younger; he’s the characteristic Belgian light chestnut, her coat is black — but in every other way they’re a perfectly matched pair.

So much so that at the earlier horse show, they won Best Working Team.

“They are really bonded,” says LaRock, who’d been training Duke and Cindy together for the previous four years.

“They move at the same speed. If you watch their feet, you’ll see they go up together and they go down together. They know what each other’s gonna do. I don’t!” he laughs. “They do everything. We’re in the woods, we log, we sugar, you (See Draft horses, Page 39)

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Page 36

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Page 37

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Kids and cows…

(Continued from Page 32) ally going to be one of the people who belonged here all the time. I like being able to just hang out with her.”

Two other young 4-H’ers are also flopped down nearby, using their calves as pillows. At last year’s fair, Isabelle competed in the Conformation, Open Show, and Fitting and Showmanship events. In addition, she and Peaches competed in the Costume event, dressed as Sully and Boo from “Monsters, Inc.” Peaches was the lovable monster Sully, draped in a blue-green outfit spraypainted with purple spots with purple spray-painted foam ridges glued down the back. Sully’s horns are made out of wicker cornucopias, outfitted with bands of elastic. Gilley made the entire outfit herself.

“She had lots and lots of ideas for costumes, and one of them was to be a football player,” explained Gilley’s mom, Kim Pandiani of Bristol. “She kept looking for a jersey big enough to fit a cow.

I told her that was pretty unreasonable, so she started looking for something else

and came up with this idea. The stampede was going on (the Bristol Three Day Stampede to raise funds to combat cystic fibrosis), so we went down there and found everything we needed — five dollars! — and bought a can of spray paint, and she’s been working on it ever since.”

Pandiani and her two daughters (older daughter Madison is working all week at the pony rides) were camping at the fair all week in the family’s pop-up camper.

“Five o’clock comes early,” she said, chuckling.

“The kids do all the work, so there’s a whole piece about responsibility,” Pandiani said, describing the kind of work ethic it takes to keep a barn full of over 100 animals fly-free and sweet smelling.

“Everybody just comes, and the bigger kids really help the younger kids. The club is really inclusive. They love their animals.”

Pandiani looks out, gesturing not just at her own daughter but at the huge barn bustling with contented kids and cows and interested onlookers: “I mean, real-

ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD ISABELLE GILLEY of the New Haven Dairy 4-H club was in her second year of showing calves at Addison County Fair and Field Days last August.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

Page 39

MICHEALLA FLINT of Wolcott uses a draft horse, Duke, to power an antique hay baler at Field Days last year. Flint was at the fair with Down to Earth Draft Horses, owned and operated by her grandfather and mother.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

Draft horses…

(Continued from Page 35) name it — weddings, parades. You name it, we do it.”

LaRock, 68 at last year’s fair, grew up working draft horses on the family farm near Enosburgh in the 1950s. “I worked horses with my dad. We had 40 of them at one time.

No tractors. I had my own team at six or seven years old. I had the harnesses on a pulley my dad made, and I’d crank ’em up, crank ’em down and go out in the field.”

Down to Earth Draft Horses had been coming to the Ad-

dison County Fair since 2013.

“It’s fun, working with horses,” LaRock says. “We work with them to home, but it’s nice to come here and see different horses, see different people, and visit and do different things. It’s just nice to be around people and see horses like this that can do anything and everything. And it’s nice to have my granddaughter working the horses with me.”

“The young ones gotta come in it,” LaRock adds. “We ain’t gonna live forever.”

Antique farm equipment…

(Continued from Page 33) much farther.

“Our grandfather used to come here and do this all the time,” says Josh. “We knew that he did a lot of the upkeep, keeping things running. So when he passed a few years ago, we got involved.”

“We kind of stepped into his role,” adds Zak. “We’re just trying to keep the tradition going.”

This year the Parks brothers’ preparations for the fair began in earnest in July, working on the equipment to get it up and running for the fair. Both are auto mechanics by profession.

Josh, especially, is clearly one of the lead go-to guys in the Antique Farm Equipment area. Punctuating his work on the McCormick-Deering, he calls out bits of advice and encouragement to the rest of this morning’s crew.

“Give it a little gas! You’ve gotta hit the sweet spot,” he calls out to someone trying to start up one of the hay presses.

He takes a moment to point out the different pieces of farm

machinery: two wheat threshers and two hay balers, all from the early 1900s. Sheaves of wheat stand twirled on the ground, ready to go into the thresher. The team of mostly men starts up one of the threshers, and the steady chug of 100-year-old machinery fills the air. Zak feeds grain into one of the threshers, and the machine spits out kernels of wheat into a bucket. Josh explains how in earlier times the belt-driven thresher could have been powered off of a steam or a “hit or miss” gas motor. The fair even has antique equipment that used to be powered by goats.

“Working on machines is something I guess I was just born into,” says Josh. “Working on stuff my grandfather used to do, it just gets passed on down to you. It’s a thrill seeing it going, keeping it going. You don’t see a lot of this machinery any more, and this fair gives you a chance to see these machines and keep them running.”

