The PNE is basically like a state or regional fair, only bigger. It's not as big as the CNE, or Canadian National Exhibition, but it's bigger than most regional fairs. There are rides, junk food (I'm sure I'll podcast about that soon at http://candycritic.org/junkfud/), and farm stuff. Allison and I tend to focus on the junk food and farm stuff most.
While visiting the farm stuff, Allison asked a girl at the 4H club booth about what the 4H's stand for. The girl (Emily) was helpful and very friendly. We talked with her for a while, and found out that she had a pig going for competition that afternoon. We got the details from her and told her we would be there to cheer her on. We suddenly became pig fans. We visited Emily's pig Mavis to check her out and whisper words of encouragement, and we made sure to plan the rest of our day around the pig judging.
Finally 2:30 rolled around and we were there, front row. We checked the schedule and found out Mavis and Emily were showing in the second round. We started to get really excited about this contest. Emily saw us and stopped by to say hello, we wished her well as she went off to prep Mavis. Then the second round started.
We learned that showing pigs is kind of intense. We read earlier that day that it's important to cover your pig in baby powder, but we didn't know why. Then we found out, pigs are mean animals, and they hate other pigs. Most of all they hate the smell of other pigs, and they will brutally attack each other. So they cover the pigs in baby powder so they can't smell each other. This helps, but there are still regular fights, mean nasty fights.
Emily and Mavis went out, and I don't want to brag, but I feel that Mavis was the most respectful pig of the group. As each pig was eliminate, we soon realized that Mavis and Emily were doing well. The truth is they won this round, in fact we came back later to learn they had won the entire section. We were like proud sports fans, and we stopped by Mavis's pen to congratulate her. Emily wasn't around, but we left her a note.
We had a great day at the PNE, lots of food, shows, and sites to see, but I don't think we'll ever forget about the time we became pig fans.
Later