MISQUAH — The county fair’s entry window, which this newspaper has been calling nearly closed for three editions, actually closes Saturday, August 1, at noon. Entries are two dollars in open class, forms are at the extension office and the feed store, and fair board chair Verna Tho would like the record to reflect that noon means noon. “Every year somebody arrives at 12:15 with a pie and a story,” she said. “The story is always good. The rule is better.”

Enrollment in the 4-H barn stands at a record, a figure the extension office attributes to a strong calf year and to “whatever is in the water at the Tho household,” where Verna’s grandchildren have entered a combined eleven projects. Open-class canning is pacing ahead of last year, led as always by the pickle categories, which Tho describes as “the deepest field in the fair and the least braggy about it.”

The giant-pumpkin weigh-in remains set for the fair’s final Saturday at 10 a.m., on the recertified scale, about which this newspaper will print nothing further at this time except that both known contenders are, per their respective correspondence, doing very well.

The smoke has not altered fair preparations, though it has entered them. The horticulture superintendent notes that entries picked this week “may arrive pre-seasoned,” and the fine-arts division reports two early submissions in the photography category, both of the sun, both red, both titled some variation of “July.” Judging standards, the superintendent confirmed, will make no allowance for atmosphere. “The atmosphere,” she said, “is entering on its own this year.”