A Tiny Fair Fix

8/19/18 dairy cows at Prairie Hollow Farm

Although we visit the Twin Cities for a family reunion almost every year, our visit rarely coincides with the Minnesota State Fair, which is one of my favorite events to sketch. I was very disappointed to realize that our timing was off again this year, and we missed the fair’s opening by only a few days. I did, however, manage to get a small fix of sketching farm animals in two places.

The first opportunity was at the Gibbs Farm House Museum, which is right across the street from the Bell Museum in St. Paul. Operated by the Ramsey County Historical Society, the Gibbs Farm House gives city people like me a glimpse of 19^th century Minnesotan farm life.

While the ice cream making demo (five ingredients only: milk, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla) using a traditional churn and free samples was a highlight for most visitors, I enjoyed sketching the pigs and goats even more.

My next farm animal-sketching fix was at the family reunion itself, which was held at the dairy farm of a family member. An organic cheese-making operation in Elgin (about a hundred miles south of the Twin Cities), Prairie Hollow Farm is home to more cows than a city girl gets to see all year. As my sisters-in-law and I stood by a fence watching at least a dozen of them file out of their barn, each turned to look at us curiously for a moment but then quickly moved on to the business at hand (eating and resting).

 

8/18/18 Logan the billie goat at Gibbs Farm

8/18/18 ice cream-making demo

8/18/18 pigs at Gibbs Farm

In between munching potato salad and chatting with Greg’s relatives, I snuck away for a bit to sketch the silos and a hay baler. (See how that happens? Somehow my sketchbook is always lured to the nearest heavy equipment.)

It wasn’t exactly the Minnesota State Fair, but a few cows, pigs and goats are better than none.

8/19/18 Prairie Hollow Farm