"Farmers have to do many things," contestants were told. To drive the point home, each contestant in the four-member relay teams had to dress in a flannel shirt, overalls, straw hat and plastic boots, balance an egg in a plastic spoon as they walked around a "fence post," crawl through the wood-and-stubble tunnel, run back, undress and tag the next runner.
As if that wasn't enough, contestants had to toss a melon until each one had caught it at least once.
Even then they weren't finished; the entire team had to get one balloon back to the starting line - by carrying it between their legs. No hands permitted.
The first two teams didn't get very far before they ran into trouble - just getting those overalls and boots on over their regular clothes proved a challenge.
"I'm glad it doesn't take real farmers this long to get dressed in the morning," the announcer teased. "The cows would never get milked."
Spectators cheered as the competitors struggled through the course. A few crushed melons and broken balloons later, Kevin, Jason, Jason and Joe (Kevin and Jason Barkdoll, Jason Hose and Joe Miller) emerged ahead of their competitors with a time of 6 minutes and 13 seconds.
And the hardest part of the race?
"The instructions," Kevin said.
Other Family Night events included a tug-of-war, an animal calling contest, an ice cream eating contest and the promise of seeing Washington County Commissioners' President Greg Snook milking a goat.
