Anna and her hen, see how well she's staying on the table?!
The bird swap, Anna had fun handling a different bird.
Ta Da!! She got a blue, not bad for first time out.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Anna and Starlight
Anna and Starlight in the spot light (say that 5 times fast)
Anna and her hen, see how well she's staying on the table?!
The bird swap, Anna had fun handling a different bird.
Ta Da!! She got a blue, not bad for first time out.
Anna and her hen, see how well she's staying on the table?!The bird swap, Anna had fun handling a different bird.
Ta Da!! She got a blue, not bad for first time out.
Adventures in Fitting and Showing, a novel
I'll start off with saying, no clue. Had no clue. Consider yourself warned.
Easy enough, right? You take your disease, bug free animal down and enter them into the fair. Sure I know that 4-H does more, we're an Open fair though. So I figure we put the birds in, hang around the barns and figure out it all out for next year. HA! Wroooong....soooo very, very wrong.
Then evening before the children catch up their innocent, unsuspecting birds, get them caged and wait for Dad to arrive (he's gone off to get hog panels.) I finish up in the kitchen, listening to one very peeved drake, the hen has settled down in her carrier. She's got no worries, food and water all to herself, it's cool, she's takin' a nap. The drake, well....he's not impressed.
Dad gets home, the children pounce, they're all ready to get this ball rolling! Animals get loaded, Dad gives the order to
"Load the Birds so we can get going."
"They are honey."
"oh....well come on, what are we waiting for?!"
We join the throng of entrants, vendors and families getting ready for the fair. It reminded me of the movie "The Greatest Show on Earth". The birds get settled into their pens, watered, fed and we find the Superintendent of the barn to find out what comes next. There's a fitting and showing clinic the next morning, hadn't planned on doing that but she'd like them to try it out. So, the kids are skeptical, Lars more so. He needs to what with his duck? Dougall, stand on a table? Riiiight. He's going to do it, not going to do it, going to do it, not going to do it. Finally he settles on a take it as comes basis. We all pile back into the Suburban and head for home.
I'm left wondering if entering is that chaotic, what are the next four days going to bring?!
Thursday morning dawns early! First day of fair, the children bound out of bed (they need to be there before 8am to clean out pens, water and feed their birds), eager to get to the barn. I need my coffee. At the gas station I opt for the supercharged caffine blend, long ago I learned the wisdom of planning ahead. The morning progresses, animals tended at the grounds, back here to get everyone else off to school, make sure Justin is ready for his day (work intruded on his vacation), morning chores, housework, feed the rest an early lunch, back to the grounds for fit and show clinic.
Hmmm.....confidence is waning. Okay, well we have the information, now to get Miss Meena to school, back home to get Justin, more house stuff, load everyone up that's back from school and off to the grounds to get some hands on time with the animals.
Starlight is doing well, Anna's wandering around asking if anyone wants to pet her chicken. Okay, now it's Lars and Dougall. The lady with years of experience proclaims "He's a handful." Oh dear.
Long and short of it, Dougall got hung upside down...after which he behaved quite well. Lars worked him and we decided to call it a day at about 7:30pm.
Friday, it's the big day. Fit and Show, 9am. Justin took the kids down to the grounds, I stayed at home to milk, do farm chores, just about needed a block and tackle to get Bruce out of bed, housework, packed the two coolers for us to eat out of, got everyone ready to spend the whole day down at the grounds, Justin picked the rest of us up while Lars and Anna stayed behind to get some last minute handling and instruction in. While they're waiting their turns, they're getting last minute tips, listening to the judge's comments, Lars's arm is getting tired. Dougall is all tucked in under his arm and has, at this point, resigned himself to his fate and getting a doze in.
Anna is up first, it's going great until the judge put a pen on the table and wants them to demonstrate how they put them in and take them out. Anna, I tell her to watch what the others do and follow suit, Lars has turned a greenish white....just watch son....and breath. Then another surprise, the judge switches everyone's birds. Anna took it in stride, does very well and gets her hen back. Lars is calming down some.
