The County Fair

We have spent the whole summer preparing for this past week. 

The County Fair! 

First, Derek, Kelli and Brady entered chickens. Derek's speckled sussex "Speck" won Reserve Grand Champion for large breed birds! Derek was so pumped. He wore his purple ribbon all day. He spent a lot of time in the chicken barn checking on and finding extra corn kernals on the ground for his 'ladies.' 

All the other chickens got blue ribbons. 

Brady and "Lellow Lightning Mcqueen."

Kelli with her black one, called "Blueberry" or "Oscar".

But the biggest project has been our 4-H Market Lamb project. As a youth I participated and we wanted our kids to participate. Thinking it would be good life lessons, teach them how to work and how to do difficult things.

Kelli and Derek worked really hard all summer preparing the lambs. We tagged 2 lambs in Kelli's name, which she showed at the fair, but for most of the summer one lamb was Kelli's and one was Derek's. Derek really helped Kelli with the lambs a lot. 

This picture is of Kelli holding the lamb while the judge is feeling the lamb. She is doing a great job here. The lambs head is up, so it can't move and she is standing in front of the lamb. Also note that the lambs back legs are stretched out nice and even to show off it's "leg of lamb."

In early June we started by getting the lambs to walk with a halter. Which can be hard and funny at the same time. The lambs typically don't want to cooperate, they will dig in their heels and sometimes even lay down and refuse to move. When we started the lambs weighed about as much as the kids.

Kelli is walking her lamb around the ring. She has a good grip on the lamb so it won't get 

away, because she isn't using the halter.

After the lambs are getting more tame and leading well we start getting them used to us holding their head, touching their backs and legs. 

Kelli's lambs weighed 114 and 111 pounds. They were both boys named Fresca and Squirt.

Later in the summer we started having practice shows where someone was the judge and we had to maneuver our lambs around the ring, making sure we watch the judge and keep the lamb in between us and the judge. We had a variety of judges for example: Me, Jake, Kelli and Derek. Lola was a judge. A pole was the judge a few times and the cat Patches did a good job. 

This picture is one of the highlights of the fair. Kelli's lamb Fresca was placed second and got to come back to the star class. They took the top two lambs from each weight class (20 classes) to the star class to pick the grand champion.

We were so excited!! When this class was over she ran and gave Grandpa Doug a huge hug. Grandpa Doug was excited to see his lamb and granddaughter show well!

Fresca weighed 114 pounds and to place really well it needed to be 20 pounds heavier. So it placed third from last in the star class. But we don't care about that, it was just awesome to make it!

I also want to point out that Kelli is checking the lambs legs to make sure they are set up right. (Good Job Kelli!) Which is should be stretched out like a rectangle. 

It was a hot and long day. Kelli was ready to crash and change her clothes. But it was great!

Notice the lamb's legs are set up nice, it's back is long and straight and it's belly isn't too fat!

This is where our lambs stayed at the fair. We sheered them and washed them. We trimmed their legs and cleaned their armpits and ears. Then we put a blanket on them to help keep them clean.

On Friday was Fitting and Showmanship show. This show is all about the 4-H Exhibitor and how well they have taken care of their lambs. How well they have trained them and how well they show them. Kelli did great in this show too. She took 4th!! She really held on to her sheep so it didn't get away. She held it in a headlock, next year she will be stronger! This picture is of the judged teaching her which knee to put in front of the lamb to help control it.

Derek worked almost as hard as Kelli. He learned about as much also. He was able to show his lamb in the Pre-4-H show. He decided to use a halter but he sure could have done it without. He walked his lamb around the ring and got some prizes.

 I really like how well he is holding the lamb by the head. He liked it too!

It was a great weekend! Long and hot but great! We got lots of ribbons and a little prize money too. I was so proud of my whole family. Kelli worked so hard and did so well. Derek had fun with the chickens. Brady was a good sport for all the running around. Lola was a champ. And Jake supported all of us! He learned a lot too. He even spent some time in our practice shows.

We were all ready to relax on Sunday!