This week is the Overbook fair. Saige was all about it, taking a goat, flowers, 2 types of cookies, rabbits, a poster, is planning to exhibit in the pet show, and was in charge of the club cookie jar.
We got Evie a breeding goat, she made cookies and is exhibiting a rabbit in the pet show.
Harper has a goat, rabbits, made some peanut butter cookies and has a flower in the horticulture division.
Quincy and Preston are both working a lot and neither one wanted to do anything except show their goats. Sadly? This is Preston’s last fair. I put the question mark in there on purpose. Preston is a little bit of a 4-H critic. It is not his favorite activity I guess.
The nice part of where we are in life is that my kids can do 99% of their own work. I am the poultry and rabbit superintendent, which translated into the kids having to load and unload, enter, set up pens, feed and water, and do the livestock meeting and weigh in with very little help from me! They rocked it!
Madison came over to help the girls bake. I’ll be honest. There was a day that this would have made me sad. A long time ago, I would have wanted to help them. Now? I have found that I don’t have the same patience for baking that I used to. I was exceptionally relieved that the kitchen is Madison’s happy place and that she was excited about coming over. They had a baking afternoon and every single person here was happy. No fighting. No drama. No questioning the person who knows how to navigate the kitchen like a master. I am so thankful Madison helped out!
Also I had to help by watching Wrenley. It was a great trade!
Saige decided to do consultation judging. She did this while I was attending to a crisis at my office for a few minutes. Luckily, our friend Keri got a photo! Saige got a blue on her chocolate cookies and a red on her snicker doodles. Or vice versa.
She also got reserve grand champion on her pet poster, educational display.
Last night was the goat show. I have to take a moment to talk about Evelyn. This kid literally helped me bottle feed these goats all spring long. She comes over and always wants to go to the barn. She spends her time helping with chores, and loves her baby goat! Her little doe is named Babe, and she is a well loved little girl. When it was time for her to show, I had Saige there to go in the ring with her. Oh no! Evelyn got mad! She didn’t need any help. She said “please grammy?!?! I can do it all by myself! I don’t need anybody to help!” And so she did. She drug Babe right in there all by herself. She man handled that goat like a pro. She was even trying to brace it! I was pretty impressed with her! She got a blue ribbon and she earned it!
Preston with his last goat, Jasper. I took so many pictures last night, and was a little misty eyed all night, sort of lost in nostalgia. Preston’s last fair, last goat show, last few weeks at home - its all a little too emotional. Although showing goats is not his favorite thing, he did a great job. He took second in his market class. He helped me by entering the goats yesterday and somehow managed to not sign anyone up for showmanship. The girls were so happy with him! They all really hate showmanship. I completely disagree with their assessments, but that’s a post for another day.
All of our goats made weight yesterday and got blue ribbons last night. The kids all did a great job, and I am so proud of them for getting out there and trying hard.
A little side note. My father is one of the funniest people I know. The fair board moved shows around, and put the goat show after the dairy cows and after the sheep. In the past few years, this has been ok because there are very few dairy cows, and also in the last few years, very few sheep. This year, there were only 2 dairy cows. The judge still took about 45 minutes to pick out the winner, and the winner of showmanship. They had quite a few sheep. If we thought he was slow with the cows, we hadn’t seen anything yet. The sheep took forever! By the time they started the goat show, it was 9:00! Our kids showed their goats and we were all finished. My cousin’s daughter was in the grand drive showing for champion market goat. I sat down to watch the last couple of classes and see how Ava did. My dad was sitting behind me. When they finally got to the grand drive, it was dang near 11 pm! With the potential champions all lined up, the judge breaks into some long winded speech about how fast your 4-H years go by - my father mumbles “not with you as the judge they don’t!” I had to laugh because I was thinking the same thing. I guess I know where I got my cynical side from!
This morning was the rabbit and poultry show. I am the co- superintendent along with my BFF Dusty. Despite poultry having been a large part of our lives for the last few years, we have no chickens or ducks at this year’s fair. Jim bought some nice birds as babies early this spring. Unfortunately, our dogs or the neighbors dog or a raccoon got them all. I replaced them with something less expensive - some chickens from a local woman who hatched them with her incubator. They of course are just fine. Didn’t lose hardly any. These chickens have extra toes (which happens when incubators are too hot), one has a literal upside down foot (Evie claimed that one and named it cupcake broken leg). Some are flat ugly cross bred chickens and one is absolutely beautiful but he is a rooster and has a cocky attitude. Needless to say, we didn’t think they would be good show chickens. Harper and Saige did have 5 rabbits to show though. Since I was helping the judge, I failed miserably at getting pictures today. I do want to brag a little bit though. Harper is one of the most helpful kids you’ll ever meet. She helps other kids, she helps her sister and she made sure every single animal in the barn had water. She did this without anyone pointing it out or telling her. She just saw the needs and in her quiet way, took care of it. That being said, she has anxiety when it comes time to talk to a judge or to have any part of the spot light on her. But she got up there today and did the best she could. This is only her 2nd year showing rabbits. She knows so much about them, and the way she handles them it is apparent she loves them, but talking to a judge is just not her forte. I am so proud of her for doing it anyway. She tried really hard.
Saige is the opposite. She loves talking to judges and she jumped right in there. She told the judge all the things she could think of, including that when getting ready she had to use a lice comb to get the poo off the rabbits butt. Too much kid - too much!
After showmanship, we moved right into the rabbit show. Their rabbits did so well. The senior does all got purples. The judge told me she hoped we took them to the state fair. (We probably won’t this time, but it was a nice compliment to their quality). We also showed 2 babies that we bred and raised here at our place. The judge had them in the finals for breed champions. Our 8 week old babies beat out several of the older rabbits in their breed class- which is pretty unusual. I was very pleased. The judge talked to me for a bit after the show was over. She was impressed with our quality and was encouraging the girls to continue with trying to breed quality rabbits. It was a good day in the rabbit barn. The girls left there happy and excited about continuing to breed and show.
I will take more photos when we go back in to make sure everything is comfortable for the night. Comfort though geez - the predicted weather for this week was 104 degree heat. We have instead had 80’s which sounds good - except it isn’t. Yesterday I heard on the weather it was 88 degrees with 80% humidity! It has been a sweat box and it keeps raining just enough to create a sauna! Oh well, we won’t remember the sweat - but I know in my heart that the best memories are county fair memories.
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