Fair Time

We had 3 kids participating in 4-H this year with a total of 8 books.  Taylor was elected to be the Treasurer for the club so she had a book for that.  Both Taylor and Lindsey took Archery.  Then, instead of doing a dairy project this year the girls ended up doing a sheep project.  We heard it was good to have a spare sheep just in case one of theirs didn't make weight or something happened health wise, so Michael took that third sheep and used it for a Cloverbud project.  Just doing Market Sheep was boring, though, so the girls also used two of our new ewes as breeding projects. This brought the total of sheep up to 5.  It was quite a busy summer, I tell you.  The fair was also very busy.  They like to stretch it out for about 3 weeks. 

The week before the fair, Taylor participated in a Public Speaking competition.  She did an Illustrated Talk on sheep milk.  She did pretty well, but could have used a little more practice.  It was a good learning experience, though, and she got a blue ribbon.  That means she can go on and compete in a district competition in September.

Then, the fair finally got here.  Lindsey's lamb was the smallest and just barely made weight, so she opted to use Michael's for quality showing and to sell.  She used her breeding ewe for the Showmanship part of the fair.

Michael and Spot

Taylor and Tommy

Lindsey and Speckles Freckles

Taylor and Whidey Idey

Lindsey and Savannah

The week was mostly spent in Shoshone at the Fair Grounds.  Taylor and Lindsey both got blue ribbons in Showmanship and red ribbons in Quality.  It was pretty much what they were expecting.  The kids stayed close to keep an eye on their animals and they found plenty of friends to play and hang out with.  One of these days we are going to end up taking a camper to the fair grounds and sleeping there over the week.  Someone will still have to be at home to take care of the animals here, but it would be so much easier to just keep the kids there close to the animals.  Robert also had a lot of late nights helping out at the Rodeos. Since he is on the Fair Board he was busy doing lots of random things to help out and he had to stay at the Rodeo most nights to either help take tickets or help in the concession stand.

Rachel was getting tired of the fair and the rodeo

On the last day of the fair the girls sold their lambs.  Both of them got decent prices and were happy to have it over.  They were a little sad saying good-bye, though. We will have to see what happens for fair time next year.