Humidity made the air look hazy and my lungs feel airless. Early afternoon sunshine burned into my skin like a laser beam. Sweat poured out of my pores so fast, I felt the sensation of salty sweat tickling my skin as it gushed out. Glancing around my garden, I tried to remember all the garden products I had signed up to show at the Central Wisconsin Fair in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Green beans were on my list. My goal was to find ten beans that were straight and identical in size. I stopped to think, “Did the entry form say ten, or twelve?” I was certain that I only needed one eggplant and for the tomatoes: three green ones, three ripe ones, and three heirlooms. Thankfully, I’d dug the potatoes for my entry, and harvested the onions yesterday. Finding identical sets of everything isn’t an easy job. Sometimes it is even impossible. Under my breath I mumbled, “I hate fair entry day!”

Eventually, I moved on to working my way around the yard to cut the flowers I planned to enter. The easiest to gather were three hydrangea blossoms, so I started there. When I eventually returned to my house, I placed my armful of cut flowers into the many vases required and began to gather up certain potted house plants. My variegated-leaf hoya plant was in bloom. That was something not every plant lover gets to see very often.

Jars of canned goods and crafts I’d worked on through the year covered the dining table. I had gathered them and fastened entry tags to each one last night. With everything assembled, it was now time to pack everything into my car.

By the time I arrived at the fairgrounds, I was a frazzled, sweaty mess, and I still had to unload the car and deliver the right entries to right department for them to be displayed. As I went to work, it occurred to me that every year, fair entry day was always hot and humid. And every year I hated the miserable day and the rush to bring everything, conforming to all the rules. The irony was that by the last day of the fair, the nights were often very cool.