Fair Week--Thursday

If its Thursday, that means dairy day. For years my sons showed dairy cows for 4H, even though we have beef cattle. The 4H leader was the mother of their best friends and they spent most of each summer helping them on their dairy farm. (More fun helping there, than at home.) And dairy day at the fair starts off with...washing cattle. This year, Katie is the leader instead of her mother and she is starting with a new crew of 6 youngsters. Only her son had shown before. So here is the latest in my yearly batch of washing Jersey heifer pictures. I'm not sure, but there may just be a set of people legs there, scrubbing calves.

Of course I started with my farmers muffin--the Farm Bureau Cheese Booth's version of an Egg McMuffin, with ham and eggs cooked on a grill with a grilled English muffin and cheese, plus a large hot coffee. Luckily, this year, the weather cooled off drastically after the Wednesday night rain. I was able to wear my handknit hoodie (Wallaby is the name of the pattern, by Cottage Creations) in Cascade cotton yarn. It felt pretty good in the shady side of the show arena.

Here are some pictures from the show. Some of Austin, who had showed before, but still found time to mug for cameras instead of watching the judge. Second shot shows him back watching the judge. but chewing gum. Oh well, he as a few years ahead of him before he has to worry about the Grand Slam for the champion showmen.

And here are Austins younger brother and sister. They moved fast so were hard to capture. Lydia became my best bud and had many hugs and lots of conversations with me throughout the week.

This year, the show was a little muddled feeling. Where usually after showman ship there are 2 rings of breed judging, this year we had one judge and all the Holsteins were judged and then the "protein breeds"--the Jerseys and Brown Swiss. And both the 4H youth show and the Open class show, where farmers can bring in cattle from home to show were also combined. So each group that was judged had 2 winners, youth and Open. Sometimes the same person, sometimes 2 different. Not that I am prejudiced, but the judge didn't seem to be a fan of the Jersey breed if he had another option. But Bill, uncle to these other cute munchkins, did do OK for himself, winning Adult Showmanship.

After the dairy show ended, I checked out the goats for sale, for a friend of course. and then I had to hall sit. Since I am a member of the historical committee, when our building was open I would take a turn watching the building and exhibits. We had made a display looking like an old country school. We also had a picture board with pictures of old county schools and class pictures. I always take m spinning wheel and this year, over 2 nights, got almost 2 full bobbins. This time I spun a bag of October Sky colorway wool roving. While I was there, Kate came in. She had attended the small animal auction and ended up winning a bag of fleece. It was from a lamb and not a long staple, but nice. I will be going next weekend to the Michigan Fiber Festival and can leave it the fiber mill to process, saving postage. Luckily I was unable to attend, or I would have bid up the black fleece.

And after more fair food, end of 2nd day at the fair.

Oh, did I mention, my boss/friend Sandy came in after I had mentioned the goats for sale. She ended up possibly buying a black llama and 2 pygmy goats. The goats, Bob and Cissy, will come home after Cissy gives birth and weans her babies.

Am I a bad influence or what?

Its getting late, I will catch up tomorrow.

Fair Week--Wednesday

What a busy week. I was only at the fair half a week this year, but boy was it a full week. In an effort to prevent huge posts, I will try to make a few posts, with only a days worth of activities.
Wednesday I left work at 2:30 and trucked on over to the fairgrounds. Of course with all the road construction in town, I ended up detouring just to go the first 2 blocks. What a pain road construction season (Michigan summer) is this year. Even in town.

When I got there I made a quick wander around and through. I saw most of the people who would want to come to the Grease Fest on Friday and reminded them. (You will hear about that on Friday's recap.)

Ate fair food and was going to watch the Farm Olympics. This is where couples compete in an obstacle course interspersed with various tasks--measuring 20 pounds of oats, bale tossing, hanging a gate and other odd and ends. One team member pulls the other in a racing sulky, stopping at each task. Here is a picture from when Oldest Son competed a couple years ago. Then I noticed a huge black cloud approaching. I ducked into the dairy barn instead and while the black cloud went over quickly, shortly afterward the rain came. It poured. After the rain stopped, I decided to just go home, although the Olympics did finish later in the show arena. For some reason they didn't want to continue in the open with people on metal bleachers, in case of further showers and lightening. I went home and collapsed.
End of first (half) day at fair. Tomorrow the dairy show.

Countdown to Fair

Today and yesterday I have put in long shifts at the library, so I can have the last half of the week off for the fair. I can hardly wait. Today I am putting in 10 hours, after a 7.5 hr shift yesterday (substituting in Local History) and the last 5 hours tomorrow. Then on the the farm. Farmers Muffins, grilled cheese--my favorite fair time meals, and only available one week a year, at the Farm Bureau Cheese Booth.
There is nothing like sitting in a barn, surrounded by the waiting animals---chickens crowing, goats bleating, milk cows lowing and wanting a walk. Kids bleary-eyed in shorts and over-sized sweatshirts carrying buckets of feed. And enjoying it all, I'm on a bench munching a farmers muffin and sipping hot coffee.
Did I say I can hardly wait?
On other news, I am working away at the Shapely Tee and almost have bust shaping done. I am not going out all the way to my cup size, as the belly does tend to stick out as well, minimizing the difference. I also stopped by my favorite LYS--who really only sells online and to friends. I picked up a bright batch of Karaoke roving--bright rainbow colors. Will be fun to spin. I also got a batch of roving from Spunky Eclectic--I recently joined the fiber club but this a batch of hand dyed BFL, color way Venus from the Galaxy series. It is over-dyed on colored fiber and I love it. I hope to spin it soon--maybe at the fair.
As though I don't have enough fiber already. Where did I hear that recently? Oops, it was from me.

Spinning Time

We had a good time at spinning guild yesterday afternoon. We ended up with a good sized crowd by the end of the time.
I have almost got a full bobbin of the peach merino I got last week. SO lofty and soft.
I am getting inspired again and am thinking about going to the Michigan Fiber Festival again. Like I need any more fiber.
Hmmmm. Well. maybe just a spindle or something.

Fair Week is Almost Here

Spent last evening setting up our historical display for the county fair. This historical committee has a display in one of the buildings and the theme this year is "Country School Days". We have some old style school desks with the seat and flip top desk on runners. A blackboard, picture of George Washington, and a pile of good old Dick and Jane books. With my new job at the library, I was able to obtain pictures of many of the old schools and class pictures. One of them is a 1895 football time at the local high school. I also have the picture of the building that looks like an old feed mill, that housed the first school on the upper floors. I fixed up a board displaying pictures and labels on both sides that I think will be a hit.
As always our building also houses some antique tractors and I think we are having someone bring in an old plow. Last year our best of show was a 100 year old manure spreader with a working wooden apron--clean and odor less but really cool.
As a result of fair week being upon us, I probably will not be online much this week. I do have to work Monday (an extra day!!) thru 2:30 Wednesday. Then I will be fair bound.
Oh--the farmers muffins and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches from the cheese booth are caling my name.!!