“Every year we learn more and more,” says Zak. “It’s always a challenge, learning what they did back in the day and how hard they worked. We give them credit for that — all the old timers.”

Page 40

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

4-H DAIRY SHOW competitors dodged a brief rain shower while heading to the Cow Palace during Field Days last August.

Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

Sponsorship Program In 2000, we instituted a sponsorship program with different dollar levels and rewards at each level for becoming a sponsor. The following businesses are this year’s sponsors; a HUGE thank you goes out to them for their continued support of the fair. (This listing is as of July 19, 2016.)

GOLD Sponsors-$2,500 & Up #1 Auto Parts The Addison Independent Champlain Valley Equipment Eagle Country 97.5 Hall Communications (KOOL 105, WJOY AM 1230 & 98.9 WOKO) Middlebury Lions Club Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. Radio Vermont Group (WDEV FM 96.1, AM 550 & WVAA AM 1390) Redline Drainage, LLC Vermont Gas Systems Vincrest Landcare & VT Bale Creations

Waitsfield & Champlain Valley Telecom Woody Jackson SILVER Sponsors-$1,000-$2,499 Addison County Solid Waste Management Co-operative Insurance Companies Griffith Energy Vermont Natural Ag Products BRONZE Sponsors-$500-$999 Lake Home Business Services, Inc. Loewer & Associates Phoenix Feeds & Nutrition, Inc. TJ’s BBQ WhistlePig

Yankee Farm Credit Friends of Field Days-$250-$499 Boivin Farm Supply Bourdon Insurance Brandon Auto Sales Briggs Trucking Casella Waste Management Isham Brook Farm Jackman’s Inc. National Bank of Middlebury Star Market Twist of Wool Guild VT Adult Learning

Play the 2016 Garden Game!

Find more info on www.addisonindependent.com

58 Maple Street • Middlebury, Vermont 05753 • (802) 388-4944

Page 41

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

County Fair & Field Days n o s i d Ad

“Gala”

The Addison County Field Days Gala is held each year in March. The Gala is a $125 raffle, dinner and dance to help raise money for capital improvements to the grounds at Field Days. The Field Days Directors are determined to continually upgrade the Field Days grounds to make Addison County Field Days something that all the residents here can be proud of.

We certainly appreciate all the support we have received from individuals and businesses that help make the gala such a success. A very special Thank You to all who have supported us in our efforts.

2016 Gala Supporters BUSINESSES 3 Squares Cafe 31 Handbags 4-H Foundation 4-Hills Farm ACA Inc. - Watson Scott Addison Eagle Addison Independent Agri-Mark Agway Almost Home Market American Legion Post #27 Appalachian Gap Distillery Aubuchon Hardware Bar Antidote Blue Spruce Farm Bourdeau & Bushey Inc. Bourdon Insurance Briggs Trucking Bristol Bakery & Café Broughton Farm Supply Casella Waste Champlain Bridge Marina Champlain Valley Equipment Champlain Valley Motorsports Classic Stitching Cole’s Flowers Co-op Insurance County Tire Center, Inc. Countryside Paints Courtyard by Marriott D&F Excavating & Paving Danforth Pewters Deppman & Foley Dinstictive Paints Dorchester Lodge #1 Dubois Farm Earthworks, Inc.

Eastern Electrical Field of Painted Dreams Fire & Ice Restaurant First National Bank of Orwell Foster Motors Fraga & Lilja G. Stone Motors Goodro Lumber Co. Inc. Grant Haven Farm Green Peppers Restaurant Holden Financial Homestead Candle & Wreath Shop HoneyLights Huestis Farm Supply Isham Brook Farm Jackman Fuels (Bristol) Jiffy Mart Joy’s Lakeview Hair Just Fix It-Justin & Jasmine Almeida K. Pope & Sons Kittell, Branagan & Sargent Laberge Insurance Laduc Homecare & Repair Lawes Agricultural Ledgehaven Farm Lincoln Peak Vinyard Lock-N-Glass Crafters LLC MacIntyre Fuels Maple Landmark Woodcraft Marble Works Pharmacy Martin’s Hardware Middlebury Bagel & Deli Middlebury Discount Beverage Middlebury Fitness Middlebury Inn Mike’s Fuels

Misty Knoll Farm Monument Farms Moores Plumbing & Heating Moose Rubbish & Recycling National Bank of Middlebury Nino’s Sicilian Pizza Nordic Farm Pepsi Port Henry Service Center Pratt’s Store r.k. Miles R&L Rubbish Reed’s Sales & Service Rosie’s Restaurant Rouse Tire S&J Stearns, Inc. Sanel Auto Parts Shear Cuts Soul Soothing Massage Subway Sweet Cecily The Diner The Shoreham Inn The Storm Café UPS Store-Laura Flint VTPA Vermont Country Soap Vermont Hard Cider Co Vermont Yarn Bead & Gift Emporium Village Green Market Vincrest Landcare Wag On Inn West Addison General Store Weybridge Garage Wishful Thinking Farm Woodnotch Farm Woodware Yankee Farm Credit

