Yo Momma is NO Picasso!

Aright everyone! Enough Doom & Gloom for a few days!

Here is my latest creation...

I have been working on repainting my toddler's room. You will soon start to learn that I repaint the rooms in my house A LOT. I swear each room has been painted at least twice in the seven years that I have lived here.

Here's a little more on my OCD paint addiction. Did I mention I don't use your traditional painting tools??? Most people use power painters, paint sticks, large brushes or rollers. Um,... Gosh, now I'm really going to sound strange.... I have painted entire rooms of my house; living room, kitchen, hallways, master bedrooms, laundry room, 3 bedrooms...(and don't forget-TWICE!!), with a two inch foam brush. Yep, one of those dinky little .25 cent jobbers from Walmart. Black foam, wood handle... Mainly used for cutting in around windows and molding. If you don't know what I'm talking about- You clearly need to do some repainting around your own home! lol.
BUT- The good news is that I have graduated from that 2" foam brush to a 2" bristle brush!

Why do I use such a ridiculously small brush to paint such large areas you ask??? I honestly don't know the answer. The only thing I can come up (are the tiny voices in my head telling me to use that brush!- Na, I don't hear voices... I'm not nuts you know! *snark*) is that with all of the molding in each room it was easier to use the little brushes instead of the big rollers- because I didn't have to clean up as much when I got paint where I shouldn't have gotten paint. So I think instead of constantly switching brushes, it just kind of stuck with me. And I find with the very textured walls, it was easier to stipple the paint into the grooves.

All in all, you have NO IDEA how long it takes me to paint a room. But, clearly after so much wall space and practice, I can really motor along with my little brush! Heck!! I bet I'm even better than the Karate Kid ("Daniel son, show me paint the fence!") LOL!

The one thing I absolutely hate about painting is the clean up. I cannot STAND washing brushes- Hence: cheap brushes = instant trash = no clean up! Yeah!!!

The first time I had painted this room I had painted it a color called "Indian Moccasin" That of course was during "L.I.P" (life before Pierce) lol. It was an alright color to look at for awhile, but over time the more I stared at it, the more it became peach colored in my eyes! Especially after you put a BOY in the room.

This time around I decided to paint it a really dark colonial blue/grey. It is an awesome color! Just love it!

Then I decided to get more creative... This is something I had never attempted before. Sure, I took quite a few art classes in High School, but I flunked out of painting and drawing class!

I hand painted some whimsical fish on the wall. With a wall color that dark it just screamed "water" to me. Below are some of the fish I have done. I first drew them on the wall by hand in pencil, and then mixed up some fun colors to bring them to life! Pierce knows that the first fish on top is referred to as "Daddy's fish", then below that one is "Pierce's" fish, then comes "Mamma's fish" and lastly is "sister's fish". So they all have this feminine touch- But Hey!, He's only TWO- and doesn't seem to really care :)

Next came his name train!

I am not finished yet, but I figured I would give you a sneak peak! My idea behind this was to have a different sea animal haul each letter and be tethered to the letter in front of it. I am thinking of putting a giant snail in between the letters "P" & "I", another fish between the letters "I" & "E", of course you see the sea horse in between the "E" and "R", I am thinking about putting a lobster in between the letters "R" & "C".. then you see the fish between letters "C" & "E". In case you were wondering what those round pink dots are by the letters- They are snails in the making! And of course those red "things" that look like flowers- are my not very artistic star fish (some still need their yellow spots added).

This wall has been kind of a labor of love. And no, I'm not painting it with a two inch brush! lol. I'm using teeny tiny art brushes for this! lol. It's amazing what kind of colors you can make from a few tubes of cheap primary colored craft paint.

As you can tell, I'm definitely not the next Pablo Picasso! Some of my lines aren't the straightest, some of my shadowing doesn't make sense, and my sea horse could have been centered better (I will prob. add a school of little fish behind him so it doesn't look so out of whack). But it has been fun- and the boy just loves his train, and that's all that really matters! ...Ugh.... Until he turns 5, and then wants something that will be WAY out of my league to paint!

