The 2011 Clay County Fair will be my fourth appearance there as a representative of Farm News. Aside from spending a couple of days covering the fair and dredging up feature stories where I can find them, I'll be in the booth for parts of the time, usually taking a break, getting out of the heat and off my feet for a spell. I'm scheduled to be in the booth specifically from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 16 and from 11 a.m. to noon on Sept. 17. But I'll be dropping in from time to time both days. If you attend the fair and get Farm News delivered to you, we could sure use your help this year. This is the year in which we must confirm for the U.S. Postal Service that at least 50 percent-plus one of all our readers want to continue to get our free circulation publication. To help get that done, we are asking for those who visit our booth to fill out a raffle drawing blank. On the blank will be a square that indicates that you receive the Farm News and want to continue receiving it. Our circulation is well over 14,000 households in 33 Iowa counties, so we have to get a lot of people to tell the postal service they want the free paper. So I hope to see you at the fair, but even more important than seeing my mug, I hope you'll fill out a form, tell the postal service you want to keep getting the paper and then, hopefully, you'll be a lucky winner of one of the several items we'll be giving away. You'll also have a chance to purchase a copy of the new Farm News cookbook and be sure to pick up the free 2012 calendar. Our theme is rural churches.

See yas there.