Raffle tickets are now on sale for this choice chicken tractor.

The Rock-n-Doodle Poultry 4-H Club is raffling off a handmade chicken tractor as a fundraiser for its upcoming Whidbey Island Chicken Coop Tour on April 24.
The Coop Tour is an all-island driving tour of interesting and captivating chicken coops from Oak Harbor to Langley.
The custom chicken tractor is made of high-quality teak wood. Raffle tickets are on sale at Skagit Farmers Supply in Freeland and Oak Harbor for $5. Included are two live chicks and a chick starter kit, compliments of Skagit Farmers Supply.
The prize is valued at $1,500; the drawing will be on Saturday, March 6.

But we’ve been going through some of the photos from this year’s extravaganza, and decided to share some of our favorites, including some that never made it into the paper. Enjoy!

Jaidin Jones, Chantelle Gossler, Jessica Dunn and Talon Jorgenson wave to the crowd below from the lofty heights of the Sky Master.

Kayie McRea, 7, wins sucker after sucker from JP Patches during the yes-no game on the midway stage.

Shooter, a 2-year-old German shepherd, drags Jaymee Graves, 11, of Oak Harbor through the dog agility course in the horse arena on Saturday. Jaymee is a member of the K9 Korps 4-H Club.

Ann Tuttle and Carol Coble have a prime parking spot for their RVs.

Ann Tuttle and Carol Coble of Freeland have two of the best seats in the house for the horse competitions.
Their RVs are parked on a little ridge right above the action, front-row center.
“It’s a blast, we love doing this,” Coble said Thursday.
They didn’t have to park outside the fairgrounds for three days to be first in line for the prime spots. The parking places are assigned to leaders of the various 4-H horse clubs, Tuttle said.
This year’s front row included vehicles owned by other horse-club leaders, with a couple of dog-club leaders thrown in down at the end, she said.
Tuttle and Coble are co-leaders of the South Whidbey Sat N Saddles Club. Coble’s daughter Missy and Tuttle’s daughter Megan are both 18 and in their final year of 4-H competition.
“It’s a lot of fun connecting and hanging out with our teenaged daughters,” Coble said.

John Bleakley shows off his wax creations.

John Bleakley is happy to give you a big hand — in wax.
“Business has been very good, considering the rain,” he said. “It’s a small community fair, and I enjoy doing it.”
For $5, Bleakley will create a wax replica of your hand (or your baby’s foot).
First, you select a pose. Then you dip your appendage in a pot of warm wax, then into a pot of ice water, then wax, then water, wax, water, wax, water — about 10 times each.
When the wax has built to perfection, Bleakley pops it off your hand, and it’s ready for the mantel.
Some people do clasped hands; others attach a baseball or little eyeballs.
Bleakley, of Everett, said he has been offering his service at events throughout the area for 20 years.
Does he get any dodgy requests?
“All the time,” he said. “But I made it a practice many years ago not to do it. These are family fairs.”

Lizzie Fry with her racing guinea pig, Sage.

Sage the cavie will be going for the gold at the fair’s Guinea Pig Race on Sunday afternoon at the Cavie Barn.
Actually, she’ll be going for the yogurt treat, said her owner, Lizzie Fry, 13, of Oak Harbor.
“I’ll give her one at the end,” said Fry, a member of the Cavies and Company 4-H Club. “I don’t know how fast she is, because she’s never raced before.”
Nevertheless, she said Sage, a 1-year-old brown-and-gold cross-breed she’s raised since the animal was four months old, has been getting in a lot of practice running around the house, where she lives in a cage in Fry’s bedroom.
“She can run, but not always in a straight line,” Fry said. “She gets distracted easily.”

Rich Pearson watches the passing midway crowd at the fair.

Rich Pearson of Langley looked like the lonely Maytag Repairman of TV commercial fame as he sat in his camp chair under an awning at the fair on a drizzly Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve had a couple people stop by,” he said. “I think the rain is holding them back. They’re probably running into the buildings.”
Pearson was tending a display of propane and wood stoves and portable generators set up by Ace Hardware in Freeland.
“Last year, we had one stove fired up,” he said. “This year we didn’t bring propane with us.”
He said that even though business appeared to be slow, the fair display never fails to generate some interest in the equipment, perhaps as much as a year later.
Pearson said that as an extra incentive this year, there’s a federal tax credit on the purchase of a new wood stove.
“This time of year, a lot of people give consideration to an upgrade in their heating systems,” he said as he settled back in his chair to watch the midway traffic passing by.

