1928

Tyler joined cub scouts this year. Todd was a boy scout all the way through high school (and actually is an Eagle Scout - 5 palms) as is Todd's brother and their father.





Last night we went on a field trip to the historical society.




It was interesting, to see the pictures of what our little town used to look like 100 years ago. They had advertisements, posters, newspaper articles, and all sorts of old kitchen ware and farm equipment.


Tyler had fun having me read the articles and posters to him, until we came to this one:

I don't know how to make it so you can click to enlarge the pictures, but it says: "Home baking in most homes is no longer an economy - it is an expense that should be done away with. Baked goods from our ovens, fresh daily, have taken the place of the home bake day, freeing the housewife from hours of drudgery. Make 1928 a bakeless year in your home."

And for Tyler, who loves nothing more than fresh baked bread straight out of my oven (with butter and cinamon sugar on it of course) - he was appalled that someone would even consider this!

Interesting how times have changed, isn't it?

Kris

Tank

Last weekend, while Jason and I were riding herd on 2 kids and 5 calves at a show, Todd was enjoying some fun at a club calf auction at his uncle's farm in PA.




I'm still not convinced that I shouldn't have been at the auction and he should have been at the show. But....if I had been at the auction we would have probably spent more money. And he did get her a very nice steer - not one of the ones we were hoping to buy, but when they go for over $3,000 - that was way over our limit to start with (which is about 1/2 of that....). Jessie has to have a chance to at least break even.......



We have a game plan on this whole buying steers for the kids to show: We gave Jessie her first steer, and when she sold him at the fair, she took the money to buy herself a steer and we buy her a steer, then in the spring, she brought 2 pigs (one for State Fair and one for County Fair) and we buy 2 pigs. This year, she sold Punx and her pig and brought the steer that Todd bid on at the auction. And she has enough money to buy herself 2 pigs for next year and a little left over. We buy all the feed for all the animals, and whoever doesn't go to the fair goes into our freezer.

And Sunday, him and a friend of ours and our friends' son left our house at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m. to make the 3 1/2 hour drive one way to bring Jessie's steer home.

So I spent the day (mostly) parked in my recliner knitting up a storm. Which was all good, as I have this sweater just about done:

Another inch on the collar and I am golden. And I will be wearing this as soon as it is done! It's Collins, by Baby Cocktails. And it is an absolute dream to knit.

Until I decided about 3:30 that I should really go clean out the basement so we can get into it this fall and winter. But I had the kids to help, so the 5 yard carts of trash to the burn pile didn't take too long.

In fact, I got done just in time to welcome home:

Tank!

Who is already turning into a pain-in-the-rear because he is so friendly. We are talking you walk in the barn - and he's waiting for a scratch and a rub. You walk in the pen and he is right next to you wanting some love.

Jessie has had him out every single night - brushing on him, walking him and practicing showmanship. We are going to another show in southern Ohio on the 30th. And they have a showmanship class. And her friends are going (who incidentally placed ahead of her in showmanship at the last show), and she wants to make sure she in her A-game.

We've been sort-of taking it easy the last week and a half, but tonight, all that is going to change, as there are 2 steers going to the show on the 30th and 2 heifers.

I'm looking at it this way - if I can manage to avoid driving a vehicle going to this show, I'll get in 200 miles of knitting time:)

Later,

Kris

Harvest Choice Steer Show

This past weekend, while Todd was in PA bidding on Jessie's steer for next year, Jason and I loaded up Jessie, Tyler and 5 calves and went to a steer show in Medina.

I'm not sure if we were insane or not at the time.

We called on my parents and my brother and his girlfriend Ashley to help us out, seeing as I had to take Tyler to his last Flag Football game of the year, where he played the first half of his game and then we booked it the 30 min. away to the show.

But the kids had fun, and we are looking at going to Smithfield, Ohio (100 miles away) the end of October for another 1 day show!

Jessie showing Huey in his market steer class, and our good friend Erin showing Jason's steer class. Jessie got 3rd and Erin got 4th. And the red calf is now Tyler's steer for him to call his own and show this fall and winter!


