Last Friday, my fiancé and I headed down to the State Fair to watch my cousin show her swine in the State 4-H competition. Ava, I am so proud of you! You did an amazing job! All of the 4-H kids that went to the fair, in my opinion, did phenomenally and were wonderful representatives of our county. Congratulations to all of you! I know I speak for many of the Patriot readers as well when I say you all are very talented. 

I personally do not ride horses or raise farm animals, but I have some awesome family members who do! I know that it takes a lot of effort and work every day to raise, train, and care for those animals. You can really tell the difference between the 4-H students who worked with their animals on a daily basis vs. those who did not. Congrats to all of the students again who put in the hard work: it showed!

After leaving the 4-H barns, my fiancé and I stopped at just a couple of food booths. We tried some cheese curd tacos (which were surprisingly yummy!) and of course we couldn’t leave without a big bucket of Sweet Martha’s Cookies and some cold milk.

For those of you who aren’t heading to the fair, there’s some summer fun left yet in our area, too. 

In Big Lake, the farmers market will continue every Wednesday until the end of September. The last movie in the park event will be September 16, weather permitting. 

In Becker, Concert at the Creek at Pebble Creek was held Friday, September 2. The Fabulous Armadillos were featured. 

Palmer Day is coming up soon. For more information on that event, check out Mark Kolbinger’s article on page 2.

And, of course, there’s still some time to get out and enjoy our beautiful local lakes! 

I hope you all had a great summer! I’m already looking forward to the next one!