Category: Outdoors

Keeping the farm in the fair

The Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair, among the oldest agricultural fairs in New Hampshire, opens its gates for the weekend of Friday, Sept. 8, through Sunday, Sept. 10. Fairgrounds open at noon on Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and admission costs $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors and military members and veterans.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Fair, which first pitched its tents in 1958 and was founded after the New Boston Annual Agricultural Fair folded in 1948. The Hillsborough County 4-H joined with the Future Farmers of America, the Future Homemakers of America, the Grange Agricultural Committee and the Joe English Grange to start work on a new agricultural fair that would serve New Boston and surrounding communities.

“We work hard to maintain the ‘agriculture’ in the Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair,” said fair Vice President Michelle Rowe in an email. The activities of the Hillsborough County 4-H make up the backbone of the attractions, including livestock exhibitions, farm horse and mule competitions, rabbit conformations, pie auctions, sheepdog herding demonstrations, the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and the stock farm tractor pull.

The New Hampshire Agricultural Excellence Award is awarded annually to individuals, farms, businesses and organizations that enter exhibits promoting a better understanding of agricultural and rural life. The Bennington 4-H Club, run in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire, won the award last year and will be defending their title at this year’s fair.

While the agricultural exhibits and attractions make up the backbone of the fair, they’re just one aspect. Families with young children will want to check out the horseshoe tournament, which runs all day throughout the fair and offers prizes in boys and girls divisions. Tycho’s Twisted Tubes will be making balloon animals in the Children’s Venue. If you enjoy live music, don’t miss the Battle of the Bands on Friday night, and be sure to check out the live broadcasts and giveaways from 96.5 The Mill. If you’ve shared a meme from Dog Rates or Dogspotting, you’ll definitely enjoy Sgt. Nick Hogden and K9 Gibbs, who will share a demonstration of canine obedience, article search and apprehension skills. Amusement rides from Fanelli Entertainment open at 3 p.m. on Friday and at noon over the weekend. There will also be midway games like skee-ball, whack-a-mole and ring toss, in which players can win giant stuffed animals and other great prizes.Rowe promised a full spread of local food vendors in addition to the corn dogs, funnel cakes, lemonade and deep-fried everything you’ve come to love at county fairs.

Rowe described the Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair as “a small county fair, great for families and with something for everyone.”

Hillsborough County Agricultural
Where: New Boston 4 H Youth Center at 17 Hilldale Lane in New Boston
When: Friday, Sept. 8, from noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Sept. 10, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 11, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for children, seniors and veterans.
More info: hcafair.org

Wags to Whiskers

Humane Society’s annual festival returns

On Saturday, Sept. 16, humans and canines alike will gather by the thousands at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack for the largest pet dog event in New England, the Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s annual Wags to Whiskers Festival. The money raised will support the animals at the shelter.
“[It’s] one of the largest community events that the shelter hosts,” said Olivia Echteler, the director of community engagement at the shelter. “Basically it’s just an afternoon of dog-friendly family fun. People of all ages would benefit from this event. There’s plenty to do.”

Of all the activities at the festival, including raffles, games, vendors, demonstrations and food from stands and trucks such as The Traveling Foodie food truck and Ben & Jerry’s, the most popular, according to Echteler, is the adoption tent.

“When [people] find out that we have the adoption tent, that’s the first thing they want to go to when they arrive at the festival,” she said. “We typically have a line forming at that tent right as we open up the festival.”
The Humane Society for Greater Nashua works with transport companies from Arkansas and other southern states that bring puppies of various breeds up from overcrowded shelters, Echteler said. Prior to the festival, the staff spends time with the puppies and performs medical and behavioral exams.

“We want to make sure, of course, the dogs are ready to be adopted out and that they’re healthy and that emotionally they’re all set to go with their new families,” she said.

Last year, all of the puppies, around 20, were adopted. About the same number is expected this year. Two tents will be set up, one where the puppies will be, and another where people can go to fill out applications. If they are a good fit, they can get their picture taken with their new addition and take them home that same day.

In addition to the adoption tent, the Merrimack police department will bring their dog, Drei, who will demonstrate commands, and the Granite State Disc Dogs will return to show off their tricks. Attending dogs can join in the fun too and try out the lure course provided by Good Mojo Dog Manor, who is one of the vendors this year. Others include Paws and Spas Boutique, Gunther’s Goodies, Point and Shoot Photography and Stitch N Stick Boutique. There will also be a raffle where you could win a gift basket filled with dog toys, beds and food dishes, a wine basket or a Yankee Candle holiday basket. Multiple organizations have donated gift cards, like Pet Supplies Plus in Nashua, Starbucks and Bahama Breeze, that you could win as well.