Is "Pee Knuckle" really a word?

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

The worms play pee knuckle on your snout...

They eat you up and spit you out..."

Last week I had to strap on my "manhood" again and do something I would have rather not. It has taken me well over a week to write this, because only now has the heartache subsided enough to write about it.

2 years ago a misplaced adult male cat wandered onto our farm. I found him one dark night eating the cat food out of the dish on my back porch. He was a beautiful cat! Long dark striped fur, white belly up to his chin, and 4 white paws, and huge- He must have weighed over 12lbs. As with every new cat that just shows up, I went outside to see if he was friendly. If I can pet them I cop a quick feel (sick- yes, I know) to see if he is carrying a man purse. I prefer to have males around than females. Less kittens that way!

Anyway, ever since that day he never left my porch. I named him "Socks". Yes, I know- How original. He was so friendly. Heck he even tolerated standard toddler abuse. Toddler abuse gives new meaning to "heavy petting"! Nice kitty- *mash, mash*. Because he was so friendly I had always wondered where he came from. His fur was in great shape, he was in good weight... He had to be someones house cat. (??)

Socks loved being by us. If we sat outside, he was always at our side. He would always outstretch a paw to get your attention. It was not uncommon to see him in our house sleeping on the back of the couch!

Life went on, and Socks seemed to always be part of it. Except for one time earlier this spring when he suddenly disappeared. I was so worried because he never had left before. Weeks went by and still no Socks. I searched the roadside ditches almost daily, each time coming up empty. I watched the food dish waiting for him to return... no sign of him. I pretty much wrote him off as dead. My husband (who doesn't like cats much to begin with) told me to quit worrying, he came from somewhere and perhaps he just went back home.

Just when I had given up all hope, he returned! He was the same old happy to see you Socks. I told him how much he had me worried (yep- I'm the crazy cat lady) and how happy I was that he had returned. I always wondered where his adventure had taken him...

Again, life went on...

About 4 weeks ago Socks started getting a cold. Not uncommon around here with the cats. It seems that they get some kind of "cold" once a year. I find it usually when the major seasons start to change, and the nights are more damp and cold from dew. I just kept my eye on him waiting for it to run its course- like I have seen it do in other cats. Socks started to get more and more congested. I could hear him in the grass coughing. I get so frustrated because unlike other forms of livestock, cats are really tricky to treat. Either my medications don't break down into small enough doses for cats, or it is poisonous to them and could kill them instead of cure them.

He continued to get worse and worse. I was really starting to worry. So I jumped on the Internet to see if there was ANYTHING I could do for him. I ended up giving him an injection of Penicillin. And I waited another day... No improvement. So I gave him another dose. And I waited... He was still so sick. By this time his robust body shrunk down to nothing but fur and bones. His fur lacked its usual luster, and he was still so congested.

His worst day came on the day we started constructing our pig shelter. He was laying flat out in the grass by the gate to the steers pasture, and every time we opened the gate- He was so weak he wouldn't get out of the way for the gate. I didn't want the gate to hit him so I picked him up and moved him out of the way. He had lost so much weight. I bet he was down to 6lbs or less. He was so weak he could hardly move out of his flat position. When I looked into his eyes I knew just how bad things had become. His third eyelid was halfway across his eyes- A sign I have seen before on a cat before it dies. He smelled so bad. He didn't smell like urine or feces, it was more like a pungent sour smell. When I laid him down on the grass my daughter was kneeling beside me. She too noticed his "smell". I lifted up his tail to see if he was soiled and to see if that was where the smell was coming from.

What we saw was horrifying. We saw millions of white small (smaller than white rice) maggots around his anus area. Because of the long fur on his tail, we never saw them before. The only thing I could think of was that he was so sick, he wasn't pottying right and perhaps getting it all over his back end- Thus attracting flies. My daughter thought it was gross, and went off to do other things. My husband was "too busy" to muster up any advice other than to kill him because who knows what he has and he can make everything else sick.