This goes off well, Anna's doing great until the chicken next to her decides it doesn't like her hen. It jumps her, they both go off the table.....and again....Anna's flustered at this point. A group is asked to leave, Anna in them. She puts her hen back, very disappointed. I go with her, talk, tell her it's okay and she and her hen both did fantastic for being first timers! Come on, her hen stood there like she'd been doing this days out of the egg and she's a working farm hen. Good dispositon on behalf of the hen and Anna's been packing her around for the last day. I know that Anna doesn't understand, but I was really impressed with both of them. Sometimes you just get bad luck with the line up.
Everyone is called back up and she gets a blue ribbon. Ahh, she feels better but I know she had her eye on that purple ribbon. Maybe next year. ;) Off she goes to put on Starlight's pen and back again to see how her brother does.
Lars is called, I know he's dreading putting Dougall on that table. Dougall has some surprises of his own though and stands there like a gentleman. He fussed a bit at first, but settled down to grooming...or trying to at least. Lars completed the penning excersize perfectly, the Superintendent was very impressed. Neither he or Anna really had any instruction in this. He was starting to calm down, the worst part was over.
Now for the bird swap, Lars got a Phoenix pullet, while the poor girl down the table looked like she'd just been handed Daffy's evil twin. Dougall may behave for Lars and the nasty lady that hung him upside down....but he was going to eat this girls buttons for breakfast! He did try too.
Lars also took a blue, put Dougall back and the two of the, Anna and Lars, put in their request for next year's birds. Lars has decided that this will be Dougall's only year at the fair. He's best suited to the life of a guard duck and is retiring to said life. Next year, he wants to do a Call drake...they're tiny little things. Anna has a range that she's considering, but has it down to Frizzle, Call duck and Silkie. She wanted to try geese...but Mom's not doing geese, no.
Bruce voiced that he would like to consider it for next year, Malina wants to, Leif was pretty oblivious...he had a germ on the end of a string that he was flying through the air.
Big breath. Done...nope. Saturday brought Poultry Judging. They didn't have enough of one breed to do a line up so we supplied a line of Speckled Sussex cockerals. Lars took Reserve Champion in this for Juniors. Listened to why the chickens were judged the way they were and knew which ones he got wrong.
It was a lot for Anna to take in all at once, people everywhere, she did listen but she's reading up some more now that she's home.
Friday and Saturday were the marathon days, stayed all day, came home did the housework, got dinner for everyone and collapsed.
Sunday, was quiet until 4:30pm. We'd made rounds during the previous 3 days and Justin talked with the people in the Rabbit barn. The result is that we now have 2 Californian does for free and a very nice New Zealand buck (he's just a little narrow through the shoulders, but for a first buck he's great) for $10. We bought the does cages and one of the nest boxes. Okay, I have a Suburban and 5 kids, a duck, a chicken, 2 does, 1 buck.....I ran out of room at 5 kids. I spent a couple of hours running animals and accessories home, doing a little connecting of my own and finally finished up at 7:30pm.
As for me? My filet crochet piece took Grand Champion *grin*. When I went to pick it up, there was excitement to see what I entered next year. Don't know, but I'll figure something out.
Next year is going to be crazy too, it just is, but at least I'll know what to expect, what I need and be able to line up my time better. There's always the proverbial monkey wrench but hopefully it won't be too bad.
Today, I have a date with the couch, remote and a pair of socks. Sounds like heaven.
Easy enough, right? You take your disease, bug free animal down and enter them into the fair. Sure I know that 4-H does more, we're an Open fair though. So I figure we put the birds in, hang around the barns and figure out it all out for next year. HA! Wroooong....soooo very, very wrong.
Then evening before the children catch up their innocent, unsuspecting birds, get them caged and wait for Dad to arrive (he's gone off to get hog panels.) I finish up in the kitchen, listening to one very peeved drake, the hen has settled down in her carrier. She's got no worries, food and water all to herself, it's cool, she's takin' a nap. The drake, well....he's not impressed.
Dad gets home, the children pounce, they're all ready to get this ball rolling! Animals get loaded, Dad gives the order to
"Load the Birds so we can get going."
"They are honey."
"oh....well come on, what are we waiting for?!"
