At least for the first day of the 140th annual Deerfield Fair, the sky was a crisp, autumnal cool blue.
Entering by the sheep-herding pen, fair-goers may have stopped by the chainsaw competition, where women stepped up to their blocks of wood to test their skills.
In the silence before the “go!” of the announcer, one man yelled, “Pull it like you mean it!”
As morning stretched into afternoon, more crowds trickled along the cement pathways between fried dough vendors, the animal barns, rides, concession buildings and event arenas.
A crowd “oohed” and “ahhed” at the small piglets in the swine barn, while others packed the stands for the horse pulling competition.
There, Ruthann Durgin of Deerfield walked around the dirt stadium, explaining that her daughter made for the sixth generation of her family competing in, running and announcing the horse pull.
“It’s all family,” she said. “Huge family for us.”