Our Iowa State Fair 2010

Another Iowa State Fair is in the books. The attendance did not top the 1 million mark, but it was close.

We also know many of you were watching our Iowa Public Television coverage of the Fair.

I remember as a kid watching the coverage, now I get to be a part of it. I truly enjoy going to the Fair as I’ve mentioned before.

My stories ranged from the Butter Cow to Wood chopping event at Pioneer Hall.

Here’s a rundown of my stories this year:

Before the Fair even started, we got a look inside the new Jacobson Exhibition Center. It is the new crown jewel of the fairgrounds. Fair General Manager Gary Slater gives John Torpy and myself a tour of the new building.

Noah inspects the Butter Cow.

John Torpy, Steve Carns and myself took a couple of stops inside the John Deere Agricultural building to see Sarah Pratt in action sculpting this year’s Butter Cow. We tried to show how the various times look different in the Ag building and how the cow looks in various stages. Let me know what you think. Did it work?

The Goodman family of Rose Hill was one of 6 Iowa farm families honored with the Way We Live Award. Rick Fuller, Josh Buettner and I visited the farm earlier this summer. A big thank you to their hospitality for the crew. Amber wrote the nomination letter about her family and she was right on about her father Mark, mother Linda and brother Daniel. Did I mention the kids were the cutest ever? Here’s the link to story. Also, thanks to Marlin Schram for the video of the ceremony when the Goodman’s were presented their plaque in the Knapp Animal Learning Center.

4-H project from Carroll County.

I was a 4-H member for the Shady Grove Super Stars. I was even a charter member of the group. One year, I refinished a chair that won a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair. So, this next assignment was fun. I got to do a feature on the 4-H building. I decided one of the stories not known about the building is the day all the exhibits come to the fair for judging and display. Here’s our look at the organized chaos as told to us by Mitchell Hoyer. I did run into an old Wartburg friend Andrea Flater while on the shoot with Rick Fuller. Also Eric Allen‘s mother in from Montezuma. John Torpy got some great pics of the fair ribbon dress. We also saw the dinosaur from Carroll County.

Wood chopping in the rain.

During the rain on Tuesday, Phil Blobaum and I were at the Pioneer Hall Wood Chopping event. Here’s the YouTube link if our IPTV site doesn’t load for you. The event did have a new element of danger with the water and the axes. Now, that’s entertainment.

I did do a little live blogging of this day that included a visit with my parents and all that rain. It also included a visit with Iowa Public Radio’s John Pemple. A link to the video interview is here.

Pie Eating.

The last event was the pie eating contest at the Bill Riley Stage. Lots of fun there for sure. Here’s the YouTube link. One of my favorite moments includes a girl from Indianola winning her round of the contest. Her reaction captured by John Torpy is great. Maybe we’ll see that in an open to the show next year.

Again, the video page with all the IPTV videos is here.

Paul Berge and Chris Gourley.

One fun story is the look behind the scenes at the production of the IPTV Fair program. Paul Berge and Chris Gourley did the work on this piece. They showed a lot of my co-workers who put in endless hours to bring the coverage into your homes, now in high-definition.

Westside night sees Dowling thump Valley 34-7

Dowling Catholic fans start to assemble at Valley.

Friday nights in Iowa are special.
It is the beginning of the weekend, the night East Side Night happens at the Iowa State Fair and it’s also known as Football Night in Iowa.

Friday night was Westside Night at Valley Stadium where West Des Moines Dowling Catholic dropped arch-rival West Des Moines Valley 34-7.

Its the second straight win for Tom Wilson‘s Maroons over Gary Swenson‘s Tigers.

Nearly 10,000 stood around the stadium to see the debut of Connor Bravard and the high-octane offense full of receivers like Amara Darboh, Eric Lee and Jake Yacinich. Darboh made a grab before half on a hail-mary heave to the end zone to set the tone for the rest of the game. Yacinich blocked a punt in the first quarter that was more of an interception. He just flat-out caught the ball off the punter’s foot. Lots of special teams plays were clicking Friday night.

The defense had questions marks coming into the season with only 3 returning starters, but that unit quickly rose to the challenge and shut down the likes of Looney and Lewis. There also was a QB change for Valley as Jeff Pullen started, but Connor Blythe finished the game. Valley was shut out until 1:27 left in the game. Most of the Valley starters were still in, which you could justify because they were working with their likely new quarterback.

The fake punt with Dowling leading by 30 points did raise some eyebrows, we’ll see who remembers that one later. That is usually a set play where the punter looks for a certain check point in coverage, if it’s not there, he takes off running for the first down.

