It’s lunchtime at the Brown County Fairgrounds early in fair week. But instead of animals being shown in the show arena, there’s a dodgeball flying around.
Thirteen-year-old Darby Sisson sits in the announcer’s booth watching the fun with a friend. Her father, Ben, is drilling a donation box to the booth while the kids play.
For most 4-H’ers showing livestock, the animal barns and arenas are their home away from home during fair week.
This was the sixth year Darby showed animals from her family’s farm — one cow, two pigs and two goats this time.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]She doesn’t name the animals she plans to sell after the fair so she doesn’t get attached. On Saturday morning, many of them go to auction.
Livestock 4-H’ers can even camp out in the barn with their animals as long as a parent is there. Darby planned to stay Thursday and Friday nights.
Ben is one of the swine/pork resource leaders, and his wife, Amanda, is the cattle resource leader.
“You get to do other things at night, like play dodgeball before we go to bed and everything, and hang out with the other kids staying the night. Early in the morning, you get to help feed your animals with your parents and get all of your animals ready for show that day,” Darby said. “It’s easier, kind of, on everyone.”
Darby likes getting tips from other 4-H’ers about caring for her animals and getting to know her own animals better by spending extended amounts of time with them at the fair.
She follows in the footsteps of her dad, who walks up from the cattle barn with a sandwich in his hand. Ben, 42, has been in 4-H since he was 8.
Fair week is the Sisson family’s vacation. Ben and Amanda both take off work to spend the week at the fairgrounds. The resource leaders take turns staying the night in the barn to make sure no animals get loose and to help watch over any kids camping out with their parents.
Ben also serves on the Brown County 4-H Fair Board. In addition to his animal club duties, he works a few nights cooking in the Lick Creek Love Bugs booth, a 4-H club his family has been involved in for decades. He worked in the livestock food booth last week, too.
“I love the fair. This was one of the biggest things I looked forward to every year growing up was coming to the fair, seeing people I haven’t seen all year. It’s almost like a family reunion,” Ben said.
Ben and Amanda have two other children who showed animals this year. Trent, 16, showed beef steers and pigs. Youngest daughter Rory is a Mini 4-H’er and celebrated her eighth birthday in the livestock barns last week. She showed a dairy steer and one of her older siblings’ pigs.
Watching the 4-H’ers grow up is a reward for Ben, he said.
But trying to stay sane as an animal club leader and volunteer can be a challenge during fair week, he added with a laugh.
“People have problems, they call you and you try to help them out. Especially the day of show, it’s real hectic,” he said.
Ben remembers when he stayed in the barns overnight with his animals when he was a 4-H’er. He hopes his family continues to carry on the tradition. “I just hope it (the fair) keeps going. I hope their kids come back,” he said of his children.
“The fair has gotten smaller over the last 20 years. There’s not near as many families interacting with the fair anymore, probably because people don’t have farms anymore.”
People are often working two jobs to make ends meet, meaning they don’t have as much time to raise animals to show, Ben said.
“I work a full-time job and I work a full-time job at home (on the farm),” he said.
“I have a sow right now that is supposed to be having babies in the next three days at home, so I have to check her tonight.”
Outside the goat, sheep and swine barn stands Katrina Harsch, who’s helping a child do final grooming on a sheep for the show the next day. Shearing has to happen today because it’ll take a long time for all that wool to dry, she said.
Katrina is the leader of the goat club. She’s been a club leader for 20 years here. Her son was a 15-year 4-H member. Now, Katrina’s 8-year-old granddaughter, Chloe, is showing a sheep, a goat, a dairy cow and a pig this year as a Mini 4-H’er. Chloe’s little sister will start in Mini 4-H next year.
Watching the kids in 4-H has kept Katrina in leadership all these years, “watching them learn something new, learning responsibility,” she said.
Katrina and her husband have housed animals for other 4-H’ers at their farm over the years and helped haul them back and forth to the fairgrounds.
“We’re family here. We help each other out. We dig in when we need to dig in,” she said.
She also took off work for fair week, but she said it’s no vacation.
“It’s all work, but it’s rewarding work. You get to see the children, their reward. They see their animal from when they bring it to the fair, to in the pen, to winning the ribbons or maybe not winning the ribbons, but they’re rooting their friend on, and that friend they’ve sat and helped all week wins,” she said.
Chloe said her favorite animal to show is a horse because “they’re easy sometimes when they want to be.”
She spent almost all of fair week in the barn with her grandma. “You can see all of the animals and make new friends,” she said.
But it’s also nice to go home to her own bed and air conditioning at the end of each night, she said.
Katrina does spend most of her nights in the barns, helping to watch over the animals and make sure the kids staying aren’t pulling pranks on each other — “water balloons, or they throw each other in the water tanks. Or they will be sleeping, then someone will put shaving cream in their hand and then tickle their cheek,” she said.
Frankie Lane was eating a bologna sandwich for lunch in the sheep barn. He’s been showing hogs for six years now and this was his first year showing sheep.
“The pigs, I like those because they’re more of a dog than anything. They’re pretty easy. The sheep, it’s just an experience right now,” Lane said.
“I just really enjoy working with animals. If you need someone to talk to, you can talk to the animals and they don’t talk back; they just listen.”
Lane arrived at the barn by 8 a.m. and left by 11 p.m. each night during fair week.
“You make so many friends here. People help you out and you can help them out,” Lane said about his favorite part of fair week.
He leased the sheep from Ronald Fleener, who has been showing sheep since 1961. He served as a 4-H sheep club leader for nearly 20 years after moving to Brown County.
Fleener had stopped by the fairgrounds that day to help Lane finish grooming his animals for the show the next day.
After all of these years, Fleener said he still loves 4-H because it’s good for kids to have the responsibility of caring for animals, like feeding them twice a day.
“An animal is just like a human. You have to take care of it and you have to be passionate about it,” he said.
Mandy Franklin sits in the barn with her 10-year-old daughter, Hayden Kelp. This is Hayden’s first year showing livestock. This year she’s showing six goats, and she took time to introduce each one to a visitor and give them hugs. Her favorite part of the fair is meeting other kids and seeing the background of the fair.
Mandy was a 15-year 4-H’er who began as Cloverbud (preschool-aged member) before working her way up to a Mini member and ultimately a 10-year 4-H’er.
“It’s exciting to watch her grow as a person with her livestock,” Mandy said about her daughter following in her footsteps.
“Fair week is the week we prepare for all year long. We do outside shows as well, but this is kind of our big week. … It’s a big, big deal for us as a family.”
Her family continues to be 4-H members because she believes the attributes children gain from being involved in 4-H and showing livestock cannot be gained anywhere else. “This isn’t something where she comes to the fair and I take care of them. She has had to prepare these animals,” Mandy said.
“Sometimes you do your best and the reward isn’t there. Sometimes you do your best and you win everything.”