I ran to the house to grab some rubber gloves, some paper towel, and some warm water to wash his bum. I had also mixed up some sheep milk replacer to try to give him with an oral syringe to get some fluids into him. I sat down on the grass next to him and opened his mouth to give him some fluids. He barely could swallow. After a few cc's worth of fluid I looked at him closer. Those worms were crawling around in his nasal cavity and all around inside his mouth. I started to cry to myself because I knew I had been too late and there was nothing that I could do for him. There Socks and I were, all alone sitting in the grass. Neither daughter nor husband could bother to take time out of their precious day to lend a hand.

So I talked to him and stroked his head. He looked up at me with his glassed over eyes and started to pur. I told him what a grand cat he was and how much he was loved. I told him how sorry I was, and how I should have fixed him.

Then I quietly stood up.

Through my tears I walked back to the house, went to my bedroom and got my gun. Through my tears I loaded it. Through my tears I pulled the trigger. Through my tears I buried him in the special part of my yard reserved just for grand souls like his.

"Stupid is as Stupid"... OK, some days I'm just plain Stupid!

The other day I received a letter from our local utility company. I opened it while I was walking back to the house from the mailbox. It stated that I had some form of "brush" by my meter and my meter reader could not read it. It also asked if I would remove said "brush".

As I continued to read the letter I stopped at my meter to look at it closer. Granted, I see it everyday- It's on the front of my house right next to the sidewalk up to the door. What a gosh awful place to put such an ugly monstrosity I must add! And because it is SO ugly I decided to grow pretty petunias in front of it this year.

So I stopped, looked at the letter, looked at the meter... And all I kept thinking was what kind of MORON couldn't read THIS meter? Sure, because of the decorative fencing I have up to keep the toddler out of my flower bed, you MAY have to bend forward a bit- But it is still clearly visible!

The more I looked at the meter, the more disgruntled I became. I was SO mad that I went inside the house and grabbed my camera. I took a few pictures of it insisting that I was going to write them a "lovely" letter back with photos - telling them politely to go get bent.

Here are my meter photos:

See? Nothing that I felt warranted a letter from them- Grr!!! Was I mad!

All day long I was stewing... By the time my husband came home, I was REALLY frustrated about it. I didn't want to get rid of my flowers, I tried so hard to hide that ugly area without covering that dumb meter- And yet they were complaining about it! Grrr!!!

So my husband took my letter and read it...

And says...

"They are not talking about THIS meter, they are talking about the GAS meter"

My response: "We *have* another meter?"

He rolled his eyes as he led me to the backside of the house and showed me where the meter in question is located. And this is what I saw:

OMGosh!!!! I was so embarrassed! Talk about eating Crow! Because of the direction my house is situated on our property- When you pull in my driveway, you don't see the "front" of my house- you see the end side of it. The front of our house faces our pasture, and the far end of our house is considered the "back yard". So the back of my house is a very desolate area that hardly ever gets visited. Hence, why I didn't know about this meter. I couldn't believe how worked up I got when clearly they were in the right and I was in the wrong! Now I started to feel bad. I couldn't even SEE the meter, I couldn't imagine having to try and crawl in there to actually read it!

Now I was in a pickle... That huge "bush" you see is a Hydrangea bush. It blooms beautiful huge white pom-pom flowers in the late spring. It has become a tradition to pull off the flowers and have an early summer "snowball" fight. The kids and I have a blast running all over the yard trying to hit each other with them. So I didn't want to cut it down.

So I gave it a "trim"- OK, more like a total hack job!

Oh look!! I *do* have a meter! Guess I won't be hearing from them again...

Itching to be Organic

Our 3 new little piggys are really starting to settle in! These 3 pigs were purchased from an Organic farm, they were born in June and currently weigh 40lbs a piece.

But on a side note, we have *finally* built a pig pen! Before, all of our pigs were housed in various pens & stalls inside our barn. But because of the heat, flies, and a pigs natural tendency to root- Having them in the barn became a real pain, real fast.

