Where's Summer Going?

Can't believe how fast time goes!  Have been so busy, that I guess I also took a blogger break!  Have been busy in the yard, working on county fair auction stuff till late into the night and haven't even been into blogger for a week or so.  Shame on me, and I will try to get better at checking out blogs and writing.  Seems like I've said it before, just need to get back into the routine!
We've had a very warm, muggy summer.  The heat is doing a number on our yard.  Have a lot of brown patches now, so that also means a little less mowing, and that fall is just around the corner. 

This is the quilt that our friends little girl made for the county fair.  She is 10 years old and did it all by herself.  I showed her how to do the binding. Amazing work for a 10 year old! 

Sally got Reserve Champion on her quilt~great job!

Her sister, Samantha, made two teacup pincushions for creative arts.

The girls also showed pigs, sheep and one also showed her goat.  They had photography entries and really did a good job on all of their projects. 

Sally and Sam are the two girls in the middle with black jeans on. 

The judge asking Sam some questions during the showmanship contest.

Sally walking out with Grand Champion Jr Showmanhip trophy.

Sam in the middle showing her goat.

Another year done with our County Fair, and now these two girls will be busy soon deciding what projects to start for next year, and finding a place in their rooms to exhibit all of their trophies and ribbons!   

I'm making them a slide show, as I took quite a few pictures of them showing their animal projects, as I know how hard it is as a parent to get pictures when you're busy helping them and other kids to get their animals into the show ring at the right time, etc. 

Granddaughter Amanda didn't show this year, and she missed it.  Her friends at the fair from other towns asked if she was going to be there.  Amanda and her boyfriend went in the evening and I hope she got to see some of her friends that had asked if she was going to be there.  A great thing about

4-H is making great friends from all over.  These friendships last forever.      

We sell a lot of pigs to 4-H families, and hubby Steve goes to all the area county fairs to watch the swine shows to see how the kids do that bought pigs from us.  These families sure appreciate that he does that, and he is always available to answer questions that they have during the summer months before the fair.  A lot of the kids have done very well this year in exhibiting the animals they've bought from us.

Have a great day everyone!

Round Robin and Youth Auction

Amanda's pig thought he was at the races!  Got into the show ring, and ran willy-nilly!  

Then after the timer went off, Amanda moved to the next station and had to show and set up the lamb.  Throughout her livestock showing years, she hasn't showed sheep or cattle, so this round robin contest of showing the different animals has been the few times she has shown them.  Kids that have and show all the animals have a better chance of winning the round robbin showing contest.

Then rotated to show and set up the dairy steer. 

Ending with the beef steer.  After you show the animal and set them up, the judge for each animal asks you questions that relate to that breed of animal.  So you need to be knowledgeable about each animal too.

Amanda didn't win the over all round robin contest, but did have fun doing it. 

This year, all girls showed in the contest!  The girl in white that started out with the dairy steer won the contest this year.  This is the last year for three of the girls.  How time flies!  Seems like just yesterday when they were all so little out in that big show ring!

After the showmanship contest, was the youth auction.  Our fair has had a premium youth livestock auction for years.  One way for area businesses to help support the kids and their projects, and for the kids to have some money to put towards their next year project.

Here is a picture of one little girl that had her 3 fryer rabbits all in her apron!  So cute.  I help clerk so I'm not able to get pictures during the auction, but did grab it quick for this one!

The ringman couldn't get over how cute she and her bunnies were!  She got $200 for those bunnies!

Leah and Kelly taking in some payments as the auction ended.  Now I do the rest of the billing to the other bidders that didn't pay yesterday, and after all payments are in and cleared, I get the reports and info to the treasurer so he can make check out to the kids.   Then we're done for another year.  So now I better get busy on some of that paper work!  It'll take me a couple of days to get the billing letters and thank you letters all out.  Need to compile all the info into reports for all the members of the livestock auction committee too.  Have a great Sunday.  Weather is nice here and I also need to mow the yard again and Steve will be out cutting the barley and wheat, and needs to get another cutting of hay done too.  A busy week ahead of us.  Next weekend is my 45th class reunion and all school reunion.  We'll be having company stay here from Oklahoma, so much won't get done again next weekend!

