Beef Expo

Last Saturday Hubby and I attended the Michigan Beef Expo at the Pavilion at MSU. While many none farm-types may say "How boring!" I had a great time. Not only did I manage the knit the entire heel flap on the blue-green sock, in "eye-of-partridge" no less, I found it to be one of those great human observation times.
After taking a quick stroll through the rows of cattle, we wandered past the vendor section where Hubby was quickly waylaid by a seed salesman. I found some Michigan Cattleman magazines and inspected a couple trays with fresh cattle reproductive organs. (Really!!) Since our sale was ready to start, I tried to snag Hubby away, while he was finishing up ordering some seed for our voluntary hay field. It was once a corn field that lay fallow for several years until one year, it was covered with red clover. So we baled it. He is going to smooth it out and actually seed it. He put several big round bales up for sale this past year, and even with the ad coming out Easter weekend, it was all sold by Sunday.
One thing I really enjoyed, as we waited for the sale to start while they stabilized the surface of the show ring, was watching the people. I was sitting by a newbie--a woman who had just bought her first 2 cattle and was asking all sorts of silly questions. Ones that even I could answer. All around were farmers and young farm men and women--tanned, ruddy faces peering out under John Deere baseball caps. A sea of tan Carhartt coats, from brand new to those faded to almost white. And ya know? Not a since instance of Maize and Blue to be seen.