Pig Wrestling. Really.

Li'l Miss has been counting down the days until the county fair, pretty much since last year's fair.  We drive by the fairgrounds all the time, and she's always talking about the animals and wondering where they've gone off to for the 51 weeks of the year when they're not hanging out at the fairgrounds, just waiting for her to show up and love on them. 

So, earlier this week, Li'l Miss got all dressed up and hit the fairgrounds three times in 36 hours.  She watched the pigs, saw baby chicks hatching, and petted the horses.  (She had to settle for this since what she really wanted was to "sit on a horse while it's running".  Thinking that's not going to happen this year.)

This mama has to confess that the fair is slowly growing on me.  (Yes, that would be me, the very un-farmy California girl.)  This year I actually knew what people were talking about when they said they went to the "truck pull".  And I totally had a blast at the pig wrestling contest.  You would have loved it too.  Seriously.

Teams of four people started out in this giant mud pit.  (The fire department generously filled the pit before the competition...and stuck around to "rinse" the contestants after each round.  After all, we Midwesterners aren't going to let a little drought keep us from enjoying some good pig wrestling.)

Their task was to catch a pig and put him on top of the tire in the middle of the mud pit...in 60 seconds or less.  Sort of like this.

It was messy.  (Note the muddy waterfall coming out of this little lady's boot.)

R.E.A.L.L.Y. messy.

The pigs were not cooperative.

But the contestants were hardcore, and the victories were sweet.

All my California friends have no idea what they're missing. ;)