it's that time again!

The kids have their first 4-H show tonight! We're headed to the State Fair today for their pig show - hopefully will have pics later tonight! Ron won't be able to make it, as it would be too much for him, but we'll have lots of other family members around to show support for the kids!

ahh, something normal!

not on my list

You know 'the list' you make while growing up of things that you'd like to do, think you'll do or to have happen to you? I've got lots of things on that list but I can tell you one thing that is NOT, being mounted by an 800+- pound heifer in heat, nope not even a little bit on that list. Yes folks you read that correctly, I was mounted be a heifer in heat. This week we've been at the county fair and yesterday while helping get ready for shows yesterday and today I was delegated to gopher, as in "Go fer this calf or that cow." etc. taking them back and forth between the barn and wash rack. No biggie right? Well that's what I thought until I innocently leaned slightly over to untie one amorous heifer and next thing I know.... up and away she went! One of the owners came to my aid swiftly and I was not injured, thankfully. I can only imagine the E.R. visit and having to explain that! And fortunately it was me and not one of the 4-Hers. That would have been very bad. I'm told that they are only typically in what is considered "standing heat" for 18 hours and would be fine to work with today, after our encounter yesterday I was slightly skeptical. She was, in fact she was totally over it today, back to herself and as she walked by me headed to the show ring she didn't even glance my way or say "Hi!" I guess I was just a fling! ;-)

Show #1 under their belts!

Yesterday Faith and Andrew competed in their first ever dairy show. This was a pretty big show and lots of competition, and when they walked out of the ring they both said WOW, that was fun! I don't know exactly how many entries were in their classes, but Andrew went first and placed 9th of about 15-18 heifers. Faith's heifer was a bit older and went in second and was 9th or 10th out of the same number. They may have been too excited to be nervous, but as soon as the show started my stomach clamped down and I was not even competing! It was a very hot day so we were all glad that their classes were in the am so they could get back out of their show whites and into something much cooler! Let me tell you I've never seen so much pimping of cows in my life! I mean seriously, fake tails, spray paint, glue, extra grain, rosin, hair dryers, blow dryers, (yes, there is a difference!) clippers, trimmers and fake hair, all this to make a cow look "natural!" I cannot make this up! This is reality for the life of a "show cow" and it's all an attempt to make it look real. Crazy huh?! I don't get it, but the kids had so much fun!

Show day started early, we were up at 4;30am and at the fairgrounds shortly after 7am after an hour drive. That make for a long day! (Hey Andrew, got a smile to go with that swagger?)

The heifers had been prepped and re-prepped and prepped some more now it was the kids' turn. These harness type things held their numbers.

Waiting patiently to enter the ring.

More waiting, so he grabbed a brush and made the tail, excuse me switch, look fluffy, again...

Andrew's up and entered the ring. His heifer mooed all he way around the show ring, constantly.

Talking to the judge...

Headed into the final placement line up, middle of the pack! Go Andrew!

Faith's up next, and headed into the ring with an uncooperative heifer. Stubborn, man is she stubborn. I hear this tends to be the case with Holsteins...

Faith was able to get her under control and they did better after that.

Setting her up. Squaring the front feet.

Final placement line up. Middle of the pack. Go Faith!

One young girl with a huge sense of accomplishment.

Turns out that I didn't miss the 4-H show deadline like I thought, so Faith will be at the fair again this weekend showing in 4-H. And Thursday both Faith and Andrew will be showing Holsteins and Ayrshire's for a friends farm, they are excited and cannot wait to be back in the show ring. What a great experience for them.

Dairy Show Time!

For the past three days now we've been at the barn where the kids are leasing their dairy heifers and trying to get ready for the state dairy show, ugh! I say ugh, but really it's a wonderful learning experience for all of us. First off, none of us can get over how fast these girls have grown! WOW! So much so that when we walked into the barn we didn't recognise them at first, we had to check the ear tags to make sure, we couldn't believe our eyes. Then, the second day they needed to wash them. I don't know how many of you have ever washed a cow; much less a young heifer; but it was about as easy as nailing jello to a tree! I sincerely hope it gets easier as they get older, but at this point I'm thinking it'll be more like trying to wrangle an octopus! That being said, we had a nice time and the heifers were as patient as I could expect them to be given the lack of experience on all counts.

Andrew heads in first to spray them down.

Faith has just realized how much poop can be stuck to one heifer... and I don't think she was impressed...

Oddly enough Andrew's heifer was reasonably clean, ironic since he is a living, breathing Pigpen, (from the Charlie Brown comic strip!!! Literally!) but he's happy and I'll bet he gives his immune system a run for it's money! Oi vey!

Nope, not impressed. We had no carding comb, so it was picking off the dingle berries with our fingernails and/or scrubbing them off with the brush. We found a combination of both worked nicely, it just took a long time. I asked her if she wanted to do this again next year, fully thinking she'd say no, as this really was more Andrew's 'cup of tea' and his idea. Her response shocked me, she said "Yes!" but with that preteen attitude that had just a hint if 'Duh Mom' in it.

