MISQUAH — Entry delivery ran all day Monday and continues this morning until ten, at which point the exhibit halls close to exhibitors and open to the judges, and the county fair begins whether or not anyone is ready. Verna Tho, who has chaired the fair board for six years, reports the grounds are in better shape than usual and that she has stopped finding this reassuring. “When it’s going well early, something’s waiting,” she said. “It’s usually the ice machine.”

The numbers are the ones this newspaper has been reporting since the window closed: 412 open-class entries, the largest field in memory and eleven more than the 1976 record that stood fifty years; fifty-eight 4-H members enrolled, also a record; thirty-one entries across the pickle classes. The quilts came from the Ladies’ Aid Thursday afternoon, pillowcased per the instruction sheet, per what happened to the Dresden Plate in 2019 and has not been forgotten by anyone involved.

Judging begins Wednesday morning in the halls, which open to the public at 4 p.m. The midway opens Thursday at noon. The 4-H livestock shows run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. The new shaded seating behind the halls — twelve borrowed picnic tables under a canvas fly — was assembled Sunday and, per this newspaper’s From the Files column two weeks ago, is the second such structure in fair history, the first having been dismantled in 1952 for reasons the minutes decline to record. The board has been informed. The board has elected to be optimistic.

And Saturday at ten, on the recertified scale behind the horticulture hall, the giant-pumpkin weigh-in. Both contenders have confirmed. Neither has spoken to the other in print for three weeks, which for this correspondence constitutes an armistice. There is a letter on the opinion page of this edition. There is not, as of press time, a second letter, and this newspaper notes that fact without comment.