“We’re also planning on doing … something to honor our alumni,” Echteler said. “We have a lot of people come to this event with dogs that they’ve adopted from our shelter in the past, and we usually either have an alumni bandana, a badge or a little name tag that indicates that that dog was a previous Humane Society pup. We get a lot of people who will send us updates on their alumni and usually we will post those up on our social media pages, but it’s just nice to of course meet those previous adopters in person again and see how their dogs are doing.”

Wags to Whiskers Festival
When: Saturday, Sept. 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Anheuser-Busch, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack
Cost: $15 for adults 21 and older (includes one free beer), $12 for ages 17 through 20, free for those 16 and under. Purchase tickets at hsfn.org.

Hydrangeas: You always win

Choose the variety that works best for your garden

Unlike the games of chance at our local fair, you always win when you buy a hydrangea. They generally bloom their fool heads off every year, even if you have poor soil and a poor track record in the garden. When I was a boy I noticed that every cemetery had hydrangeas, so I called them cemetery bushes (my parents knew few names of plants). Now is the time they are blooming, so it is time to go to your local, family-owned garden center and buy one — or more than one.

If you want a tall plant with instant curb appeal, buy what is called a hydrangea “standard.” A standard is a shrub that has been grafted onto a tall stem, usually about 5 feet tall. Hydrangeas start out low and often wide, but if you get a standard, you get something that looks a bit like a lollipop — or an instant small tree.

I have six different hydrangeas, each differing in bloom time, color, size of blossom and shape of blossom. Two of mine are standards and are about 25 years old. Each is 15 to 20 feet tall and wide.

The first standard I planted is what’s called a “PeeGee” hydrangea. PeeGee is shortened from the Latin name, Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora (which means large flower head). This is the classic cemetery plant, one that has been around since it was imported from Japan in 1862.

My PeeGee hydrangea has blossoms of various sizes, from 5 inches across to 8 inches or more across. Most blossoms are roughly globular, but some are a bit elongated, especially toward the top of the plant. The panicles are a mixture of fertile and showy infertile florets. The blossoms start out a green-tinged white, transforming to white, then pinkish and finally brown after frost. If you pick the blossoms before frost and put them in a dry vase, they will stay looking pinkish all winter and beyond.

I love my “Pink Diamond” hydrangea; it is also a H. paniculata grandiflora, and lives up to its name even better than a PeeGee. Its uppermost flower panicles can reach 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. The woody stems are thicker and stronger than on most hydrangeas, so they do not flop the way some others do when wet from rain. The pink panicles are a delight to behold.

There is one native hydrangea, called smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens). It stays small, only 3 to 6 feet tall and wide. It does well in partial shade but is intolerant of dry soils. It will tolerate full sun only if the soil stays moist. ‘Annabelle’ is commonly sold in the nursery trade but I can’t imagine why. Yes, it does have huge panicles, but it has flimsy stems so the panicles droop or flop onto the ground.

According to the Mt. Cuba research station, the best hydrangea for pollinators is the smooth hydrangea called ‘Haas Halo,’ a native one. I planted several for a client one fall and they were immediately consumed by deer. But they came back the following spring and I surrounded them with wire fencing to keep the deer away. In Year 3 they are blooming nicely. The center of each flat flower head is full of small, fertile flowers surrounded by larger white flat, infertile florets.

Another favorite of mine is called ‘Quick Fire.’ Now in Year 5 for me, it is a shrub about 4 feet tall and wide; it is loaded with 4- to 5-inch flower heads. It opens greenish white, then turns white, then pink. The pink color comes on earlier than most others, hence the name. What I like about it is that it keeps a nice mix of white and pink panicles. I am now pruning it yearly to keep it at its current size. It blooms on new wood, so I won’t lose any blossoms if I prune it now or even in the early spring.

Many New England gardeners would like to be able to grow blue hydrangeas, so they buy them and find they really only perform well for one year. A variety called ‘Endless Summer’ came out in the ’90s with much fanfare, claiming it would do as well here as it does in the mid-Atlantic region. But it didn’t do well. Most buds are set the year before, and winter tends to kill them.

