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Exhibit Hall offers unique 4-H projects for all to see
Never underestimate the ingenuity of Putnam County 4-H'ers.
In each corner and narrow aisle of the Exhibit Hall portion of the Community Building, fair-goers this week can find projects of every food and fashion. Posters, photographs, large woodworking pieces and even bugs unceremoniously pinned to their eternal resting place.
But in the midst of some of the more typical projects are a few items that catch the eye of the public.
Take, for instance, the metal craft creation of Emily Gilley, who took about 30 horseshoes painted black and welded them together to create a unique metal rocking chair -- probably not the most comfortable of rocking chairs but a rocker nonetheless. Form over function certainly.
That clever creation earned Gilley, 18 years old and a 10-year 4-H'er, a Blue Award along with two Reserve Grand Champion ribbons. Visitors can find Gilley's effort along the west wall of the Exhibit Hall.
Down the center aisle, if you're hungry for something interesting, sits a colorful five-tier cake created by Allacyn Arnold in tune with a music motif.
Arnold took home a Blue Award as well after decorating sections of the cake to feature music scales, instruments and even piano keys. But it's all under glass, so no tasting is allowed, not even a sample of turquoise icing.
Just to the left as fair-goers enter through the north side plastic panels that keep the cool air inside the building, you can find the Floriculture project of 13-year-old Anne Marie Williams.
Creatively using a pair of ice skates for a planter has earned Champion and Reserve Grand Champion honors along with a State Fair entry for Williams, who goes into eighth grade at Cloverdale next month.
The daughter of Greg and Debra Williams admits she spotted something similar on Pinterest, the idea-sharing Internet site, and became inspired.
"I was just looking at random stuff and saw it," she notes, and her project took off from there.
She bought a pair of ice skates off eBay and went to work to age them appropriately.
"They were brand new," Williams said, "so I had to scuff them up a little. I sanded them down with sandpaper and cut them with a knife."
The flowers and greenery aren't growing inside the skates, but are arranged nicely with roses and lilies among the balsam.
"This is my first year doing flowers," Williams said. "I really knew nothing about flowers but I really liked the idea."
With five years of 4-H behind her, Williams has also been involved in Rabbits, Leathercraft, Archery and Baking and has been helping out at the Boy Scout tent, selling ice cream and cotton candy.
Over at the south end of the display area, Exploring 4-H member Seth Fuhrman's nifty "Barn Archeology" Collections entry rests at the end of the aisle.
Fuhrman's collection is an assortment of hand tools discovered through use of a metal detector while prospecting old barn sites he received permission to explore, mainly in northern Putnam County.
"Barn Archeology" is a timely project what with several TV shows such as "American Diggers" and "Digger Wars" that search for buried treasure and artifacts becoming now quite popular.
"My dad (David Fuhrman) thought we could collect old barn tools," eight-year-old Seth said of the original concept.
So they mapped out a route of 18-20 old barn sites, and once they asked permission to metal detect on the properties, not a soul said no to the Roachdale Elementary third-grader.
"As these old barns are torn or burned down, some history still remains," Seth's project notes.
So with metal detector, shovel and pick, he dug into the project and unearthed a bunch of old shovels and rakes, too big to include in the Collections entry. Most of the time, however, the metal detector signal led him to nails or latches or pieces of chain.
But Seth "hit the jackpot a couple of times," Dad David said.
Seth thought the highlight of the undertaking was a group of grease guns all found at what appeared to be an old maintenance barn site.
"I liked the shape of them," he said, noting that the old grease guns resembled pistols.
But mostly what he found were wrenches and items associated with machinery, along with saws, a hand plane, tack hammer and a square.
"They are all pretty usable except for the grease guns," Dad David surmised, noting the unlikelihood of finding the proper corresponding grease fittings today. "Other than that, a 9/16ths wrench is still a 9/16ths."
Although TV programs like "Antiques Roadshow" and American Pickers" worship the patina that develops on the surface of metal through oxidation and other processes, Seth didn't want a pile of rust for his project. So he cleaned up the tools, including a couple of chrome pieces, to display them neatly in his Collections box.
While he didn't find any gold coins or silver jewelry, Seth did dig up an old watch that he gave back to the barn owner.
It wasn't really valuable anyway, his dad noted, adding, "But that wasn't what we told him we were looking for, so we left it with him.
"It certainly showed him (Seth) there's buried treasures out there. I think we will continue. But he really likes tractors. He'll probably do something with small engines next."
And next year?
"We'll probably add onto it if we can find more tools," Seth said.