We join the throng of entrants, vendors and families getting ready for the fair. It reminded me of the movie "The Greatest Show on Earth". The birds get settled into their pens, watered, fed and we find the Superintendent of the barn to find out what comes next. There's a fitting and showing clinic the next morning, hadn't planned on doing that but she'd like them to try it out. So, the kids are skeptical, Lars more so. He needs to what with his duck? Dougall, stand on a table? Riiiight. He's going to do it, not going to do it, going to do it, not going to do it. Finally he settles on a take it as comes basis. We all pile back into the Suburban and head for home.
I'm left wondering if entering is that chaotic, what are the next four days going to bring?!
Thursday morning dawns early! First day of fair, the children bound out of bed (they need to be there before 8am to clean out pens, water and feed their birds), eager to get to the barn. I need my coffee. At the gas station I opt for the supercharged caffine blend, long ago I learned the wisdom of planning ahead. The morning progresses, animals tended at the grounds, back here to get everyone else off to school, make sure Justin is ready for his day (work intruded on his vacation), morning chores, housework, feed the rest an early lunch, back to the grounds for fit and show clinic.
Hmmm.....confidence is waning. Okay, well we have the information, now to get Miss Meena to school, back home to get Justin, more house stuff, load everyone up that's back from school and off to the grounds to get some hands on time with the animals.
Starlight is doing well, Anna's wandering around asking if anyone wants to pet her chicken. Okay, now it's Lars and Dougall. The lady with years of experience proclaims "He's a handful." Oh dear.
Long and short of it, Dougall got hung upside down...after which he behaved quite well. Lars worked him and we decided to call it a day at about 7:30pm.
Friday, it's the big day. Fit and Show, 9am. Justin took the kids down to the grounds, I stayed at home to milk, do farm chores, just about needed a block and tackle to get Bruce out of bed, housework, packed the two coolers for us to eat out of, got everyone ready to spend the whole day down at the grounds, Justin picked the rest of us up while Lars and Anna stayed behind to get some last minute handling and instruction in. While they're waiting their turns, they're getting last minute tips, listening to the judge's comments, Lars's arm is getting tired. Dougall is all tucked in under his arm and has, at this point, resigned himself to his fate and getting a doze in.
Anna is up first, it's going great until the judge put a pen on the table and wants them to demonstrate how they put them in and take them out. Anna, I tell her to watch what the others do and follow suit, Lars has turned a greenish white....just watch son....and breath. Then another surprise, the judge switches everyone's birds. Anna took it in stride, does very well and gets her hen back. Lars is calming down some.
This goes off well, Anna's doing great until the chicken next to her decides it doesn't like her hen. It jumps her, they both go off the table.....and again....Anna's flustered at this point. A group is asked to leave, Anna in them. She puts her hen back, very disappointed. I go with her, talk, tell her it's okay and she and her hen both did fantastic for being first timers! Come on, her hen stood there like she'd been doing this days out of the egg and she's a working farm hen. Good dispositon on behalf of the hen and Anna's been packing her around for the last day. I know that Anna doesn't understand, but I was really impressed with both of them. Sometimes you just get bad luck with the line up.
Everyone is called back up and she gets a blue ribbon. Ahh, she feels better but I know she had her eye on that purple ribbon. Maybe next year. ;) Off she goes to put on Starlight's pen and back again to see how her brother does.
Lars is called, I know he's dreading putting Dougall on that table. Dougall has some surprises of his own though and stands there like a gentleman. He fussed a bit at first, but settled down to grooming...or trying to at least. Lars completed the penning excersize perfectly, the Superintendent was very impressed. Neither he or Anna really had any instruction in this. He was starting to calm down, the worst part was over.
Now for the bird swap, Lars got a Phoenix pullet, while the poor girl down the table looked like she'd just been handed Daffy's evil twin. Dougall may behave for Lars and the nasty lady that hung him upside down....but he was going to eat this girls buttons for breakfast! He did try too.
Lars also took a blue, put Dougall back and the two of the, Anna and Lars, put in their request for next year's birds. Lars has decided that this will be Dougall's only year at the fair. He's best suited to the life of a guard duck and is retiring to said life. Next year, he wants to do a Call drake...they're tiny little things. Anna has a range that she's considering, but has it down to Frizzle, Call duck and Silkie. She wanted to try geese...but Mom's not doing geese, no.