So... We built them what I have termed "The Shitty Shack". All of our other small out buildings were made really nice!... The chickens have an upscale condo complete with roof shingles, a larger than life vent, plus a window! The sheep have an enormously long beautiful shelter and the steer's shelter is so nice I bet that the steers down the road are envious! But hey, times are tougher now (Thank You Crap Economy!) and like everything else, building materials have become more expensive- AND I can be pretty frugal when I have to be :)

And so the "Shitty Shack" was made. OMG is this thing a hodge podge! The walls are constructed from pallets stood on end, and the roof is some weird piece of framed metal we had lying around the farm. It's a beauty let me tell you! (can you taste that?? That's the taste of sarcasm!)

I was so unsure if this whole hodge podge of materials would fit together correctly that I actually made a to scale model of it prior to construction. I sat at the table like a 5 year old with my scissors, tape and old shoe box. Plus of course I had to plea my case to my husband, so I needed a visual! I have to add that my model of it looks a lot nicer than the final product! (better materials with the shoe box! lol)

So hubby wasn't at all thrilled about my idea of the "S.S" to say the least, he even brought up how much of an eyesore it will be in our yard. That made me laugh! Like huh??? We suddenly became pretentious?? Because the cow shit, dog shit, horse shit, pig shit, flies, weeds, toys, a zillion vehicles and trailers, and chickens... Don't ALREADY make our place look like a dump?? *scoff!* That's OK though, I politely reminded him that *I* didn't have to look at it outside my back door- It resides on the other side of our pine tree line that runs between our property and the next door neighbors! They have to look at it!! Ooh oh! I better make sure my name doesn't come up on that rotten neighbor website! lol!

Anyway, let me get back on track...

Ok, where was I? Oh Yeah!! The 3 little pigs... The 2 men we purchased them from were "good people". I found myself chatting up a storm with them, really enjoying our conversation. We shared in quite a few philosophies about raising meat. They are strictly Organic, where I still consider myself to be more "natural" when it comes to market animals, hoping someday to become true organic.

This is where my loyalty to being Organic falls short. When these 3 little pigs came home, I had noticed that they were scratching their bodies like mad. I didn't do anything about it right away, perhaps I was over thinking it and they only had an itch. Time went on, and they still itched. More time, and still more dang itching! So I caved, I dosed them with some Ivomectin in order to kill whatever parasite (mites / lice) are bothering them. The nice thing is that product will kill two birds with one stone! It takes care of the internal parasites too.

So what's my point in all of this you ask?? My point to all of this is that it is a struggle to raise a market animal from start to finish being strictly organic. Take these pigs for instance... I'm SURE they are loaded with internal parasites from not being de-wormed (ever), and they came to me with some form of external blood sucking parasite. And if I didn't give them that product they would have continued to be driven insane by itching their hides off- Plus, my rate of gain for them wouldn't be that great (meaning it would take me longer to get them to butcher weight) because of gut worms. So all in all it sucks. I can't seem to become truly "Organic" all while maintaining a healthy farm. Some day I will get there- As soon as I figure out how to keep animals parasite free!

New Life!- In the BATHROOM??

Life on a farm always seems to come full circle. One minute we are suffering from the loss of a beloved animal, the next minute we are enjoying the sights and sounds of new life!

We have 4 new sets of eyes looking at us around the farm. 3 sets outside in the barn in the form of new pigs (which I will talk about some other time), the other set looking at us from in our bathroom. Yes, I did say BATHROOM. lol!

About a month ago my daughter received an early birthday present, (Super early given her b-day isn't until December!!) an egg incubator. From a parental standpoint, I have been putting off the idea of spending almost a hundred dollars on a STYROFOAM box. (but, I'm wishing that I came up with this overpriced box idea, that's quite the money making racket they have going!)

Anyway, since that day we have been diligently collecting our show chicken's eggs, dating them, writing the breed on them, and we have been putting them in the incubator.

That incubator is a real fickle thing! We have to constantly monitor the temperature to help it maintain a constant 99.5*. Why can't it just be 99.*? or an even 100*? What's with the .5*? ?? It wouldn't be as tough if it was digital, but it's not. It has a little old fashioned thermometer inside the box and a little stick poking out of the top of the box that you can turn to the left or to the right to increase or decrease the temperature. It would be so much easier if it was digital!

