After nearly nine decades of Island County Fairs, 2011’s was one for the books.

“It was the best fair we’ve had,” said Diane Divelbess, president of the fair board. “We were so pleased.”

Divelbess said everything during last week’s festivities ran smoothly — no injuries, no dogs biting each other, no riders falling off their horses.

On the contrary, it was all smiles at the fair this year.

“People were so mellow and happy. You can always tell, there’s a certain mood.”

Indeed, there were reasons aplenty to be cheery out on the fairgrounds last week.

Things get popping

It was a zippy doodle kind of Sunday morning for Devon Clarkson.

Between mixing lemonade drinks for passersby at the KC Brand booth, Clarkson was breaking a sweat, stirring popcorn in a scorching hot kettle.

Making their most colorful kind of popcorn, zippy doodle, wasn’t exactly something done in a jiffy. It means many batches of different flavors, all cooked separately — blue raspberry, cherry, lemon and green apple.

“It’s the Fruit Loops of popcorn,” Clarkson said.

“I put them in milk once, and they came out alright,” Clarkson adds.

Milk? Heavens, why?

“Regular cereal is boring,” he said.

With blue raspberry done, Clarkson moved on to green apple.

He poured the kernels into his solid cast-iron kettle, which is heated to 400 to 500 degrees before things really get popping.

“It’s basically a flame-thrower,” he said, motioning to the heating unit under the 300-pound kettle.

Clarkson hoisted a plastic pitcher above the smoking 400-pound kettle, adding sugar to the mix.

“Good ol’ sugar. Makes everything taste better,” he said.

Clarkson slips on a plastic face shield — “to keep my pretty face” — before he starts to stir the exploding corn kernels with the remains of a wooden boat paddle. (The paddle broke Saturday, he explains.)

After not much more than a minute, the corn is done popping, and Clarkson tilts the kettle and the popcorn falls into a giant copper bowl.

Originally from Aberdeen, where there’s not much going on, Clarkson said, he recalled how he joined with booth owner Jeramy Schultz about five years ago and has been riding the fair and festival circuit ever since.

Their best year ever was two or three years ago, at Lakefair in Olympia, when they went through 450 pounds of kettle corn in five days.

This year, Clarkson figures they’ll sell about 300 pounds.

Their recent travels included stops in the Tri-Cities, Wenatchee, Portland and Bend, Ore. Next up, on to Salem for the state fair.

“We go all over for this — it’s how we make the moneys,” he said, his voice rising to a playful cartoon pitch at the end.

Whidbey’s small county fair, he said, is something special. The people are friendly, and eager to try his kettle corn. And on Saturday, which was likely the hottest day of the summer, with the mercury passing 80 degrees, he went through four cases of lemonade.

“It’s a smaller venue, but the results are better than some of the bigger fairs. It’s freakin’ awesome!” Clarkson said.

Going in circles

Walking around in a circle all day may be mundane, but the ponies from Tons of Fun Pony & Amusement Rides have it pretty easy. They only work half the year, and only weekends at that.

The rest of the time they get to graze on almost 30 acres of pasture in Sequim.

Owner Dean Ridgway has more than 30 ponies he sends to fairs and little events around the state.

Children get the joy of riding ponies without the fear of them taking off.

Boosting a kid up onto a little white pony, Darcy Veltri warned, “Now don’t kick ’em. They’ve got nowhere to go.”

Veltri has been working with the ponies for a couple years now.

“It’s a wonderful workout. I get to play with children and ponies all day,” she said. “And I get to drive a truck.”

Royalty arrives

She was sworn to secrecy.

Her royalty was revealed Saturday at the fair, however, as Kelly Uhlig of Langley was crowned as the new queen of the Island County Farm Tour.

“I was really excited,” Kelly said. “I’m very proud to represent all the farms and farmers.”

Kelly, 16, has been in 4-H for seven years, with alpacas and Kiko meat goats, and is also an open-class and 4-H competitor in vegetables, fiber arts and flowers.