Jay Johnson with his champion rabbit, Storm

Jay Johnson, 10, is all business when it comes to raising rabbits.
His 2-year-old gray Holland female named Storm won a Junior Fitting and Handling Champion trophy, along with a first-place blue ribbon and a second-place red one in judging competitions at the fair.
“They’re known to be real gentle,” said Johnson of Oak Harbor, a member of the Anything, Everything & Beyond 4-H Club. “But they can be hard to take care of. You have to be patient.”
“And they’re not so great as meat,” he added. “They don’t taste so good.”
Johnson has two rabbits at the fair, and others at home. When it comes to raising rabbits, he’s full-service.
“I butchered one a couple of days ago, and we had rabbit stew,” he said.

Ruth Ohm is the rear-gate keeper at the fair.

Don’t try to sneak into the fair the back way. Ruth Ohm and her husband John are on guard.
“I know all the people who run the fair,” said Ruth, who checks everyone who passes her flagged rope for one of eight required wristbands, tickets or other credentials.
“It’s a fun job,” she said Thursday, the first day of the fair. “But by nighttime, I’m ready to go to bed.”
The Ohms now live in Redmond, but were longtime island residents (she’s a member of the Gabelein family). They’ve looked after the back entrance to the fairgrounds at Fairgrounds Road for the past five years.
“We do this together, but right now he’s taking a nap,” she said.
Any unauthorized visitors? “Not so far,” she said. “There seem to be some cars that aren’t supposed to be there.”
She said her intentions were to come to the job prepared, since rain was in the forecast.
“I told John whatever you do, bring the chairs and the umbrellas. He brought the chairs,” she said.

James Engen with his trash cart: "It's a fun, relaxed job."

You might say James Engen is providing a back-end service at the fair.
He’s one of several young people from the area in green and white shirts reading “Fair Staff” who collect the trash and roll it in their carts to the dumpsters out near where the RVs are parked.
Engen, 15, of Oak Harbor, has been doing the job for three years, and said he usually works the morning shift, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
He said business had been down so far on the first day of the fair.
“I’ve collected 10 to 12 bags so far,” he said. “Usually I would have about 30.”
He said sometimes the bags get messy — open tops and spilling contents and the like — “but we get plastic gloves.”
Engen said he’ll be back next year, if he can’t find a permanent summer position.
“It’s a fun, relaxed job, with great people,” he said, munching a red licorice rope.

Amber Berger takes a break inside her cotton-candy stand Thursday.

Mix a few cans of Flossi with about 400 pounds of sugar, and you get enough cotton candy to satisfy a midway full of sweet teeth for four days.
So says Amber Berger, a Californian who has been dispensing the fluffy treats at fairs and carnivals around the country for more than 30 years.
She said business has been down by half wherever she has been this year, thanks to the economy.
She said the intermittent showers Thursday had slowed the traffic a bit at her little stand in the middle of the midway, “but that will change.”
She offers bags of cotton-candy balls for $6 and $4, and cones for $3. Fruit flavors correspond with the colors of the candy, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear favorite.
“It all depends on what people want,” she said. “Sometimes they want a caramel apple.”

Ciscoe Morris gives away a pair of gloves at the fair on Thursday.

“Holy cats!” rang through the air at the Pole Building early Thursday afternoon, and you knew gardening guru Ciscoe Morris was in the house.
“Oo-la-la!” was the introduction for Morris, Seattle TV and radio gardening celebrity, who spoke, actually shouted, to about 50 people on the first day of the fair.
“I come to Whidbey Island all the time, but I usually bring my Boxer,” Morris said. “This time
I came by myself!”
The hyper Morris challenged the audience to “Stump the chump!” for prizes.
“I used to throw Brussels sprouts at people who give the wrong answers,” he said. “This year it’s beets — they go a lot farther and go splat!”
He said his questions are so hard, “they send people into tizzies of fear!”
Then he turned to tomatoes and potatoes. He showed a canvas contraption from which you could grow tomatoes hanging from a beam.
He said the Sun Gold variety of tomato tastes the best, and always wins the contests.
As for spuds, which can turn toxic if left in sunlight, he said: “Never eat a green potato!”
Sharon Lundgren of Langley grabbed a front-row seat for the program.
“I love my garden and thought I could learn something,” she said.
“I need help!”