Bruce voiced that he would like to consider it for next year, Malina wants to, Leif was pretty oblivious...he had a germ on the end of a string that he was flying through the air.
Big breath. Done...nope. Saturday brought Poultry Judging. They didn't have enough of one breed to do a line up so we supplied a line of Speckled Sussex cockerals. Lars took Reserve Champion in this for Juniors. Listened to why the chickens were judged the way they were and knew which ones he got wrong.
It was a lot for Anna to take in all at once, people everywhere, she did listen but she's reading up some more now that she's home.
Friday and Saturday were the marathon days, stayed all day, came home did the housework, got dinner for everyone and collapsed.
Sunday, was quiet until 4:30pm. We'd made rounds during the previous 3 days and Justin talked with the people in the Rabbit barn. The result is that we now have 2 Californian does for free and a very nice New Zealand buck (he's just a little narrow through the shoulders, but for a first buck he's great) for $10. We bought the does cages and one of the nest boxes. Okay, I have a Suburban and 5 kids, a duck, a chicken, 2 does, 1 buck.....I ran out of room at 5 kids. I spent a couple of hours running animals and accessories home, doing a little connecting of my own and finally finished up at 7:30pm.
As for me? My filet crochet piece took Grand Champion *grin*. When I went to pick it up, there was excitement to see what I entered next year. Don't know, but I'll figure something out.
Next year is going to be crazy too, it just is, but at least I'll know what to expect, what I need and be able to line up my time better. There's always the proverbial monkey wrench but hopefully it won't be too bad.
Today, I have a date with the couch, remote and a pair of socks. Sounds like heaven.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Fair Time!
So the fair comes to the Okanogan Valley again! I love fair.
This year we took the plunge and entered. Lars and Anna entered animals, I entered a crochet project. It's been a lot of fun, grueling, but fun. The kids are down at 7am to clean out pens everyday. Today they had their first taste of Fitting and Showing, more on that later, so we were there all day....oh boy. Two more days.
I'll know what I'm doing next year, so that should help. It's been a lot of flying by the seat of my pants the last couple of days and I do that soooo well *insert sarcasm here*.
In any case, I have to admit that I've really enjoyed just hanging out at the fair for a change! We've had the time to really look at the exhibits, split them up over the days and just meander. The kids have been able to watch their friends compete, congratulation them on their winnings, run around and just enjoy. Small town county fair, couldn't think of a better way to end a summer!
Bald Eagle on exhibit
Leif. He's been running around all day, so much to see, so many people to recongnize and he's stuck waiting for his siblings to finish their 1st tour of barn duty. We've been at the grounds since 7 this morning, it's almost 4pm now.....Dad and Mom are just about wiped. True to the 8 yr old, he's still got energy to spare.
Justin actually managed to sneak a picture of me. I'm working on a pair of socks I'm making for a knit along sock exchange on Homesteading Today. We were taking a break, catching some shade and waiting for Justin's parents to arrive.
HA! I caught him. This took some doing, but I caught Bruce being goofy with his brother.
Miss Meena, not to be left out adding her own silliness to the day.
So we're still in the thick of it, but that's fair! I'm not sure however, if I'm going to be coherent by Sunday evening.
I think that Monday I'm going to make the couch my best friend, say hello to the remote and find something brainless to watch on Netflix.
The kids are very excited for next year. The Superintendents of the Poultry and Rabbit barns were very helpful. On the poultry side, they spent most of yesterday working with the kids and their birds, crash course in showing. Lars has plans for a Call drake next year, Anna did but she's thinking about doing rabbits instead. Bruce hasn't quite made up his mind, although the thought of selling a market hog has his mental calculator going.
More to follow on the entries, but it's been a long day and I'm beat. Time to head off to a prone position.
This year we took the plunge and entered. Lars and Anna entered animals, I entered a crochet project. It's been a lot of fun, grueling, but fun. The kids are down at 7am to clean out pens everyday. Today they had their first taste of Fitting and Showing, more on that later, so we were there all day....oh boy. Two more days.
I'll know what I'm doing next year, so that should help. It's been a lot of flying by the seat of my pants the last couple of days and I do that soooo well *insert sarcasm here*.