Chris Neal, 15, of Langley, was named king.

“I couldn’t believe it, really,” Chris said.

Chris is a sophomore at South Whidbey High School and raised a market steer for last year’s fair and helped launch the 4-HD club this year. The video club makes documentaries, he said, including a project at the Coupeville Wharf where visitors can wave their smart phones over bar-coded plaques to see history-filled clips on Lolita, the captured orca, plus natural history and other subjects

“I like to put things together. I’m a very visual person,” he said.

What the hay

One of these things is not like the other.

They look alike — llamas and alpacas. They’re very different, at least in the eyes of one owner.

“I think llamas are smarter, actually,” said Hannah Schlomann, 16.

She raises three alpacas and 14 llamas. The llamas are used as protectors for their smaller genetic cousins. And they’re great pets; Hannah said they greet her at the fence when she comes home from school.

Hannah paraded her llama through the alpaca obstacle course. They weaved past poles, walked through tires and jumped over bales of hay, all while she held an egg on a spoon.

The final obstacle, the bales of hay, was the last straw. As they both stretched over them, the egg fell and they were disqualified. Pippin, Hannah’s llama, may have a hereditary knack to follow its own direction.

“They tend to not want to do it, so they buck around,” Hannah said. “It’s fun; maybe not for them.”

No crying over these onions

Alexei Stalpaert stopped by the Warren Burrier Building to see how his entries had fared.

Then the 6-year-old saw the first-place blue ribbon on his beets — and an even bigger white one on his gargantuan group of green onions.

The prize: best vegetable for youth.

It was turning out to be quite a fair for Alexei, who had also won the superintendent’s award for best youth photo in the patterns category, for an expertly-composed shot of model trains.

Alexei’s notable work in the garden was due to his neighbors at Smugglers Cove, Bev and Earl Lane. The Freeland first-grader grew beets for the couple because they didn’t have a patch they planted themselves.

But back to those onions.

The great bunch grew big thanks to chicken manure and compost, he said.

“They just growed and growed and growed,” he explained. “I left them alone and they grew into a very big plant.”

It was a pretty big thrill when he won, Alexei said.

“I was so happy I couldn’t even say a word,” he said.

Good fair for Good Cheer

This year’s fair will help South End families put food on the table long after the joyful shouts from the midway have faded into memories.

The first day of the fair was Good Cheer day, and people brought in 654 pounds of goods for the food bank.

And with a special wristband deal for kids who brought in canned goods to get more rides at the carnival, a total of 1,328 pounds of food was donated at this year’s fair.

Shawn Nowlin, community outreach coordinator for Good Cheer Food Bank, said a typical year brings in an average of 800 to 1,000 pounds.

Spelling it out

L is for the way the crowd looked at him.

O is for the only one-man band at the fair.

V is for the very, very quirky talents he has.

E is for Eric Haines, entertainer extraordinaire.

Haines strapped on his music instruments, all nine of them. A bass drum, a banjo, a harmonica, a kazoo, a horn, tambourines and a top hat were all available for his plucking, honking and stomping.

Oh, he also had a 10-inch amplifier on his back.

During the lunch rush at the fair Saturday, he cruised the around the dining area playing Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” and his own compositions, “Rusty Old Banjo” and “Buster Keaton.”

Listen up, kids

Jim Adkins had a little bit of advice for the 4-H youngsters in the chicken showmanship competition. Good for one day only.

“Totally ignore your parents,” he told the kids.

Adkins, a judge, was giving pointers before the competition got underway.

Sure, there were the basics that every 4-H’er should know; always keep your eyes on the judge, remember that judging is done as part of a package deal with both the bird and the 4-H member, say what you know, not what you don’t.

But the real tip: Forget mom and dad in the audience, he said.

Adkins recalled a recent 4-H competition in Port Angeles, where a 4-H mom at the back of the crowd was energetically using sign language to guide her youngster.

