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Worried is the first word that comes to mind when I think back to Saturday afternoon.

The county’s Celebrating Ag Fair was scheduled for 3 to 8 p.m., and while I wasn’t working that day, my husband was. We had planned on going to the fair when he finished his mowing for the day, but then the rain came.

It came shortly after the scheduled 3 p.m. start time, before we even left the house. We weren’t planning on going until 6 p.m. to give him time to finish up.

Luckily, the rains held off enough for us to spend an hour or so of quality family time with farm critters, tractors, products of the farming industry, and Little Man, who is just 22 months old, had a blast.

Those who didn’t get a chance to attend should definitely put it in the plans for next year — rain or shine.

Each of the red, green and blue tractors on site were pointed at by a little hand nearly covered to the fingertips by his rain coat sleeves, and then he stood in awe as he watched the blacksmiths clank on the red hot metal they were shaping.

A first taste of honey was offered free of charge by the Surry County Beekeepers Association, and Little Man sucked down about half of the little tube of honey in a split second.

Then pictures were taken with the gigantic Pet cow, which stood on a trailer for all to see.

Little Man got to go inside a portable fence with three or four chickens and get an egg from the nest and give it to the farmer manning the booth, then he got to see baby calves, who were too tired to get up and get close enough to pet.

Despite the large size of the horse, Little Man even touched the horse’s face, just barely. And the bunnies were by far his favorite animals on site, as he went back to them at least twice to pet them.

The Surry County Cooperative Extension’s 4-H volunteers had craft tables set up for the kids, and while Little Man isn’t quite big enough to glue felt on a paper towel tube yet or eat popcorn, he painted his first pumpkin during the festival.

His absolute favorite activity of the fair was going through the kids’ straw maze, which he did more than once, and would have done all night if we had let him.

With a dark cloud looming overhead, we ended the evening’s events with a family hay ride around Fisher River Park where the fair is held each year.

And while it may seem there were so many activities for kids, there also were things of interest for adults as well.

It is a wonderful service that the farming industry, Cooperative Extension and the other sponsoring entities offer as a way of exposing the community to the strong agriculture base we have in Surry County, and I hope it continues and grows in years to come.

I know we’ll be back next year with Little Man in tow.

Wendy Byerly Wood is the associate editor of The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at wbyerly-wood@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1923.