Show day at County Fair!

Neighbor kids Sally and Samantha in the Beginner Lamb Lead, with the middle one wearing a wool vest and hat, and lamb wearing matching blanket and hat that I'd made for our older girls when they showed sheep many years ago.  It's kind of hard now to find 100% wool like this.  Sam was the winner and so proud of her trophy.  I love to see their excitement.   Love the look on the boy - his eyes!  cute! 

So busy keeping their eyes on the judge.

Granddaughter Amanda and her dad talking before she was to show one of her pigs.

Coming out of the show ring with a Championship Trophy!  Amanda had a good day today with her animals, and also won showmanship.  Good job kiddo!

Now to sign up for the state fair trip and decide which pig to take.  I think she'll be taking her barrow.

On Saturday we have a Livestock Auction for all the blue ribbon market animals, so our work isn't done yet.  Also before the auction, there is a Round Robin Showmanship contest with all the senior showmanship winners of each market animal.  That is fun to watch.  Amanda will start out showing her own pig, then rotate to show a beef steer, dairy steer, and lamb before getting back to her pig.  Our 3 girls each won that showmanship contest.   When our girls were showing, they'd make sure they practiced on someone elses animal before going into the show ring.  Sometimes these steers know when a novice is trying to show them, and they can misbehave.  That's alot of muscle moving and pulling when you don't want them to.

Egg Specialities!

Today I was boiling eggs and potatoes to make potato salad. As I drained the eggs, I asked Jessica if she wanted some "Eggs in a Cup". She was excited to have me fix that for her. Warm hard boiled eggs all mashed up with butter, salt and pepper. This was considered a Comfort Food at our house when kids were young. Something easy to fix, tasted good and was warm!

I used to also fix "Eggs in a Basket". A slice of bread, with a cutout center. Buttered on both sides and the center circle, and put in the frying pan. As pan was heating up and toasting the bread, we added an egg. Flip the egg/toast over and usually your egg ends up with a soft yolk that you dip your toasted circle in and eat it all. I remember that the kids loved it.

Then there is the "Sandy Scrambled Eggs"! That was Jessica's specialty that
she made for 4-H one year. She was about 9 years old, and she had practiced making scrambled eggs for us at home. We had to take pictures of her plate of eggs after she would make them because after a day at the fair some foods would have to be thrown away, and then fair goers could at least see the picture that would be on the shelf with the ribbon that was awarded. This was before digital cameras, so she had to practice making scrambled eggs several weeks ahead of the fair entry day. It would take at least a week for the pictures to get developed. As usual, getting all projects ready for entry day is nerve wracking and can test everyones nerves. That year I was unable to take off work on 4-H entry day, and our friend and neighbor Barb hauled her 3 boys; Jason, Justin, Adam and Jessica over to the County Fair with all of their non animal projects - and she had a car full! This was when her boys and our kids would have anywhere from 10 to 18 projects each!!!!! They needed to get there, unload and get lined up to talk to the judges to explain to the judge about their project. How they made it, what they learned from making it, and if they enjoyed the project, etc.

Our County Fair is about 36 miles from where we live, so once everyone is in their assigned seat and all projects accounted for, off Barb drives! Jessica is sitting in the front seat next to Barb and holding her plate with scrambled eggs. The plate has plastic wrap over it, taped to the bottom. Barb had to brake for some reason, and off the plate the scrambed eggs slid! Onto the floor! The dirty, sandy floor of a farm family van! I can imagine what happened next - Barb trying to keep kids in control and the van too. Stopping to scrape up the scrambled eggs back onto the plate, and to make it presentable! We laugh at this now, but it was devestating for Jessica. She was so nervous because she knew that when the judge was going to judge her project, that the judge was going to taste her scrambled eggs. Jessica remembers that she kept looking at Barb, because she was afraid the judge would bite into the gritty sand and then she'd have to fess up what had happened to the eggs. Well, the Judge didn't pause at all; chewed her bite of eggs and swallowed it. Jessica didn't have to make the choice of fessing up to what happened to the eggs, or to tell her that she had used a lot of pepper on her eggs, (not sand)! Much to Jessica's surprise, her project was awarded a Blue ribbon.