“You totally ignore them. All the other times, money, respect, honor, dignity, more money, but today, totally ignore them,” he said.

Soon, it was time for the competition. And for Adkins, who grew up in Clark County but now hails from Old Fort, N.C., the Island County Fair was his latest chicken judging gig in a string of a dozen or so from across the summer.

He admitted he liked what he saw from island 4-H’ers during a pause while quizzing the contestants.

“Man, they look good, don’t they?” Adkins gushed.

Compost is king

Janet Hall pulled what looked like a plate of dirt under her nose and took a whiff.

Not bad.

Then she stuck her hand in, stirred and stared.

“The more crumbly, the better,” Hall said.

Hall, the program coordinator for the WSU Extension’s Waste Wise program, was busily sorting through 15 entries in this year’s compost contest.

This year marked the first year for the category, which turned out to be one of the most popular competitions based on the number of entries. Competitors submitted canning jars filled with compost, and Hall made her meticulous way through each one, judging on texture, color, smell, moisture and uniformity.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, setting the paper plate of compost down.

“That’s a really nice compost,” Hall said, not too dry, not too much soil.

Next year’s compost will probably be divided into two categories; compost from worm bins and yard waste.

This year’s winners: Gary Ingram of Greenbank, and the compost from the Good Cheer garden in Bayview. Both won merit awards.

Western games winners

Pink power prevailed on the ponies Saturday.

Two 12-year-old boys wearing bright pink shirts and bandanas beat state qualifying times in the Western games competitions. It was an anti-fashion statement more than flair or rallying for a cure.

“We’re just being dorks and wearing pink,” said Dylan Ward.

Dylan, a Freeland resident, rode his mare Summer for their fastest time in pole bending.

Summer sprinted down the line of six poles, turned past the last one and wove through them and back to the start/finish line. It was one of her final races with Dylan, which he said may have motivated his 19-year-old horse.

“It’s one of my horse’s best races,” Dylan said, “because it’s her last year with me.”

Ward and Hunter Newman, from Clinton, both beat state qualifying times in different Western games events. They previously qualified for the state events, so beating the time marker was a bonus.

“I’m really proud of my horse,” Hunter said of his 7-year-old mare, Charm.

“This might have just bumped me up to first or second stall,” he added.

Hunter will find out soon enough which stall he’ll have for the state 4-H Western games, coming Sept. 22-25 to Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup.

Good dog

Luna the toy poodle’s obedience was stellar Saturday.

Annie Mutschler, 15, led Luna through the 4-H dog rally obedience competition.

“She was really good,” Annie said. “She did really well, especially since it’s so hot out.”

Annie and Luna began near the kennel building. They strolled to the first command, with Luna always on Annie’s left and at pace. The course demonstrated Luna’s ability to stay with Annie and adhere to basic commands: sit, heel, come, down.

Annie, from Langley, has had Luna for six years since she was a puppy. She said they spend an hour a week training on basic commands.

They won a first-place ribbon at the showmanship competition on Thursday and two first places for agility on Friday.

The tiny black Luna is a veteran of shows, though, with more than five years of 4-H competitions.

“She really likes to work,” Annie said. “She likes to show off.”

All wet

It was a bit of hazing for some of the new faces at South Whidbey High School.

Students got a chance to douse their teachers in a dunk tank. And some parents got a chance, too.

Principal John Patton, assistant principal Scott Mauk, football coach Andy Davis, girls soccer coach Ben Rusch, boys soccer coach Joel Gerlach and softball coach Don Wood all took their turns on the wet seat.

“And the water’s cold — straight from the hose,” Wood said.

The dunk tank, donated by Matt Nichols, was used to raise money for the 2012 senior all-night party. Event co-chairwoman Lisa Wood said the funds lower the cost of tickets from $250 to about $100.

