Bailee Rech, 9, holds her cousin Mason Rech, 3, beside the pen holding Bailee’s two lambs. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

The Washington County Fair’s last day wound down Tuesday, with another game of “dodge-em” played between scheduled events and a rainy weather forecast.

The drag racing event set for Tuesday night was canceled because of the chance of more rain, coupled with the fact that the two tracks in front of the grandstand were already both too wet to do it, according to Washington County Fair Board Director Fred Boyd.

The event may be held at a later date.

The harness racing that was scheduled for Sunday was moved to McConnelsville, where Morgan County’s fair started Tuesday.

“But we filled the grandstands for three nights,” Boyd said. “We had a good crowd for the Saturday tractor pull, a very good crowd for the Sunday rodeo, and a good crowd for the demolition derby Monday,” he said. “There were times when we were saying ‘Please don’t rain,’ but things cleared off in time for the crowds and the events.”

Jordan Seaman, 11, of Barlow, waits his turn with his grand champion steer Buddy during Tuesday’s Washington County Fair livestock auction in Marietta. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

Tuesday night’s highlight was the livestock auction. Boyd said the fair board each year changes the order in which the animals are auctioned, so that the entrants in any one category don’t have to always be at the end of the line for their appearance in the auction ring.

This year the rabbits started the action, and many of them were were squirming in their handlers’ arms and kicking their back legs during their time out of their cages.

In the meantime, lots of nearby steers and lambs were putting in their two cents’ worth.

Jordan Seaman, 11, of Barlow, was waiting with his grand champion steer, Buddy. To a non-farming newcomer, Buddy looked like a small SUV. He was quiet. but he had his own way of making a point. As Seaman talked about Buddy sometimes being a “brat,” the steer moved sideways to try to squeeze Mason and his 8-year-old sister Adalyn against the steel railing of his enclosure. Adalyn climbed the railing to get out of the way while asking her brother, “Why does he do that?”

“He just does,” came the answer from Seaman. “He knocked me over once when we were on concrete and he spotted some grass and a tree,” he added.

Seaman did have to miss a day of school at Warren Elementary School on Monday in order to be at the livestock auction, but the absence wasn’t a problem.

“Yep,” he said with a grin. “Excused.”

In another part of the barn, a woman standing beside a lamb labeled “premier exhibitor” jumped in surprise as the lamb let out a sound that resembled a fog horn on an Ohio River tug boat. A little boy near the woman noticed her reaction. He smiled, reached up and took her hand in his. Then he very slowly drew their hands through the railing so they could gently stroke the lamb’s head together.

When they were finished and the lamb remained quiet, the woman looked closely at the little boy and asked the nearby mother, “How old is he?”

It turns out that Mason Rech, the sheep whisperer, is 3 years old. He was at the fair to see the lambs raised by his cousin, Bailee Rech, who is 9. What was the hardest thing Bailee had to do during her efforts with the animals?

“Probably training them to the halter,” she said. “But once I did that, I could just drape the halters loosely around their necks and they would just follow me around.”