Cady Moore talked to a 4-H judge about a log table she built and decorated, during general project judging Monday at the Lyon County fairgrounds. Judging starts before the official beginning of the fair on Wednesday.

MARSHALL — The Lyon County Fair doesn’t officially open until Wednesday, but area 4-H clubs always get an early start. Monday was judging day for many of the projects youth have been working on this summer.

Kyra Wichmann said seeing general project judging was a new experience for her.

“I usually do animal projects,” she said. “I’ve never been here on Monday to see this.”

This year, Wichmann said she was entering a diamond art piece in the crafts division, in addition to showing rabbits and pigs later on at the fair.

4-H members in Lyon County signed up for a total of about 2,100 fair entries this year, said Sam Jens, Extension educator for 4-H youth development. Not every entry turns into a finished project in time for the fair, he said, but the numbers were positive.

“Our numbers are holding steady this year, even with the fair being a week later,” Jens said. Numbers for some entries, including beef cattle, sheep and horse projects, were up this year, he said.

Getting to see the general projects, where 4-H members share the things they’ve learned with their judges, is a fun part of the fair, Jens said. “We have a lot of amazing judges.”

On Monday afternoon, Lyon County 4-H members were waiting their turn to meet with judges. Kids carried everything from clothing and art projects, to jars of preserves and boxes of garden vegetables. Some of the woodworking projects being judged were fairly large. Padraic Moriarty and his family had to use a cart to wheel in the custom wooden mailbox base Padraic built this summer.

“It’s a black walnut tree from by my grandpa’s shop,” Moriarty said of the wood he used in the project. The tree was damaged in a storm and had to come down, he said.

Working with the walnut lumber “got a little challenging” in places, Moriarty said. It wasn’t easy sawing through knotty areas of the wood. But the project came together pretty well in the end, he said. “I think it looks good.”

Ryker Hoflock had brought in a homemade candy dispenser to be judged. The dispenser had a wooden frame and parts, while an upside-down glass jar held the candy.

“We were thinking of what to do for a woodwork project,” he said. The candy machine seemed like a good idea. Hoflock said part of the challenge was getting the mechanism in the dispenser to work right.

“I had a Youtube video to help with it,” he said.

4-H members like Wichmann said they were also looking forward to the start of other events, like animal judging, as the fair starts up. The 4-H rabbit show will be today at the fairgrounds, Wichmann said. She was excited for the show. “I like to take rabbits to the State Fair,” she said.