It was a one-day-only event. Wood said the space cost $25 for the day, so money made on top of that was all profit.

A buck bought one ball, $3 bought five throws.

Topping it off

Garlic has gone to Gregg Staples’ head.

It was hard for people at this year’s fair not to notice. Staples made the rounds with a huge hat in the shape of a head of garlic.

It was really all business, though.

Staples is a salesman for Garlic Festival Foods, a business based in Gilroy, Calif. — the home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

It was a garlic gold mine back at his booth, not far from the Turner Building. There were jars of pickled garlic, canisters of all sorts of garlic seasonings, plus more jars of garlic-stuffed olives, garlic-flavored mustard and containers of garlic salsas.

Staples, who has connections on Whidbey going back many years, said he closed his shop for the summer in Lake Havusa, Ariz. — that’s where the London Bridge is, you know — and went on the road to sell Garlic Festival Foods products.

It wasn’t too tough of a choice, he said, noting the temperature had been 116 back home, quite a difference from Whidbey’s cooler clime.

“I almost put a sweater on,” he joked.

At this year’s fair, islanders seem almost smitten with their salsas.

“Our garlic salsas have done incredibly well,” Staples said.

Step right up

The fair had a little bit of everything for sale.

From free Gideon’s New Testament bibles to $1,000 hot tubs and spas, vendors ran the gamut.

For $18, you could tote an inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants or the Tasmanian Devil. Dora the Explorer, giant aliens, snakes, wands and the best-selling blow-up toy, a dolphin, were all for sale at the inflatable toy booth. It won the “Most Exciting Commercial Booth” purple ribbon.

A few steps from that tent, and shoppers were a continent away. The Tibetan handicrafts tent sold $9 rings, $15 necklaces and $20 skirts, among other accoutrements.

Next to the colorful displays of the Tibetan tent was the Gold and Premium Chains site. It had standard jewelry — chains, rings, earrings — as well as personalized golf markers.

On the road again

Paradise Amusement owner Sherry McKay is no quitter.

After her husband was killed in an accident at the Island County Fair eight years ago, McKay said her crew didn’t think she’d last more than a year running the business solo.

“I showed ’em,” she said.

While she gets lonely and worn out at times, McKay is motivated by a wish her husband expressed before he died.

“He said, ‘If anything ever happens to me, just keep the show going.’”

The carnival travels just under 5,000 miles around the greater Northwest eight and a half months out of the year.

The crew just came from Prineville, Ore. and will move on to Waterville next.

Coffmans get their due

When people thought of 4-H, they thought of Jan Coffman.

That’s going to continue at the fairgrounds well into the future, and for good reason.

4-H officials and members of the Coffman family gathered at the fair this year as the 4-H building was officially dedicated as the Coffman Building, in honor of Jan Coffman, who was in charge of the 4-H youth development program from 1966 to 2001, and her husband, Everett.

“I’m thrilled. They deserved it,” said Lyla Snover, Jan’s sister.

Members of the Coffman family recalled her dedication to 4-H, the kids in the program and the annual fair that serves as a showcase for their hard work.

Family members recalled how Jan would camp out weeks before the start of the fair to get ready.

Once the fair got under way, she wouldn’t go back to her trailer until it was dark and the cows were mooing.

She also got every kid in the family into 4-H; cats, rabbits, dogs. Her husband helped, too.

“We were 4-H babies from the get-go,” said Nicole Bailey, who recalled having to practice her public presentation program in front of her grandmother and grandfather while they were eating dinner.

“Who she didn’t drag in, he dragged in,” she said.

Jan was an irresistible force. Always smiling, but doggedly determined and positively persuasive. She was intensely proud of her 4-H kids.

Bailey remembered how her grandmother and grandfather had once visited the fair, years after she had turned the reins over to her successor.

“The walked through the fair and the barns stopped, like they were celebrities,” she said.

This report was written by Brian Kelly, Ben Watanabe and Rebecca Leisher.