Tucked away in a far corner of the N.C. State Fairgrounds, alongside Smokey the Bear and exhibits on the Forest Service and soil and water conservation, you'll find a fully operational turn-of-the-century sawmill powered by a steam engine built in 1924.

The engine, owned by Joe Daughtridge of Raleigh, powers the mill for demonstrations on old-timey log-cutting every hour during the fair, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The sawmill is a permanent exhibit at the fairgrounds, but it only operates, courtesy of Daughtridge's engine, during the state fair. "Other than that it sits around and rests," Daughtridge said of the machine.

Daughtridge has been running his steam engine at the fair for 11 years, he said.

It takes about eight volunteers to operate the sawmill during the fair. Jim Liacos of Raleigh is one of them. During the rest of the year Liacos runs an autoshop, but says steam engines are his hobby.

"It's fascinating to me," said Liacos. "It's all totally different from what I do everyday."

There's a competition for almost everything at the N.C. State Fair, so why not Legos. After all, Legos kind of rule.

And now, two local boys -- Trey Hester of Cary and Nathan Wilson of Apex -- also rule with blue ribbons and Best of Show ribbons for their inspired Lego creations.

Trey, who is 10 years old, picked Krispy Kreme for his North Carolina-themed project (for youths aged 10-18) because of a connection both he and the company share: they were both born in the Camel City.

"I was born in Winston-Salem and we like Krispy Kreme a lot," he said. "So I just decided to do it."

The model doughnut store, complete with customers, a delivery truck and a drive-thru -- not to mention the iconic "Hot Now" Krispy Kreme sign -- is modeled after both the Winston-Salem and Raleigh stores.

The frosting was flying this week at the N.C. State Fair's first on-the-spot cookie decorating contest for kids.

The contest, officially dubbed the Kids Kookie Dekorating Kontest, was divided into four age categories over the course of four days to accomodate varying skill levels of kids aged 4-12.

Every decorator received a ribbon for participating and got to take their giant cookie home, but there were more material prizes at stake, too.

The blue ribbon winner in each contest received $15, the red ribbon winner received $10 and the white ribbon winner received $7. The first place winner also got a cake decorating kit from Michaels arts and craft store, which sponsored the contest along with Sam's Club and Garner TV and Appliance.

Each kid was armed with a giant cookie and an ample supply of colorful frostings and sprinkles. There were no rules, just a 20-minute time limit. Liberal sampling of frosting while decorating was allowed.

"The Tree of Life" has joined "DiVine the Living Vine" for this year's creepy but cool attraction at the N.C. State Fair's Heritage Circle.

The walking -- and talking -- tree manages to simultaneously thrill and freak out the fairgoers he meets. Below is a short video of The Tree, who strolls daily in the Flower and Garden Show area, interacting with a very excited visitor.

Harold White of Durham has worked all year cultivating roses for the Flower and Garden Show at the N.C. State Fair, and an hour before deadline for the final show Thursday afternoon, his work was not yet done.

White, 83, pulled crate after crate of roses from the back of his car, plucking cotton from between the petals.

"They bruise so easily," White said as he pulled the cotton with a tweezer. Every speck of cotton must be removed from the flowers before entry or they will be disqualified. He gives one last check over blooms and tags before lugging the crates from the parking lot into the flower show building. It takes at least five trips from his car to bring all the roses inside.

White has been entering his roses in the N.C. State Fair Flower and Garden Show contests for 15 years, and estimates he's won between 500 and 600 ribbons. Over the last 15 years, he has won the Award of Merit, which is like Best in Show, at least 25 times.

Four generations of the Shipley family, ranging in age from 2 to 100, gathered at the N.C. State Fair this weekend, the oldest among them there for the Livestock Hall of Fame luncheon and the youngest there to admire ribbons won for prize pumpkins.

Robert Gray Shipley, 100, and his wife Agnes Shipley, 95, made the trip all the way from Vilas in Watauga County. They walked through the Expo Building before lunch, taking in all ten ribbons won by their great-grandchildren Ty (7), Annie (5) and Sally (2).

Each child won a ribbon for various types of pumpkins, but two-year-old Sally was the only one to snag a blue.

"Everyone won a ribbon, so this was huge," said Angela Risk, mother to the three children and granddaughter of Robert Shipley. Angela and her husband Jeff drove out from Mount Holly so the children could see what they won. Angela's parents, Bob and Ginny Shipley of Raleigh, were also there.

"This was the first year we've ever done this," Angela said. "We were looking for participation ribbons, so this was a big surprise."

Chris Morgan would have been right at home at the very first N.C. State Fair in 1853.

Morgan practices wet plate collodion photography, a photographic process introduced in the early 1850s and made famous from the 1860s work of Civil War photographers like Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner. The process requires a tintype or glass to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed before the plate dries -- in about ten minutes. Then washed, fixed, dried and varnished.

Each image produced is a unique work of art.

Morgan, who lives in Pine Level and works in the Exceptional Children Program in Johnston County Schools, has been doing wet plate photography for about 11 years.

"I tried to recreate the look from old tintype photography with film and digital," he said. "But I couldn't get that original look and feel I wanted."

Francine Francis, a Raleigh seamstress well known around the N.C. State Fair -- and the nation -- for her precise replicas of costumes from the movie "Gone with the Wind," has done it again.

Francis once again won first place in the "Adult Clothing Construction - Period/State Wear: Dress" category, and the Best in Show prize for any adult garment. And once again, she won for a beautiful gown from the classic 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

This year's dress is a white organdy number with a red belt worn by Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) in the opening scene of the film. Francis used 33 yards of white organdy and 140 yards of lace on the gown.

You may remember that Josh Shaffer wrote about Todd Dawson's giant 282-pound watermelon a few weeks ago -- the one that broke a state record and was only 9 pounds shy of breaking a world record. That melon, grown in Garner, is on display at the N.C. State Fair in Expo Center, along with the Fair's blue ribbon giant pumpkin.

The pumpkin, weighing in at 522.8 pounds didn't break any records, but it's a crowd pleaser. All day long, folks perch on a bench in front of the pumpkin to have their picture taken near the massive gourd. Johnny Tolle, who minds the giants and answers questions about them from fairgoers, says the all-time pumpkin record in North Carolina is 1,256 pounds, and that last year's pumpkin was over 800 pounds. Tolle says the weather this year wasn't ideal for growing pumpkins of the extra humongous variety. The prize pumpkin was grown by Susie Zuerner from Henderson County.

The N.C. State Fair art exhibit had about 2,500 entries this year and awarded an estimated 112 ribbons for groups ranging from elementary school students to professional artists.

The Best in Show prize for State Fair Scene (above) went to Edwin B. Jenkins of Raleigh. Shirl Keith, the hostess of the exhibit inside the Kerr Scott Building, said the 80-year-old amateur artist has been entering art for at least 20 years and this is his first big prize. She said his reaction when he won was: "Finally!"