In any case, I have to admit that I've really enjoyed just hanging out at the fair for a change! We've had the time to really look at the exhibits, split them up over the days and just meander. The kids have been able to watch their friends compete, congratulation them on their winnings, run around and just enjoy. Small town county fair, couldn't think of a better way to end a summer!
Bald Eagle on exhibit"Mom take a picture of the Bald Eagle!" Granted, we don't see them this up close and personal, they're usually up high riding the wind. Of course I took the picture. These are rescued animals that are unable to sustain themselves in the wild.
Leif. He's been running around all day, so much to see, so many people to recongnize and he's stuck waiting for his siblings to finish their 1st tour of barn duty. We've been at the grounds since 7 this morning, it's almost 4pm now.....Dad and Mom are just about wiped. True to the 8 yr old, he's still got energy to spare.
Justin actually managed to sneak a picture of me. I'm working on a pair of socks I'm making for a knit along sock exchange on Homesteading Today. We were taking a break, catching some shade and waiting for Justin's parents to arrive.
HA! I caught him. This took some doing, but I caught Bruce being goofy with his brother.
Miss Meena, not to be left out adding her own silliness to the day.So we're still in the thick of it, but that's fair! I'm not sure however, if I'm going to be coherent by Sunday evening.
I think that Monday I'm going to make the couch my best friend, say hello to the remote and find something brainless to watch on Netflix.
The kids are very excited for next year. The Superintendents of the Poultry and Rabbit barns were very helpful. On the poultry side, they spent most of yesterday working with the kids and their birds, crash course in showing. Lars has plans for a Call drake next year, Anna did but she's thinking about doing rabbits instead. Bruce hasn't quite made up his mind, although the thought of selling a market hog has his mental calculator going.
More to follow on the entries, but it's been a long day and I'm beat. Time to head off to a prone position.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Bee Happy??
Ooooo, so bad, I know. Really though, never thought I'd be happy to see bees. I was looking at needing to hand pollenate the plants. After the orchard hives were moved, we were sans bees. The girls and I had collected our feathers, courtesy of Dougall the Duck, when I saw some very nice girls doing the job for us! We're now all on produce watch. The green beans are about a week out. You know that first crop, takes forever to mature and then before you know it you're sick of picking every other day. The cukes have gone insane, for the first time I have a very impressive crop. I'm so excited! The melon bed, well it's a jungle in there. The watermelons are turning out to be very prolific, will definately be sharing these.
Amy is far enough along, that I can see the calf moving around in there! Yay!
So we've decided to keep the Berkshire gilt for breeding. Thus, she recieves an actual name, not menu listing. Are you ready??
Mrs Seaman Hornsby.
Why? Have you ever watched Operation Peticoat, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis.......yes? no? If you have, it makes sense, if not watch it and it will. ;)
Summer is progressing nicely! Before long I'll be up to my ears in the canner, taking daily steam treatments and really wishing for winter. Today apricot picking is on the to do list. A friend has a tree that I'm going to harvest from, I'm thinking that I'll be drying them.
High note. Goats got loose and ravaged my berries and plants. Happy side, the blackberries, grape, butterfly bush and moss roses are all coming back. Raspberries are gone, gone. Goats also don't like Petunias or Lilies....at all. It's time for new stake out stakes.
Kids are busy running around doing the summer is fun thing! Life is good. I'm focusing all my creativity energy on the filet project I started a couple of years ago. I'm almost finished with it and it will be entered inot the fair this year. Justin has been busy with work and is working on permanent hog pens. One more month and we're back to school fun and fair!
Amy is far enough along, that I can see the calf moving around in there! Yay!
So we've decided to keep the Berkshire gilt for breeding. Thus, she recieves an actual name, not menu listing. Are you ready??
Mrs Seaman Hornsby.
Why? Have you ever watched Operation Peticoat, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis.......yes? no? If you have, it makes sense, if not watch it and it will. ;)
Summer is progressing nicely! Before long I'll be up to my ears in the canner, taking daily steam treatments and really wishing for winter. Today apricot picking is on the to do list. A friend has a tree that I'm going to harvest from, I'm thinking that I'll be drying them.
