If I Had a Hammer...I'd Beg Someone to Take It!

In addition to the animals, food, Midway rides and entertainment, there is something very cool happening at the Indiana State Fair this year.

A house is being built!

That's it in the photo above. If you look really hard, you'll see me to the left of the steps. I'm "holding" a ladder for my coworker - S - as she hammers some trim.

See, isn't she good?

I started out hammering some studs (boards not good-looking men - bummer) inside the house but the very nice volunteer helping me had to start the nails for me, then come back and straighten them out, and then finish them up. I was much better suited for fetching water for the other volunteers, cleaning up the job site and "directing" the other volunteers.

See...

...there I am pointing out some very important detail to my fellow volunteer builders!

Seriously, this is a neat project that I am proud to have given a couple of hours of my time to it, even if my shift was cut short because the build was ahead of schedule and it was scorching hot.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Indianapolis has teamed up with Indiana agriculture (22 companies in all) to do an Ag Build at the Indiana State Fair for a deserving Indianapolis family. The house will be built on the fairgrounds during the 17 days of the fair AND moved to its permanent location after the fair is over. And the coolest part is that the majority of the 350 volunteers are either farmers or employed by ag companies!

Since my shift was cut short, I didn't hang around the Fair for the free roller derby bout at the grandstands. However, I did sample one of the unique new "deep fried" offerings...

That's right, Deep Fried Butter! It even made USA Today - read more here.

Two of my coworkers and I split a batch, which included 4 deep fried, dough-covered balls of butter with a toothpick in the middle!

Cindy Hoye, the executive director of the Indiana State Fair, suggested the cinnamon sugar option. I guess you can get powdered sugar or chocolate syrup ones as well.

Here's what the inside looks like.

They were messy, greasy and, honestly, not anything special. Next time, if I want my fair food "deep fried," I'll stick to the deep fried Oreos or the fried cheese from the Hot Wisconsin Cheese stand.

I'm headed back out to the Indiana State Fair tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. to wrap burritos for the world's largest drive-thru breakfast...yes, 4 a.m. in the MORNING!

If you are near the fairgrounds from 6-8 a.m. Friday morning, drive through and grab a burrito, drink AND a gallon of ethanol-enriched gas for just $3 - all proceeds going towards the 4-H Education Complex renovations!