Dowling finished with 161 yards rushing, 84 yards passing. Valley tallied 83 yards rushing and 55 yards passing.

Tom Chapman, Paul Yeager and Brian Morris in the press box at Valley. (Romelle Slaughter photo)

Dowling travels to Council Bluffs on Friday to play Thomas Jefferson. We’ll be on the air at 6 with the pregame show. Hopefully we’ll have Dave Marcoulier back in the booth after a bout of illness on Friday. You know it was serious when Dave couldn’t go. A big thanks to Tom Champan for filling in as our color commentator. He was to be in the booth anyway as he won an auction last year to be a part of the broadcast team. He thought he’d be able to watch his son Mac kick from the back row of the press box, he instead got a front row view of the action. A bit thanks to him and our trusty sideline reporter Brian Morris. Also thanks to Romelle Slaughter for his work on the Twitter feed and keeping us up to do on scores.

There are some other sources of information if you’re interested. One view is from the No, Its Iowa website I referred to in Friday’s broadcast. A plug for Jesse Gavin‘s site is to check in this week as he goes to see the head coaching debut of Alex Pollock and the Aplington Parkersburg Falcons. Alex’s older brother Andy is a new varsity assistant on this year’s Maroon squad.

A preview story on CBTJ will post Thursday or Friday ahead of the game. You can listen to the game online at KWKY.com or on AM1150 KWKY Des Moines.

Day 1 at the Iowa State Fair 2010

Jacobson Building Dedication.

My first day of the 2010 Iowa State Fair is complete.

I didn’t melt, even if it was 149 degrees in the shade. It was 238 degrees in the Ag Building.

I didn’t pass out, but I did have fun at the fair, which is a requirement.

Many thanks to John Torpy for the lovely pictures for Iowa Public Television. He’s the one in yellow risking his life in front of a team of black horses.

John and I hit the opening of the new Jacobson Exhibition Center, the 4-H building and the butter cow. You can expect all of those features in this year’s Iowa Public Television’s Iowa State Fair Coverage. The nightly IPTV fair shows begin Monday at 9p.

We hope you like our Blue Ribbon Coverage.

I’ll be back out to the fair on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Will you be there any of those days?

Tuesday I’ll be covering the wood chopping event at Pioneer Hall on the grounds’ east side. That is an afternoon event.

Levi will make his ISF debut on Wednesday as we take the stroller through the grounds with Noah, Amy and myself.

Then Thursday, I’ll be at the Bill Riley stage for the pie eating contest.

Maybe I’ll see you at the fair. Regardless, enjoy a true Iowa treasure.

Butter Cow 2010 Iowa State Fair

One of the great parts of my job at Iowa Public Television is I get paid to go to the Iowa State Fair.

Shhhh, don’t tell anyone here, but I’d probably go for free if I had to.

This year, I’ve got a few fair stories to work up for our IPTV Fair 2010 Coverage.

I’ve met the Goodman family near Rose Hill and gotten a tour of the Jacobson Exhibition Center this summer ahead of the Fair. Then during the fair, I’ll be giving you a snapshot of what happens in the 4-H building, the pie eating contest and the wood chopping event.

The traditional view of the Butter Cow.

But nothing compares to the Butter Cow.
This year, I get my turn doing the annual piece on the butter bow.

I’m trying something a bit different with the feature and giving you a look at the cow in transition, or in progress and not just the final day before the fair opens.

I’ve tried to get into the Ag building a couple of times this summer. The first time, I was inside before anything was happening. The second time was when Sarah Pratt got started on the 2010 Iowa State Fair Butter Cow.

Steve Carns gets a close up of Sarah Pratt beginning work on the Butter Cow. For the record, the sculpture is not solid butter. The backside is not created, just wood and wire mesh.

Steve Carns and I visited her on the second day of on-site work the last week of July. You may have seen the pictures recently of the creation, here’s the whole post.

Speaking of pictures, be sure to get your picture with the butter cow and send it to us here at IPTV. We want to see your pictures of you enjoying the fair. Double points if you get a picture with a IPTV crew person.

And speaking of pictures, like the talking ones, the Butter Cow is headed to the big screen in a new movie called “Butter” starring Jennifer Garner among other big names. Thanks to KCCI’s Eric Hanson for the story.

Behind the wire mesh of the Butter Cow.

Work on the butter cow starts before the first glob of butter is applied to the wire mesh frame. There’s planning and design of the frame, the actual picking of the cow and additional creation and scouting of cows to find the perfect one. This year’s choice, a jersey.

The frame that Pratt is using is the same one used for years, but this is the first time she’s modified the mesh dramatically since taking over from legendary Iowan Norma “Duffy” Lyon. This year, Pratt wants to make the cow look a little lower and not in the “show” position of years past and more of a cow in a pasture pose.