Readers often write me asking how to get the numerous blue panicles in years 2, 3 and beyond. I tell them to treat them as expensive annuals. Dig them up and throw them on the compost if they don’t succeed. Instead of Endless Summer, I call them Endless Disappointment. There are now other blue hydrangeas sold, and some may be OK for our climate.

My favorite hydrangea is the climbing hydrangea, H. anomola subspecies petiolaris. Climbing hydrangea is usually sold as a small vine in a one-gallon pot. It takes a long time to get to blooming size — often five or six years. Then it takes off and grows rapidly. The great thing about this vine is that it will bloom in full shade — I have it on the north side of my barn. It will attach to stone or brick surfaces but not wood, though it can climb trees. As it started growing it up my barn I attached it to the barn with a special plastic chain designed for staking young trees. Then later it grew through cracks in the boards and now needs no support — and usually blooms inside my barn! Like all hydrangeas, its flowers stay on and look interesting most of the winter.

So if you like the look of hydrangeas, go get one. I think most are wonderful.

You may email Henry at [email protected]. He is a garden consultant and the author of four gardening books. He lives in Cornish, N.H.

Featured photo: My PeeGee Hydrangea always puts on a good show. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 23/08/31

Family fun for the weekend

High-flying story time

• The picture book Paper Planes by Jim Helmore and Richard Jones is the focus of the storytime Saturday, Sept. 2, at Bookery (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com, 836-6600). The storytime and craft start at 11:30 a.m. and are free; register online.

Museum weekend

• McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is open daily through Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (After Labor Day, the center returns to its Wednesday through Sunday schedule). The outdoor Science Playground can be accessed from inside the Discovery Center and is open through October from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is included in admission to the center, which costs $12 for adults, $9 for ages 3 to 12 and $11 for ages 13 through college and for seniors, according the the website. Planetarium shows cost an additional $6 per person.

• The SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open daily through Labor Day — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. (The center will be closed Mondays starting Sept. 11.) Admission costs $12 for ages 3 and up. Register now for an event on Thursday, Oct. 5, when admission to the museum is free from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (registration is required), according to the website. At this family fun event, guests can explore the exhibits, view demonstrations and participate in science drop-in activities, the website said.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) is open daily through Saturday, Sept. 2, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. and then Sunday, Sept. 3, from 9 a.m. to noon, and then the museum will be closed for its annual 13-day maintenance period. The museum (which is closed Mondays as well as for afternoon sessions on Sundays and Tuesdays) will reopen Saturday, Sept. 16, and will hold Toddlerfest, its annual celebration of the littlest museum-goers featuring special activities and events, Tuesday, Sept. 19, through Saturday, Sept. 30, including a reading of Eric Carle’s A Very Hungry Caterpillar with a visit from the Caterpillar (Sept. 29 and Sept. 30), a celebration of the museum’s 40th birthday on Sept. 23 and a Frozen dance party on Sept. 22.

All things extraterrestrial

Annual UFO Festival celebrates the “Incident at Exeter”

It has been 58 years since the Incident at Exeter, when 18-year-old Norman Muscarello saw an unidentified flying object, described as being about the size of the car with flashing red lights, on his way home one night in Kensington. The incident has been celebrated for the past 14 years with the annual Exeter UFO Festival. This year’s event will be held from Saturday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 3.

The Exeter Kiwanis Club took over the event as a fundraiser from Dean Merchant in 2014, according to Bob Cox, the president of the organization. All of the profits go to children’s charities and programs and community programs.

“At the time it was only speaking events,” Cox said. “We took [it] on and expanded it to include the whole family [with] arts and crafts and food. … Each year we keep growing.”

Among the 10 speakers at the town hall will be award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer Stein, who will give her presentation on Sunday. She is involved with the Mutual UFO Network in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and has been in the UFO field for 25 years. This year Stein will take her audience on a virtual journey through the Sacred Valley of Peru, focusing on Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, where, she says, some of the most interesting and significant megalithic architecture exists.

“Ollantaytambo is a megalithic site that sits high up on top of a plateau … and it shows huge megalithic blocks of stone that really defy explanation of how they got there,” Stein said. “On the underside where they are not eroded by sun and weather, some of them have smooth granite blocks. They’re huge, as big as semi trucks. How the heck did they get there and who put them there and why?”