All the eggs have been cooking along just fine. I have been candling them periodically and marking which ones are fertilized and growing nicely. So far, I only had one that was considered a "yolker" (non developer- not fertilized). I have a couple I'm on the fence about. I see a large blood ring around the inside of those eggs. But this blood ring doesn't look like any of the blood rings I have seen on the Internet. So we will just have to wait and see.

Our bathroom has become a "scientific" chicken rearing facility. Complete with incubator, automatic egg turner, and separate brooding box. It gives going potty a whole new meaning! And to think some people just have boring magazines or newspapers for their enjoyment! Heck, we can sit on the throne and watch the miracle of life! It's hard not to feel self conscious though when you have baby chicks looking up at you while your sitting on the crapper, making a deposit. The cool part though, it really helps with toddler potty training! I cannot count how many times I have heard "see chicks??" "potty!!" this morning! Hey! Now there's a market for me... All I have to do is convince every mother that she needs to hatch out eggs next to her toilet. Maybe I could make an infomercial! (checks idea to back of mind for further use... LOL)

I cannot believe how everyone has been involved in this process- Even my animal hating husband spent this past evening outside in the garage building a brooding box. Our brooding box is a 24"x24" plywood box w/ an 18"x 24" plexi glass hinged lid. This box also has a light bulb "poking" through the back to provide heat for the chicks. It's a beautiful contraption! But, it is more fickle than the dang incubator! Talk about a new learning curve! So far our hatch rate isn't that impressive. Technically, you are supposed to leave the eggs in the incubator until they hatch and are dry... Then move them to the brooding box. Sure, in a perfect world that sounds pretty simple right?? Well, if we leave them in the incubator- Yes, they hatch... Then manage to get their floppy little heads stuck in the automatic egg turner. So, we moved some of the eggs that had "pip" holes (the first hole a baby chick pecks into it's shell) into the brooder- that way they can hatch and not get jammed up in the machine. But- Even with a thermometer in the brooder it's hard to figure out where to put the eggs in the box. Next to the light is way to close (fried 2) and too far away from the light they get too cold in their shell and die. On a side note, it kind of makes you appreciate buying day old chicks- way less work involved!

OK, folks- Gotta run, I'm loosing my thought train because I have to quit writing every few minutes to get the boy out of the bathroom. I think I'm going to make a run this morning for one of those safety devices that go over a door knob so a toddler cannot open the door!

"It's Always Something..." Part 1 million and 6

*sigh*
Here we go again...

Back to my famous quote "It's always something"...

Let's see??? How to start this one??? My daughter, the absolute CHICKEN FANATIC! Loves her chickens to death. She makes fancy set-ups for her "special" chickens, she hand picks them "special salad" (aka: grass, clover, apple pieces, garden crops, etc...) and hand feeds them to those "special" birds.

Those birds consisted of (notice the PAST TENSE here) 2 call ducks: 1 snowy (looks like a miniature Mallard), 1 white one, 1 Cochin pullet (a type of young female show chicken), 1 Mille Fluer (another fancy rare chicken), 2 Black Rosecombs- male/female, and my hubby's turkey pullet (young female). Not to mention the 4 youngin's that were given to us from a family that hatched out some of our eggs.

Everyone was doing wonderfully fine- Until.....

My daughter got up early Sunday morning to find darn near the entire lot of them DEAD. She was mortified. Long story short... A Raccoon ripped open the wire on the chicken run and had its way with them. 6 dead, two severely wounded. Luckily, she had the Mille Fluer and the turkey already up in the barn in cages. But the rest of them were not so lucky...

I feel so sad for her. It was just the day before when she took pictures of them for her 4H record book, and now the next day... Taking pictures of their dead bodies for her record book.

As a conversational segway, MAN 4H / Farming is a Hard Life Lesson for kids!! It is unreal what these kids learn about life and death. Granted, with all the things that happen around here, she is pretty used to it. But just the thought of it- here one day, gone the next.. Whether it would be an animal raised for market, or her pet chickens- The kids sure do learn how to "get over it" fast.