There’s so much happening at the fair, it’s hard to capture it all. But we’re trying:

Some kids were willing to put their school before pleasure.

South Whidbey High School Booster Club volunteers manned the gates and directed traffic during the group’s largest fundraiser Thursday by offering parking in one of  400 spaces available next to the Island County Fair’s main entrance. 

Each of 12 sports teams takes a four-hour shift, then splits proceeds evenly. 

Last year, the student’s efforts brought in roughly $14,000 that the teams use for travel, equipment and uniform expenses. It also helps to provide scholarship money for fees, said organizer Ursula Shoudy.

“We also have handicapped parking and full re-entry privileges if someone needs to leave,” she said.

Before motorists can find a spot, they need to get by incoming freshman basketball player Chelsey Schultz, who has identified 14 ways to spell her first name.

She’s not worried about missing the action inside.

“I’m helping my team today so I’ll probably be at the fair later, riding the Tilt-a-Wheel,” she said. “Everybody’s been real nice so far, no road rage or anything.”

Fred and Barbara Bennett of Sho-Nuff Foods spent the day before the fair opened applying their “magic” dry spice rubs on giant pork shoulders. Before it’s over, the Bennetts will have roasted 100 pounds each of pork, ribs, beef brisket and chicken.

And a whole mess of barbecued baked potatoes with all the fixins’.

“We put them into the smoker (designed by Bennett and built by Freeland’s Dave Buzzard), fired up by a secret wood mixture at a secret temperature all night, then 

I add my secret sauce,” Bennett said with a big grin. “You gotta try it.”

Maybe it’s because she’s a little shy around folks, but after six years trying, Adrianna Royal took the Grand Champion prize for showmanship in the senior 4-H class for her rough collie Dream on Thursday.

“Showmanship is designed to show off the dog’s best features, but there’s also a major focus on the handler,” she explained. “They have to be immaculate, nails clean, no dirt in their ears and with a proper collar. The dogs, not the handler.”

Royal is a member of the All-American Puppy Paws club in Coupeville and part of the huge 

4-H presence at the fair.

Fifteen-month-old Tucker White had a good time at the Island County Fair charming all the girls with his dapper fireman's hat.

Plenty of cute children were at Island County Fair this year.

Paradise Amusements worker Dave Paxton puts a shine on the horses on the merry-go-round at the Island County Fair.

Clean one horse. Squirt, wipe, shine. Then another. Squirt, wipe, shine. Then another.
Dave Paxton moved from horse to horse. Squirt, wipe, shine.
No, Paxton wasn’t some 4-H newbie stuck in the stables. He is a worker with Paradise Amusements, and was spending Thursday morning helping other employees of the carnival company clean the merry-go-round.
He had plenty of work ahead of him. The merry-go-round, built in 1947 in Massachusetts, has 37 horses; 30 big ones and seven smaller ones.
The carnival attractions open for riders today at noon.

Trudy McDanniel waits with her children Connor, Clara and Annie for the Island County Fair to open on Thursday morning.

Trudy McDanniel stood with her anxious brood outside the main gate of the county fairgrounds in Langley Thursday morning — the first in line for the first day of the 2009 Island County Fair.
Patience, she told her children Connor, 8, Clara, 5, and Annie, 3. The foursome had arrived early, thinking the fair opened at 9 a.m.
“We’ve waited a whole year; we can wait five or 10 more minutes,” she told them. “OK, five minutes. We can wait five minutes.”
At 9:30 a.m., the gaggle of fair workers who had been sweeping the pavement at the front gate stepped out of the way and Trudy McDanniel gave the family’s two tickets to volunteer ticket-taker Don LaMontagne. (Kids 5 and under get in free, and McDanniel noted her daughter Clara would turn 6 on Friday, so today was her last free day for the fair.)
Connor had his priorities already set before the family took more than six steps inside the gate.
“I want to go on a ride,” he said.
His mom put the quick kabosh on that.
“Today is our barn day. We’re going to see all the animals,” she said.

