FARMINGTON – Leonard Lawrence painted a small fence Thursday around a scarecrow display in front of the Exhibition Hall at the fairgrounds.

The Farmington man was one of several people setting up for the Farmington Fair that runs from Sunday, Sept. 19, to Saturday, Sept. 25.

It’s the 164th Annual Exhibition presented by the Franklin County Agricultural Society.

“I volunteer if they want something painted,” Lawrence, 50, said.

The disabled man has been volunteering for three years.

“It’s going to be a long day, I can see that,” he said, as he knelt on the ground and continued painting the small posts. “You’ve got to have patience.”

Inside the hall, Glenda Barker of Chesterville, a society trustee in charge of setting up the hall, was looking through her book.

The display tables and alcoves were empty on the first floor.

This year a new railing has been added for the quilts upstairs and the photography area was made bigger.

“By the people calling,” Barker said, “I don’t know if it’s big enough.”

Exhibitors will set up displays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, and Saturday, Sept. 18, and they’ll be judged Sunday, she said.

Flowers need to be entered between 8 a.m. and noon, Sunday, Sept. 19, and be judged at 5 p.m.

Baking contests are on Tuesday, Sept. 21, and Wednesday, Sept. 22. Buttermilk biscuits, ginger snaps and blueberry streusel bars will be featured this year. Entry times and recipes vary.

On the lower level of the hall vegetables, scarecrows, flowers and Grange displays will be featured.

On the upper level, photography, paintings, 4-H, fancy work, jams and jellies, maple syrup, the Franklin County Extension Homemakers Group and Franklin County Animal Shelter and more.

Outside the hall, workers from Smokey’s Greater Shows were putting up rides while food vendors set up shop.

The barns and the pulling ring were empty Thursday but won’t be by the weekend.

Some of the other fair features include, 4-H Livestock Show and Auction and Reception

The livestock auction has been expanded this year to include about 20 baby beef, hogs and lamb. Animals were raised by county 4-H members. A reception will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, in the pulling ring to be followed by the auction at 6:30 p.m.

Bob Underwood, president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, urged community members and businesses in a letter to participate in the auction by bidding on the animals that will be taken directly to the slaughterhouse. He suggested too that the meat could be donated to a local food bank or other charity.

Dan Grady of Eliot plans to present his Marvelous Marionette Medley. He has been making marionette magic for nearly three decades.

Grady’s show will include a diverse cast of characters including a leprechaun, roller-skating rabbit, Humphrey Dumpty (grandson of Humpty) and Conway Kitty – country western superstar.

Grady and his “wooden sons and daughters,” as he calls them on his Web site, can be seen at the fair from 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 22, at the gazebo in the park.