Day 2 (of 6) of the Steele County Free Fair in Owatonna, MN

We just got home from the Steele County Free Fair in Owatonna Minnesota. We spend 5 hours there today and are possibly going back this evening as a family.

I grew up going to our County Fair every year as part of 4-H but coming to this one here in Owatonna Minnesota is quite a change. The sphere is huge and the only larger Fair in Minnesota is the Minnesota State Fair.

The fair started yesterday and will go through Sunday so you have plenty of time to go check it out. Today we took my son and his friend and my daughter. After years of going to this fear I have a good idea of where the Cheap Eats are at this fair. I look for those boots and food carts every year to see if the price is the same or went up.

Here are some of the things we buy every year : $1 snow cones, $1 Dole Whip cones, $2 cotton candy on a stick ( no coupons for that this year like they have done in the past 😞), $2.50 corn dogs, $3 mini donuts ( it used to be $2 but then they try to up the price every year  and end up going back to $2 so we'll see what happens this year), $1 popcorn, $1 lollipops, and don't forget you can go to the information booth and get the coupons that appear in both newspapers. Those usually help bring the cost down or get you a free beverage with an entree.

There are tons of free things to do as well. There are 5 different stages with entertainment other than the grandstand the stage entertainment is free. It is always free to go look in all of the animal barns as well as the baby animal barn and the exotic animals zoo there.

You are too late to get the wristband that is good for the entire length of the fair for rides but if you go to their website you can learn about the days that have wristband deals. I bought my kids season passes to Valley Fair and we went there yesterday and we'll go again this weekend in lieu of going on Midway rides.

There is fun and free interactive things the kids can do at the fair as well. Every day at 1:30 there is a lumberjack camp and the kids get a free t-shirt for participating and get to try out log rolling and sawing logs. My kids look forward to this every year and we made sure to do it on the first day so they could get their wristbands and not have to wait to get signed in on other days. Today was the first day they offered this and there wasn't a ton of kids so they got to try log rolling a lot.

The other display that they can be interactive with his inside the art Exhibit building where the Owatonna Arts Center has a table set out for them to color. Outside that building is the national Taekwondo Institute where kids can and try out breaking boards and punching and cooking the dummy. There is also a ton of opportunities to see animals being shown by kids. Today we watched cattle being shown because one of my daughters friends was doing that. We also watch the Owatonna cheer program which featured three of my daughters friends.

We didn't have a chance to watch the pig races but we will get to that before the week is over. We also hope to watch the magic show and the human Cannonball. Both of those things are free as well as the pig races.

Also we like to go check out the tractors that are on display as well as two or some of the buildings in the village of yesteryear which offers free tours during the fair. There is also an auto museum and a fear Museum which are free to to her as well while you are there. There is also a group called enticing entertainment which appears to do some kind of fire juggling of some sort, we have not seen that yet so that might be something we try to check out as well.

So that is the lowdown on the Cheap Eats and the free entertainment and activities at the fair. You still have plenty of time to go check it out.

She Is......Women in the Outdoors Weekend at Eagle Bluff

Let me tell you a little bit about She Is. It is a nonprofit organization that plans outings for women to do as a group. This is my third year going to the she is spring women's weekend. They do have one coming up in the fall but it will be hard for me to know whether or not I can attend that one because of when my kids might have swim meets.

The spring weekend is held at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro Minnesota. When you register for this weekend you will pick out classes in your order of preference. Each person will get for classes but you rank 10 of them in your preference order. I think there was about 25 classes to choose from so there is a wide variety of things to do outside and inside. I tend to gravitate towards the ones where I can be most active.

The above picture is me on the ropes course and the zip line. I have done this class each of the three years I have gone. I find it to be such a thrill.

 This is just a picture of one of the meals they served us. Sometimes we get to have things that we might normally not have at home. This is just a taco so nothing different here but we did have Watercress shelter at one meal and rabbits to add another. Both do things to me. Eagle Bluff tries to use local and sustainable ingredients when they are making their meals as much as possible. But as a mom I just enjoy that someone else is doing the cooking and cleaning for an entire weekend.

 The indoor crafty class I chose to take this year was to make a hammock cocoon swing. I did finish it but I still need to buy cushions to put inside and figure out where to hang it from. It might go up to our cabin.

 This is me with my friend Lori. She drove about 4 hours to come spend the weekend with me and three other of my friends. I had not seen her in a couple of years so I was thrilled to be able to have this time with her. We did go canoeing together as one of our classes and did the hammock swing class together as well. I didn't bring along my phone when we went canoeing so no pictures from that.

 It is morel season time in Minnesota when we were there and I found for that were all about this big.

 One of the classes I took was survival 101 where we were taught about different types of shelters you can build and how 2 make your own fire. We were split into groups of three women and had to work together to use the resources we have available to us and see you what we could do in regards to making fire hand making a shelter. We also made raspberry tea using raspberry plants that were near us. I was very pleased that our group was able to make a fire using flint and steel. When everyone had made their shelters we did a Parade of Homes of sort to go around and look at how each group decided to make theirs. No group was the same.

Each of the two evenings there was an optional group class for the entire group. The first night the group class was on how to grow shiitake mushrooms which is something they do at Eagle Bluff. These are the places they buy their inoculated plugs from. I was thinking this might be something I might like to try up at our cabin. The other evening class was the star lab demonstration to learn about constellations up in the sky currently. I did the class last year so I opted to just hang out this year. But two of the ladies in our group were new to this program so they went to check it out and enjoyed it.

We also had an optional Saturday morning yoga class for the group that I did with my friends. It was before breakfast so not everyone is interested in getting up early to workout. But I was and am glad I did. Next year you should join me at the spring She Is weekend!