This is the calm before the storm. Or maybe the corndog before the mustard.
On one end of the fairgrounds, workers from Paradise Amusements were putting together rides on the midway.
The Gravitron was in place, but partially assembled. The Tilt-a-Whirl and the Sky Master were still on their respective trailers, however.
Closer to the horse arena, however, some rides were ready to go already — lacking only a ticket taker and a line of kids. The merry-go-round was already up, and so was the kiddy roller coaster. The Berry Go Round was partially put together, but the kid-carrying berries were nearby, ready for hanging. There was still some finishing work needed on the bumper-car attraction.
A Paradise worker said the crew had just come from a fair in Klamath Falls, Ore., and expressed no doubt that the rides would be ready to go when the fair opens Thursday morning.
Back at the midway, all the picnic tables had been stacked near the main stage, so food vendors could back up their vehicles to their food booths and begin unloading supplies. Many were doing just that on Wednesday afternoon, but most did not have their banners up yet. Temporary business licenses from the city of Langley were still Scotch-taped to the doors of other food booths, where vendors hadn’t yet arrived. Across the way, volunteers at the American Legion booth were already cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, and deciding whose job it would be to cut the hotdog buns.
The occasional sound of a spurting paint-spray gun filled the air as volunteers continued to work on the new gate and ticket booth at the main entrance to the fairgrounds. The noise of power tools was interrupted at times by shouts of “Welcome back!” between food vendors seeing familiar faces from fairs past.
Over at the Sho-Nuff stand, near McLeod Cabin, employees of the Oak Harbor barbecue joint had pilled high a table with huge jars of pickles and a bounty of buns. Two metal cookers were already puffing out small clouds of smoke.
Hundreds of yards beyond the aroma of smoking pork, Caelen Coe, 10, was washing baby shampoo off of the back of his 227-pound pig, Tank.

Spent the last few hours wandering around the Island County Fairgrounds today, the day before the big show opens.
Why didn’t anyone tell me the American Legion Post 141 food booth was already open? Turns out I could have had biscuits-and-gravy for breakfast this morning; they opened at 8 a.m. to help feed workers who are setting up the fair.
I was so upset I could barely eat my first “deluxe burger” of this year’s fair. Somehow, I managed.

Cloe Amsler was busy at work Wednesday helping to paint pieces of the chute that will be used for the 4-H livestock auction at this year’s fair.
Cloe, 10, of Oak Harbor, is a member of the Whidbey Island Hogs 4-H club. She was getting help from her sister Caterina, 13, on the painting project near the swine barn at the fairgrounds. Cloe said they were making good progress. After painting, she said she was going to help give a pig a bath.
“We’ve gotten almost all of the parts of the chute done,” she said.

Danny Vernon performs at the Island County Fair in 2008.

Just got off the phone with Danny Vernon, who will bring his popular “Illusion of Elvis” show back to the Island County Fair on Friday night.
Vernon, named “Best Young Elvis” in 2003, played before a boisterous and appreciative crowd at last year’s fair. The South Whidbey Record did a special “Backstage with Elvis” video then, see it here.
Vernon will once again be backed by the DeVilles, and he said the concert will feature some new costumes and a few new gospel songs in the lineup.
“Every show we do is a little bit different,” he said. “We’re looking forward to an exciting show; I’m going to be pumped.”
Vernon had nothing but praise for the Island County Fair as a venue.
“We like it very much. The audience is very gracious, and the hamburgers are delicious,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s just very friendly. We’re very happy to come back.”
Vernon’s show is on the Eva Mae Gabelein Stage at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
The appearance falls midway between shows at the Skagit County Fair in Mount Vernon and the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. Vernon said the show at the Emerald Queen Casino, on the anniversary of Elvis’ death on Aug. 16, will feature the 17-member Total Expierence Gospel Choir.
To hear a sample of Vernon as the King, click here.