County Fair

I actually remembered to bring my camera along to our county fair this year.

I am finally getting around to posting these pictures.

Elijah showed this little Holstein-Jersey crossbred calf.

 Ruby was so excited about showing this little Milking Shorthorn this year;

it was all she could talk about for weeks.

Then, the morning of the dairy show, all her confidence dissolved in a puddle 

of uncertainty and we were left with this face.

The picture didn't focus correctly, but you can still see what I mean.

She settled in after just a bit of time in the ring.

At her age, 4Hers are required to have an adult with them in the ring.

I have several to choose from, haha.

Nathaniel was Ruby's adult.

(It does sometimes feel weird to me that I have "adult" children...)

 Mr. Christopher had a round of anxiety to begin with as well,

and it was my fault.

His white show pants somehow got left home; I still don't know how it happened

though if I were a betting woman, I'd say it had something to do

with the number of 4Hers I have showing, the number of cows to milk at home before the show,

the number of children I have who are not yet old enough for 4H,

and the number of miles we live from the fair grounds.

It seems likely, anyhow.

 Isaiah has a special affinity for colored breeds of dairy cattle.

This little shorthorn earned him a trip to the state fair.

 Elizabeth 

 Ivy 

 Abram

 Isaiah and Linnea each showed a Jersey

 These two little boys were too stinkin' CUTE.

Abram is in the gray shirt and Colby is in green.

Colby's mama used to show in our county, too.

Full circle...

 Monkey see, monkey do.

 One of my favorite pictures.

Andrew with his dry cow, Ingaborg.

 Monkey see, monkey do. :)

 4H friends!

 Linnea showed Grandpa Wayne's horse Princess.

Between the dairy show, the horse show and the sheep show, 

she kept me moving.

 Cece likes to do "SO BIG".

 baby teeth...

 Christopher and Elijah enjoyed watching the horse games.

Isaiah and Linnea each went to the state fair,

Isaiah with his heifer and Linnea with her sheep.

Only eight months until we do it all over again!

Snow Baby

Winter came and stayed a little earlier than usual

for our neck of the woods.

My kids have not complained--

they look forward to winter.

Sledding, snowmen, sledding, snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, 

and sledding!!

Elizabeth was excited to go out and play, too.

The snow was especially swirly on the day I took these

and kept blowing in her eyes.

"Snow in mine eyes, Mama!"

She likes to lick the snow off of her gloves

and knows the rule about colored snow. ;)

Happy Birthday, Linnea

Happy 14th birthday to my horsey girl Linnea. 

You are a great help to me and I appreciate you. 

I love your honesty, your courage and your spunk.

(a picture of a picture, since Linnea was born before the digital age.)

Elizabeth has been wanting to wear a hat lately.

I don't wonder why.

Wordless Wednesday: A Boy & a Butterfly

Something New

Linnea won a trip to the State Fair again this year.

(click here  and here to see her trip from last year.)

She tried something new for our county fair with showing a sheep

and that is what she won her trip on.

Linnea and "Stevie"

It was a new experience to have a project in the sheep barn.

Abram was and is pretty brave around any of our animals.

I don't have any pictures of the kids getting ready for the fair with any

of their other projects (my camera lens was broken)

so these pictures are courtesy of the friend of ours who owns the sheep.

As I was saying,

Abram liked the sheep.

Linnea left on Wednesday morning and will be back late Sunday night.

Dennis and Elijah are going down with my parents tomorrow

because our club's musical entry also won a trip to the State Fair.

Elijah is very excited to see the event of which he has only heretofore heard stories!

Isaiah will leave on Sunday morning

as his state fair trip was earned with a non-livestock project.

He made a bow out of some sapling branches.

I don't have a picture of it,

but if it concerns Isaiah, it's very difficult to get a picture.

I am glad for the ability to text the kids when they are away from home;

when I was a kid at something like this, there was no way to communicate like there is now.

It's much more reassuring for both kid and parent, in my opinion!

Thankfully, both Linnea and Isaiah have had jobs this summer

that have provided for their expenses at the fair.

I wish I could have gone down tomorrow 

but someone needed to stay home here with the littles

and for the kids handling the farm work while Dennis is gone for the day.

Also, I'm pretty sure I would not have had the energy

to navigate the masses of people and the sprawling fairgrounds.

I hope my mom takes a few pictures so I can see a little of what they were up to!

Farm Dogs

I tend to think that farm dogs are different than town dogs.

Basically, a farm dog's job is to bark when someone drives in the yard and when animals are where they aren't supposed to be.

It is expected that they will tolerate the kids' attention

and it's a bonus when they enjoy the kids' attention.

Our dogs do not come in the house (except for when Molly's being a big wimp and she pushes her way in during a thunder storm) so when the kids play outside, the dogs generally come close for some lovin'.

We currently have two dogs, Molly and Copper.

Molly is our smart dog and Copper, well, notsomuch.

When Molly is tired of the attention, she leaves.

Copper never tires of the attention and he never leaves--

he pushes in even closer.

Abram likes to pet Copper and Copper knows that this is a good way to get some attention.

The problem is that it stops Abram's swing from swinging and Abram gets mad.

Abram then pushes against Copper with his foot so he can kind of swing, but he pretty much just ends up bumping against Copper.

Copper doesn't get the message, Abram gets mad, Mom has to yell to the dog to get away.

Elizabeth was just about to fuss at me to "hep" her get up on the "hi-ya" (higher) swing, that's why her face is like this.

The older kids were all gone the day I took these and I tell you, it feels weird to "only" have three to take care of and watch.

It's sort of a reprieve and more work all at the same time.