High note. Goats got loose and ravaged my berries and plants. Happy side, the blackberries, grape, butterfly bush and moss roses are all coming back. Raspberries are gone, gone. Goats also don't like Petunias or Lilies....at all. It's time for new stake out stakes.
Kids are busy running around doing the summer is fun thing! Life is good. I'm focusing all my creativity energy on the filet project I started a couple of years ago. I'm almost finished with it and it will be entered inot the fair this year. Justin has been busy with work and is working on permanent hog pens. One more month and we're back to school fun and fair!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Whoa!
This evening as I was getting ready to get dinner started, Lars walked in with a jar covered in seran wrap.
" Mom, say hi to Dragon."
"Who??" as I walk over to see what they've picked up this time. I'm expecting the usual, frog, grasshopper, maybe a praying mantis.......and then my eyes get very large once it registers. My son was very pleased with my response, which brought various other offspring galloping into the kitchen as well. It's always good when Mom makes that sound, whatever it is. There I stand staring at the largest moth I've ever seen in person. I'm also double checking the holes to make sure they aren't too big. While supressing the urge to start yodling, I grab the camera. I found it online it's a Big Poplar Sphinx. Big is right.
More info here: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3416&chosen_state=53*Washington
For the record, that's a quart jar.
" Mom, say hi to Dragon."
"Who??" as I walk over to see what they've picked up this time. I'm expecting the usual, frog, grasshopper, maybe a praying mantis.......and then my eyes get very large once it registers. My son was very pleased with my response, which brought various other offspring galloping into the kitchen as well. It's always good when Mom makes that sound, whatever it is. There I stand staring at the largest moth I've ever seen in person. I'm also double checking the holes to make sure they aren't too big. While supressing the urge to start yodling, I grab the camera. I found it online it's a Big Poplar Sphinx. Big is right.
More info here: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3416&chosen_state=53*Washington
For the record, that's a quart jar.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Finished!
It's finished and looks so nice in the kitchen! The measurements are: 2ft 9in long x 2ft 1in wide, 12 yrds of fabric and took about 20 hrs. The top photo is the side that my mom likes the most, the bottom is the side that I prefer although I like both sides. The green and yellow mottled section, I tossed the strips put them in a bag and didn't look when I took one. I found I was thinkng about it too much. I do have another one planned for the living room, but there's orange and blue wool waiting to be spun up for winter wear, so that's going to need to wait.Yay! A rug that I can change with my moods, it's like reversable clothing for my floors. I can hear Justin groaning now. To give me credit, I haven't changed my cupboards around significantly since we moved here, that's 4 yrs folks! It's a record. I have rearranged the living room several times, but that's what living rooms are for and out of consideration, if I happen to do it while he's working the night shift I always leave the lights on so he doesn't fall over the furniture.
Happy Birthday Leif!!!
He's now 8........wow. Thinking ahead, he made sure the cars had wheels before he chose, it's the cake that keeps on entertaining! :) The bakery gals were just a tad nervous when he started inspecting the prospective cake, but really what's the point of getting a cake with cars that don't have wheels. That makes no sense at all.
Enjoying his day, while siblings wait silently wishing him to hurry up to the cake and ice cream eating part.
Group shot! All smiling and not from mischief.....okay Dad was being goofy in the background. I thought I'd take advantage of the moment, having lured them all into one place with the promise of sugar.
Do you ever hear the whispering wildlife show narrator start talking about your life??
"and here we have the fortune to witness a most rare event. All the
members of this pack, gathered together, enjoying eachother's company. This
occurance, so brief in duration, has only been captured on film a few times
over the last decade.........astounding."
*soft pretty music in the background as the picture fades and they cut to a loud obnoxious commercial*
Leif (at reminding his mother) got a new lego set, bike helment and a brand new bike, red. There's something to be said for a bike who's scratches and dings are all yours. (He was up at the crack of dawn the next morning, on with the helmet and riding as fast as his legs could peddle. )His brothers handed over the controler to the X-box for the whole day, watched his movie and let him choose the games to play (even the "we're going to just run in circles for 30 minutes and laugh our heads off"). The day closed out in about 30 seconds, snuggling on the couch with me and declaring he had a good birthday this year.
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