Another mystery is the nazca lines in southern Peru. These massive illustrations seem to depict monkeys, humans, lizards and scorpions among other images that can only be fully viewed from an aerial perspective.

“Many people think that it would be impossible for us to build them and they kind of say maybe an earlier culture that wasn’t from Earth built them,” she said. “Erich von Daniken was one of the first people to bring attention to the amazing enigmas of Peru … and [to] coin the phrase ‘ancient aliens.’ … He claimed in his [1968] book, Chariots of the Gods? that these things had to be built by a culture that had aerial abilities.”

Other speakers include paranormal researcher and investigator Mike Stevens, paranormal adventurers and authors Paul and Ben Eno, and ufologist Peter Robbins.

Other happenings include kids’ activities such as face painting and rock painting, an alien costume and alien pet parade contest, a souvenir shop, an opportunity to meet the speakers, food concessions, and trolley rides to the site of the incident.

“One of the favorite things for the kids and the Exeter community are those trolley rides,” Cox said. “Last year we had only one trolley … and they made four or five trips. It was so popular, we got a lot of feedback that we should have more this year, so we’re having two trolleys on Saturday and one trolley on Sunday to try to respond to their interests and requests, so that’s a big growth [opportunity] for the festival.”

Exeter UFO Festival

Meet the speakers
Where: Hampton Inn & Suites Exeter, 59 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Cost: $25

UFO Festival souvenir shop
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: varies

Town Hall speaker series
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Sunday, Sept 3., 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: $35 for both days (no single-day pricing)

Food & refreshments
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: tent by the bandstand
Cost: varies

Trolley ride to the “Incident at Exeter” site
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 3, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Trolley leaves from 10 Front St. and goes to incident site 5 miles south in Kensington
Cost: $5

Kids’ activities
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 10 a.m. to Sunday, Sept 3, 2 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front St. and Court St.
Cost: Free

Alien costume & alien pet parade and contest
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, noon to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front and Court streets
Cost: Free

Kiddie Pool 23/08/24

Family fun for the weekend

Birds!

• If this week’s cover story has you inspired to do a little birding, check out the Birding Walk at the New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way in Auburn; nhaudubon.org, 668-2045) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 a.m. All ages and skill levels are welcome, according to the website. Register in advance; admission costs $10.

Author storytime

• Genie Ware, author of the book That Blankie, will be at Bookery Manchester (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 11:30 a.m. for a storytime and craft. Admission is free but register for a spot, online.

Game time

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats continue a six-game run at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The games Thursday, Aug. 24, through Saturday, Aug. 26, are at 7:05 p.m. and the Sunday, Aug. 27, game starts at 1:35 p.m. Thursday and Saturday night’s games will feature post-game fireworks. On Friday, the first 1,000 fans get a free hat. Sunday’s game features a free pencil pouch giveaway. Before Sunday’s game, the park will also host a Princess Brunch at 10 a.m. (the cost is $26 per person). See milb.com/new-hampshire.

Movie time

• Chunky’s Cinema Pubs in Manchester (707 Huse Road, chunkys.com) and Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.) will screen the early summer Pixar release Elemental (PG, 2023) on Thursday, Aug. 24. The movie screens at 11:45 a.m. in Manchester and 4 p.m. in Nashua.

• See Minions: The Rise of Gru (PG, 2022) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Wasserman Park (116 Naticook Road in Merrimack). The event, which is part of the town’s Movies in the Park series, is free. See merrimackparksandrec.org, which also has a link to the movie’s trailer.

• Movie Night Mondays on the Beach wraps up at Hampton Beach with 2021’sSing 2(PG) on Monday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free; bring blanks and chairs.

• It’s the penultimate week of Concord Regal’s (282 Loudon Road in Concord; regmovies.com) Summer Movie Express Series, which runs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the afternoon. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, and Wednesday, Aug. 30, the movies start at 1:30 p.m. and are Trolls World Tour (PG, 2020) andDespicable Me(PG, 2010). The series wraps up Sept. 5 and Sept. 6 with Despicable Me 3 (PG, 2017) and Spirit: Untamed (PG, 2021)

Palace shows

• The 2023 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series wraps up at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) with a production of Finding Nemo Jr., which has show times at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24, and 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Tickets cost $10.

• The final production by the kid performers at the Palace Youth Theatre summer camp will also take place this weekend. Winnie the Pooh Jr. will be performed at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at noon. Tickets for the show start at $12.

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