We have a joke among us and Erin's parents, who are good friends of ours, that these 2 girls are twins born 12 years apart. We have pictures of both Erin and Jessie when Erin was Jessie's age - and the resemblance is unreal! Todd and Robin keep joking about getting DNA proof....

Jason's steer doesn't walk the greatest (which is why Tyler or Jessie didn't show him) so Erin and her sister Brittney had to do a little pushing and pulling.

Jessie showed our heifer Smokie and got 3rd in her heifer class.

Tyler showed our other heifer Famous (who Jessie showed at our county fair) and got 4th in the heifer class.

Jessie also showed Huey in showmanship and got 4th out of 12. He is something of a butthead, and likes to push her around, but she handled it!

Erin showed Jason's heifer Fabulous and got 2nd in her heifer class.

And while we were all at the steer show having fun with family and friends, Todd was in PA and bid on this guy for Jessie. Who will come home this Saturday so we can get him ready for the show the end of the month.

It was a terrific day with family and friends, a lot of work getting 5 calves ready, but also a lot of fun that included a cookout and a water fight.

Now I'm off to rush home to cook dinner for the family and get back to work for an evening meeting. Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

My New Obsession....

...and after the summer we've had....it's not a steer, or a calf... or a pig!

It's my soon to be new sweater!

I am lucky enough to be test-knitting this for Baby Cocktails, and I LOVE this sweater already. I cannot wait to be wearing it!

While it looks like I'm not very far into it, this picture was taken on Sunday afternoon....after just a little over an hour of knitting on both Saturday and Sunday.

On size 8 needles, it's flying right along.....I'm about 8 inches up the back, just a few more to go! I think all sweaters need to be knit on size 7 or larger needles.....

And yes, I can't believe I've managed 2 posts in as many days. Things have REALLY slowed down here now that the fair is over. And it helps that Jessie has "realized" that the more she is around her calves, the better they are. So her and Tyler have been doing all the feeding and cleaning out in the barn....

Wayne County Fair.....in review

Wow. That is all I can say about our County Fair this year. It was tough.

There were some fantastic steers in the show on Saturday. So we were thrilled with 2nd in her market class. And can I just ask how she can look so incredibly old while she is showing her steer? Is it the hair do (which took 2 girls almost an hour to curl it all)? Is is that she has worked with him so much that she is just comfortable with him?

This picture kind of reminds me of this one.

Showmanship class was so thrilling. She got a huge plaque to hang above her steer, but we had to return it to the fairboard on Thursday. I offered to pay for a new one to be made so that we could keep it....but no go.

All that hard work really paid off with Punx.

We just won't talk about when we sold him. The 5 of us couldn't take it. Still can't really......but that's ok cause our vet brought him, and he had to rush out of there after seeing us adults standing there while she sold her steer and we all were crying and he started crying.

If you had told me 10 years ago I would get attached to a steer, I'd have been rolling on the floor laughing.

Hamilton made it in to the fair with 5 lbs to spare.

There's Jessie in her orange shirt (that I made her) in showmanship. She was convinced it was her "lucky shirt". It certainly stood out in the ring!

She ended up with a 2nd in showmanship. The judge had it narrowed down to her and another boy, but Jessie's pig ran out of steam and wouldn't go down the fence - he liked to be out in the open. And when the judge stands in the corner of the ring 2 feet away from the fence with his back to you and wants you to get down there as fast as you can to get in front of him and your pig doesn't want to go near the fence, it's a problem.

But I'll take a 2nd in showmanship and a 3rd in her market class.

Because that just means she doesn't have to go back in for the Championship Drive and can instead run as fast as she can down to the beef ring to show her heifer. And win her age class so she can go back in and win Grand Champion Shorthorn (out of 6 animals)....

And go back into the ring and win Reserve Champion Supreme Heifer overall (out of 7 breeds) and get a really cool trophy and director's chair!

Sorry, no picture of her with her trophy and chair, because she had to turn right around and go back into the ring with Huey:

And get a 2nd in her feeder calf class (out of 10)!