INDIVIDUALS Allen, Neil & Baker, Jenn Ash, Glenn & Debbie Audet, Cheryl Audet, Leo & Sara Audet, Melissa Audy, Paul & Suzanne Barnes, Bruce Barrett, Linda & Leonard Barrett, Michael Berthiaume, Diana Bessette, Alan & Deb Bessette, Earl & Raymonde Bessette, Edward & Melanie Bessette, Taylor Bigelow, Helen & Cleon Boutin, Greg & Dorothy Bowdish, Louise & Eric Briggs, Zak Parks & Sarah Broughton, Matt Broughton, Tom & Charlene Brown, Bruz Brown, Ronnie & Betty Burrows, Peter Bushey, Kerry & Karen Button, Ken & Sandy Capra, Mike Chittenden, Kylie & Jeremy Clark, Alan & Jean Clark, Donnie Clark, Martin & Kathleen Clark, Mary Clark, Ray & Bonnie Cole, David & Robin Cole, Effie Connor, Cheryl & Jerry Cray, Skip Curler, Alan Cyr, Robert & Jeanette Daly, Andrew

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

2016 Gala Supporters Davis, Robin DeBisschop, Matt & Courtney Deblois, Matthew & Melissa Deblon, George Deering, Andre Deering, Paul & Brenda Degray, Joe Denis, Irene Deppman, Lesley and Benj Destefano, Bob & Kathy Dykema, Ray Eastman, Alyson Eastwood, Harold Eastwood, Pat Fisher, Lionel & Ardys Foley, Jim and Stephanie Foote, Willie & Julie Forbes, Brian & Linda Foster, Jim & Tricia Foster, Robert & Nancy Galgano, Frank & Margaret Giard, Steve & Missy Gilbert, Kerry Gingras, Paul & Susan Goodrich, Erin Greenwalt, Lee Haldeman, Gordon

Hallock, Bruce & Hillary Harrison, Pat & Melanie Heffernan, Bill Howlett, Tim & Julie Huestis, Art & Joan Hunt, Rob & Suzy James, Sue Karpak, Deb and Peter Karpak, Devon Kayhart, David Keeler, Don & Kathleen Laduc, Tim Lamoureux, Tony Litch, Rob & Michelle Livingston, Mark & Dana Livingston, Phil & Diane Livingston, Stan Markowski, David Markowski, Greg Markowski, Marty Markowski, Peter Markowski, Sam Mastergeorge, Anthony McLaughlin, Michael Mullin, Cara & Brad Nichols, Alexis Nisun, Satch and Kathy Norris, Diane & Terry

Norris, Steve & Jessy Orvis, Randy Ouellette, Aaron Ouellette, Shawn & Angela Ouellette, Steve Ouellette, Steve & Sherry Palermo-Lee, Nancy Palmer, Denise Palmer, John & Carmen Paquette, Lucien Paquette, Mike & Sherry Parks, Josh Peck, Glenn & Lynne Pope, Seth & Stephanie Pratt, Corey & Laurie Pratt, Darwin & Sue Provencher, Larry & Heather Putnam, Carrie & Bruce Quesnel, Bernard & Louis Reynolds, Joanne & Richard Roleau, Bill & Bonnie Roleau, John & Margo Rowell, Lisa Roy, Charlie Ryan, Amey Sheldrick, Bill & Jenny Sickles, Mark & Chris

Sinks, Bill Smith, Cynthia Smith, Diane & Wayne Smith, Doug & Vicki Stanway, Beth Straight, Terry Sunderland, Bob & Nancy Sunderland, Harold & Margaret Sunderland, Larry & Joyce Sutton, Megan & Clark Thompson, Marget Torrey, Steve & Pat Vincent, Wyatt & Christine Weening, James & Keely Welch, Chuck & Katie White, Steve & Cady Wonnacott, Enid Wry, Greg Zecher, John A BIG THANK YOU ALSO TO ALL OF THE LOYAL TICKET BUYERS!

Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

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Field Days • Official Program • The Addison Independent • July 28, 2016

ITE FREE ON-S ONS EVALUATI

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Vermont Homeowners Recommend We are so pleased with our electric solar panels that we want to tell everyone about our great experience! The wonderful team at Bristol Electronics installed the ground-mount array last fall. We had them put in our solar hot water system several years prior and had established a good working relationship with them. We already knew them to be reliable and quick to fix any problems that arose.

We enjoy the idea of being a part of protecting the environment so when it came time to deciding on what type of solar panels to install for electricity, we contacted Bristol Electronics first, while also considering other companies and products as well. There’s a big world out there with a variety of choices and it was hard to know whose product was actually best for our needs. Finally in the end, we decided on choosing Bristol Electronics because of their reliability, best price, the best installment time frame and most efficient system using micro-inverters instead of the conventional less expensive string inverters.

The team provided very professional and pleasant service all the way from the planning stages to final clean-up. When we finally made the decision to “break ground”, they were exceptionally fast, professional and easy to work with. From start to finish, we were making electricity in about 2 weeks. Indeed, our yard looks better now than before they started! In the end, we are saving a lot of money on both our solar hot water and solar electric systems. Thank you Bristol Electronics for your excellent service in meeting our hopes and expectations!

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Lawrence & Cynthia Jones ~ South Starksboro

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