Pratt is originally from Toledo, Iowa, but now lives in West Des Moines. She grew up knowing the Lyon family and 20 years ago, she got her first assistant experience with Duffy Lyon. Pratt first was assigned to melt the frozen butter. The second year she was allowed to rinse out the butter buckets and was then trained a bit more each year on the sculpting side of the cow.

Bucket of Butter. Sweet corn sold separately.

By the way, that’s a bucket of butter right there.

Over a 15-year period, her experiences intensified to finishing the butter creation by polishing the sculpture.

Pratt officially became the Fair’s 4th Butter Cow Lady in 2006. The 2011 Iowa State Fair will be the 100th anniversary of the first butter cow at the Iowa State Fair. There’s not been 100 butter cows, as the sculpting took a hiatus during a few years of World War II. Pratt is already thinking about what to create for next year’s event, by the way.

Sarah likes the first few days of the building process because it is a chance to start in the quiet of the Ag building and see how the exhibits start to appear and the building comes to life before the fair, then the actual fair.

During that time, Pratt will apply 600 pounds of butter out of buckets and onto the wire mesh. She has to keep the room cold, 42 degrees is ideal. If any warmer, the butter will start to pull away, almost melt, off the mesh. The most trouble spots is underneath the cow. Last year, Pratt had a little repair job to do. She said one year during Duffy’s years, repairs had to be made in the middle of the fair.

Here’s a few fun facts about the butter cow we learned last week:

• The butter will be recycled from year to year.
• The average length of butter is good for 10 years.
• Each year the butter is stored in cold storage. Any mold spots will be picked out and replaced.
• If you took a knife to the cow for your bread, you’d have 19,200 slices of toast.
• Pratt uses low-moisture, Iowa produced butter.
• Betty White was considered for a sculpture after several requests were made.
• Sarah hurt her hand the first day of sculpting, but the cold butter has made it feel better.

Thanks to all of you asked questions last week for me to ask Sarah via Twitter and Facebook. That was pretty cool of all of you.

Sophia Ahmad dared me to eat the butter. No dice. I did touch it though.

Connie Jones wanted to know “if they recycle the butter into next year’s sculpture?” That is true. This year, the average age of the butter is 6 years.

Michael Graham wanted to know: “Salted or unsalted butter?” Salted, Michael.

Alan Campbell had a revealing statement: “I know it’s a “duh” moment…but never realized that thing was on a wood/wire frame. Interesting how they get it to “stick.” The butter really just goes on in layers and sticks a little at a time, with the wire mesh being the biggest help.

This question from Shannon Miller made Sarah Pratt laugh, but it wasn’t the first time she’d been asked, “Does she EVEN like butter…I wouldn’t after all that. “
Shannon, Sarah said she does like butter. She prefers it over margarine.

Kel Anne Davis had her questions answered early. Thanks for “How does one train to sculpt butter? Do you have to be in a refrigerator as you work?”

Susan Thomsen how long is the butter good for sculpting with? can you recycle it for other cows?

This year’s second sculpture will feature Dr. Seuss and some creations from his books.

Again, if you go see the butter cow, get your picture in front of the cow and post it on the IPTV Facebook page or send it to our Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/IowaPublicTV

You can see this story soon.

IPTV’s Fair coverage will air August 16-21 at 9:00 p.m. and repeat nightly at 10:30 p.m. On August 22 each of the six programs will air preceding the State Fair Talent Search at 8:00 p.m.

Getting Ready for Iowa State Fair 2010

Goodman Family Farm

I’m knee-deep in Iowa State Fair preparation here at IPTV.

Today I’m editing a piece about one of the farm families of the year. This is the first year for the Way We Live Award.

We went to visit the Goodman family near Oskaloosa and Rose Hill a couple of weeks ago. They have a dairy operation. It is a family farm as both the parents and their adult children are involved. Even the grandkids are now running around helping. And I am serious when I say the 2-year-olds are helping.

You can see the Goodman’s win their award on August 19th inside the Knapp Animal Learning Center.

John Torpy working had inside the Jacobson Arena.

I’ve also got a feature on the new Jacobson Exhibition Center to put together as well.

That is a massive building near the 4-H building on the southwest corner of the fairgrounds. Just the indoor warm up arena is big enough to have the Iowa Barnstormers practice there.

The building was under construction last year and you can see that feature here. It was part of our Iowa Public Television Fair 2009 coverage.

What else will be on TV this year? Any thing you look forward to seeing each year on IPTV’s Fair programs?