She did not show her last showmanship class. Both of her calves were tired and starting to not to stand and walk like they should. And it had been a long day as she started with showing her pig and then her heifer and then Huey.

But that's ok, cause it left time for fun stuff that we caught like this:

A 17 yr. old (Jason's niece) and a 10 yr. old doing some weird sort of head bobbing side-to-side thing.....

and you should NEVER bet a 17 year old a milk shake to go up and kiss a 13 year old boy on the cheek for getting reserve champion in his division. Todd learned his lesson on that one. Which he should have known as we've been hanging out with all these kids in various barns for the last month before the fair.....

Thursday after the sale, while waiting to load up at 10 p.m. and head for home, we went to the demo derby where Jason was entered.

He won his class and went back in for the final heat, where I think he placed 4th. I keep saying I want to have a car in the demo derby.....but no one has agreed with me yet!

And Tyler had his kiddie tractor pull on Sunday.

In his age division there were 57 kids. And he had a full pull and had to go back up against the other 5 boys that had full pulls. And he ended up 4th overall. I just noticed in looking at that picture the front tires are up off the ground. How cool is that?

He did complain for the next day or so that his legs were sore.....but he had a blast!


And when all else fails and you get tired you can always lean on Jason and take a nap. And yes, she was sleeping and slept this way for about 30 minutes. We thought she was faking it at first, until he went to prop her up and walk away she about landed in a heap on the floor if he hadn't been so quick to catch her.

Then we had to amuse ourselves with lifting her head up (or her arms) and watching them roll about like limp noodles. I told him to just wake her up....but he was too nice.....and stood there while she took a nap.

It's over, the animals are sold.....and will be in somebodies freezer before too long. We survived the tornado that passed just south of the fairgrounds during the beef sale and had a memorable week.

And now? It's onto next year. We are taking this week off, but next week will keep right on working with both heifers (a friends daughter showed our other heifer and won her class and got reserve champion crossbred heifer with her) and Huey, and next week we are traveling back to PA to pick out Jessie's next year steer prospect. She made enough money at the sale to hopefully buy a really good calf and put some money in her college fund......we brought Huey for her right before the fair so.....she will have her work cut out for her!

Have a good day

Kris

Real Quick...

Jessie is still sleeping....guess these long nights are catching up with her.

She has has a FANTASTIC county fair this year.

With Punx:
2nd in her market class
Grand Champion Jr. Showmanship
"Pro Showmanship" - they take the winners from each age division (senior, intermediate, junior and beginner). She didn't "win" but the Judge told everyone in attendance that he could not place her as the winner due to her age and the fact that she has 8 years left of showing. IF she had won, she wouldn't be able to show in her age division EVER AGAIN. He did come up to us after the class and say he has never seen someone her age so good....she was definitely "with it" on Saturday.....

With Hamilton:
2nd in showmanship. Let's just say the Judge was sneaky and Hamilton ran out of steam after 20 minutes in the class.
3rd in Market Hog. There were some really, really, REALLY tough pigs in that show!

With Fancy (her black and white shorthorn heifer):
1st in the Shorthorn Jr. Calf class
Grand Champion Shorthorn Heifer
Reserve Champion Supreme Heifer overall

With Huey (the feeder calf):
2nd in his feeder calf class.


She did not show her 2nd showmanship class last night. She was getting tired and getting frustrated with Huey as he was being something of a butthead. We figured it was better off to skip it and have her fair end on a high note. Which in hindsight was a good thing - there was 27 kids in her Jr. Showmanship class. And Todd watched the class and there were calves going every which way - jumping, getting loose, etc.


We are going into the fair today. Let the kids have some fun, walk around as we haven't made it any further than the swine barn and the beef barn and take care of her animals. Tomorrow is the sale, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be rough! There have already been a few tears over having to sell these animals, and the request that we BUY them back so they can be pets (which can't be done and we wouldn't do in any case).

Have a good one!
Kris

I think she will have a rough time getting rid of him

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