Anywho,
Back to the chickens....
The two survivors: her white call duck, and the black rosecomb pullet both have suffered severe bites on the head and neck. My daughter naturally started tending to the wounds. At first I didn't give it much thought when it hit me... What about RABIES?? Now, I do consider myself a somewhat intelligent person- But I was CLUELESS when it came to the transmission of rabies. (??)

So, on the informational super highway I went. I wanted to know what percentage of Raccoons were carriers. Back in the day (1970's) it was around 50% of animals studied. In the early 2000's it had dropped to around 30% of animals studied. And I learned that there has only been 1 case of a "human" recovery from Raccoon Rabies- it was in 2004, a girl from Wisconsin.

Then I started to get a little nervous... Young girl trying to be helpful by treating her chickens wounds... Yikes! Then the paranoid mother kicked in! What if she gets the Raccoon's saliva from the chicken's wound into her bloodstream via a cut on her hands, or even an opening though a hangnail. (??)

So I caved and called an "Expert" (term used loosely) the WI D.N.R. I wanted to know if I should cull these birds instead of treating them due to a possible risk. Very valid question I thought. But the "expert" thought my call was rather humorous because it was a "Chicken" we were talking about. Sure, from a non parent stand point- The thought of a "rabid" chicken is kind of funny. Just envisioning it foaming at the beak while having a neurological breakdown all while trying to EAT a person... Yep! That could be funny. But this IS my own kid I was concerned about. I would hate to have a whoops! I guess we were wrong incident.

The only information he gave to me was that the incubation period for Rabies is 2 months (duh- He must have read the same website I did) and said *he* would just let it ride and see how it goes, stating the risk should be pretty slim to none.

So now we have chickens in isolation. I swear, as much weird stuff that happens here- We could open our own 1-800 # and answer questions regarding death / disease of animals! lol.

This is my second night of playing "Annie! Get you're gun!". I stayed up til midnight last night watching.... waiting.... Man I love to shoot things if it is justified! Hell! After watching all this unfold I would rather give this coon a nice slow painful death by blunt spoon than by quick bullet. I even have a live trap set in the chicken run (now empty of course) baited with my hubby's nasty smelling catfish bait. Sure, I'm certain he will be PIST when he learns I have sacrificed his pride and joy stink bait for the greater of mankind, but he'll survive!

Serves him right for making me strap on my big set of balls again. lol.

The Fair is over!! But here is a re-cap!

Hard to believe it has already come and gone!
Here are this year's highlights:

Swine:
Our gilt "pink" remained in great health so she was able to go to the fair (because the fair is a one way market- Charlotte didn't go to the fair, she is still at home). She weighed in at a whoppin 305lbs! She looked nice! All clean and shaven, had great length to her...
She placed a 3rd in the market animal class. Not too shabby given we have never raised a hog as a show animal before. And we raised her as natural as possible- didn't have her all "paylean'd" out. (a hog muscle growth hormone) You should see some of the pigs at the show! They have muscles where I didn't even know pigs HAD muscles!

My daughter also did a showmanship class with her. She placed 3rd. I was so proud of her, she tried so hard to keep her swine under control. Pink always did have a natural tendency to run so I was kind of worried about how she would act in the show ring. But my daughter did her best to keep her in the Judge's eye and out of the corners!

At the market sale, a company purchased her gilt for $2.10lb.

Sheep:
This year we took 3 sheep to the fair (OK, really 5 - two of them were market lambs we had raised for other 4h kids) My daughter showed a yearling ewe in a colored fleece (black wool) class and took a 1st place. She also showed one of our mature ewes in a breeding stock class. This ewe did have some age on her, she is around 7 years old! The judge liked her, but placed her as a third because the judge wanted to see more muscling on her. No problem! We only brought her for the fun of it. We just pulled her off the pasture, cleaned her up and brought her to the show.
As for her market lamb, it placed a 4th. The judge wanted more length of body to him. Oh well, that's nothing we could have "fixed"- unless we stretched him on a RACK of course! lol. kiddin.

The other two market lambs that were born here- one placed 2nd, and the other a 4th.

BUT- the best news with the market lamb was the night of the market animal sale! The business that bought our lamb last year, was desperately asking people who knew us as to if we were having another lamb in the sale. And if we fed him the same way we did last year. Come to find out, they just LOVED the taste of the meat last year (it was the first time ever they had bought any form of "lamb") and wanted to purchase another one from us this year! Long story short, they got into a bidding war with another company over my daughter's lamb and it sold for $2.70lb (he weighed in at 125lbs). And to top it off, they ended up purchasing another one of our lambs - one of our farm born ones shown by another girl from our club. I did talk to them afterwards explaining to them that what we raise is more of a production type lamb (meant for eating) over looking all muscle bound (good for placing well in the show ring) lamb. I explained how my daughter's lamb will have a larger leg of lamb than the other, and the other lamb will have a larger loin. They are thrilled to be having our lambs again for their freezer!

Chickens/Bantams:

My daughter rocked it with her chickens this year! She took 7 birds (I think??) to the fair. Each bird received a 1st place. Just for fun, I have her enter the egg judging class (I do it each year) I I (through her :) ) entered 6 colored eggs to be judged. They too took a 1st place!

As for showmanship, she didn't take the trophy this year like she had for the 2 past years. She made a crucial mistake. She took a Japanese bantam up to the table for the one on one w/ the judge. And long behold, the judge wanted to know specifics about this breed, and she didn't know it! So she took a 2nd place this year. I felt bad for her- she has all kinds of rarer breeds that she knows inside and out and here she takes the one bird ripped from our pasture- and doesn't know squat about it! ugh! But on the other hand, I keep telling her to study for showmanship (it's all question / answer with the judge) and she basically gives me the one finger wave (so to speak) and tells me about how she won the top honors 2 years in a row w/out studying. So when she placed second, I was glad to see her humbled back down to reality!

Dairy Goats:
This was our 2nd year bringing "Rosie" our Alpine yearling doe (non milker-never been bred). She placed a second place 1st (if you can follow that one!) in her dairy class.

As for showmanship, my daughter did better than last year and pulled off a blue ribbon. She placed second last year.

Meat Goats:
This was our very first attempt with a Boer goat. We only decided to do the project to help promote it with our county. It was our county's first year for the meat class. The goat, "Cracker head" (yes, he was a bastard of a little goat!) placed super well! He took a second place blue ribbon. He was a big contender for Grand Champion, but didn't get it. Our friends / family would have gotten a big kick out of it- if he did win Grand, because everyone KNOWS how much of a "challenge" he is! lol. He is all muscled out, um... not because of a great exercise program set by us, it is because he is IMPOSSIBLE to catch and can run like the dickens! 5 people in an enclosed paddock couldn't catch this little bugger!

Anyway,
My daughter scratched the showmanship portion of the show. The goat was just tooooooooooo much to handle. And sometimes the judge will make the kids switch goats to see how they handle another goat other than their own- Well, we would have been FINE but the poor kid that got Cracker Head would have been screwed. Plus chasing that little bastard all over the fair grounds after that poor kid let him go, would not have been cool. I could see it now... some little kid in a stroller seeing a baby goat come flying past: "mommy! look at the goat!" and then "BLAM!!!" as I shot it dead in front of them because the two hour chase around the fair was grating at my nerves! LOL!

Other projects my daughter did:

A saddle pad she had sewn took a 1st place and an Award of Merit (higher than a 1st place)! It was show cased in the glass case for all to see.

She also sewed a helmet bag for her riding helmet, that took a 1st place blue.

And lastly, she made 2 posters. One horse poster and one swine poster- each took a 2nd place.

We had a blast all week at the fair! This was our first year that we reserved a campsite and stayed there. We had showing everyday from Thursday through Sunday. It was a very heavy load, but well worth it! Can't wait for next year!!!!