Soaking the switch (the proper name for the fluffy part of the tail) really seemed to help loosen the dingle berries, too bad we couldn't soak the entire cow!

As I mentioned above, Andrews heifer was markedly clean compared to Faiths, so he had a bit more time to walk her around and practice as if he were in the show ring. I was glad to get this picture of him, I think it's pretty much the essence if Andrew: working with his cow, on a farm, covered from head to toe, grinning from ear to ear.

I think he was 'setting her up', but in all likelihood he was probably "heifer whispering."

Finally! We get to the rinse down and not a dingle berry in sight. Let me tell you that took a particular mindset and a whole lot of determination!

It's late in the day but Faith was able to get in a bit of practice, it didn't go as well as Andrew's did, but this heifer was tired and had had ENOUGH! Faith is not as confident as Andrew and gets frustrated easier, but was able to take a breath and get relaxed enough to get a bit of 'good practice' in and ended on a good note. This heifer is also a few months older, a great deal larger and pushier. I'm sure once Faith gets to practice without her having just been maxed out things will go as smooth as they had previously. It's a nice confidence builder for her that's certain.

The show is Monday morning and it's the state show, not a 4-H show. I missed the deadline for that, and I was very upset with myself, but it just hadn't made it to the top of my priority list at that time. This show will have more competition than a 4-H show but the kids are so excited anyway and it doesn't matter to them how many people there will be, they are just happy to be able to try it. We'll be at the fairgrounds most of Sunday and Monday with the barn that owns the cows helping them do what all they need us to help with, I'm assuming we'll be on poop scooping duty again and possibly washing, brushing, grooming, feeding, etc. So it will be interesting for sure.

Oh! I forgot to mention that today the kids got to learn how to clip the heifers! I'm not kidding when I say that after washing for three hours the previous day and clipping for about an hour and a half today these kids are dedicated! I took pictures, but because if the lighting in the barn and the movement of the heifer and all they didn't come out well so I opted not to post them. I know I learned a lot about this whole process (and it's not even my project!), so I'm sure the kids did too. Now I'm off to iron the 'dairy whites' that they need to wear in the show. I'm not sure who's bright idea it was to choose a white shirt and pants to wear while having anything to do with a cow, but it is what it is, right? Talk about about crazy, don't they know cow poop splatters!

picked because they were cute

What an adventure yesterday turned out to be! It started actually many months ago when the 4-H leader said they should do a market hog as a project, ..."it's easy and a good first show project," is what we were told. So we decided to go for it, figuring why not?! I'm sort of known for acting then thinking, despite the fact that I do usually try to think things through it doesn't always happen... but I digress. So the day before yesterday the kids and I spent a great deal of time trying to teach the famous sitting pigs to walk up a ramp, the reason for this is because I do not have a trailer; stock or horse, yet. So the pigs were going to have to ride in the bed of the truck to and from the fair. I'm fairly strong but cannot pick up a pig weighing between 150-200 pounds even if it wanted to be picked up. These pigs did not. So the only way to get them to the fair was in the back of the truck and the only way to get them in the truck was to teach them to walk the plank, or ramp I built to facilitate this event. It was easier than you might think, pigs are VERY motivated by food and if you train them with food it seems to go well. So after they seemed comfortable walking up the improvised ramp and before they lost interest we stopped and anticipated the following days event. Getting the pigs to walk a much steeper incline and into an unfamiliar place.

Morning arrived and the kids and I got ready for the day, got all the things we thought we'd need for the show and an all day trip away from the farm. Staying in clothes that we'd change out of in the event that it would be messier than the day before. That was a good idea! Pig poop s.t.i.n.k.s.! I drove the truck to the pen and corralled the pigs into a corner and set up the ramp, put sides on the ramp making it more of a chute with very little room to escape and hoped this would work. Bethany, (skinny stripe) went first and needed a little coaxing, once she found the grain bin she practically hopped up into the truck, Freedom, (wide stripe) needed more convincing, I think she smelled a rat! It didn't take as long as I had anticipated and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, beginners luck I guess.

The pigs certainly could not ride in the back of the truck with out some sort of side wall height, the last thing I needed was a pig or two flying or jumping out of the back of the truck, so I used a hog panel; that worked great; and secured it with fluorescent orange ratchet straps. They'd also need cover or shade so I threw a bright blue tarp over the top and secured that to the hog panel with zip ties. I cannot imagine a more hucklebuck way to get the pigs to the fair, fortunately we didn't have far to travel. Unfortunately for the pigs, is was far enough on the back roads to make them carsick. I felt awful when I realized that let me tell you!

So we arrived at the fair and offloaded the pigs and let them settle in and chill. The kids found the 4-H leaders and had a mini clinic on how to show the pigs, did I mention this was the first show?! They had a chance to practice with the pigs before the show and it went well being their first show, both the kids and the pigs! They changed into their 'show clothes' and put the finishing touches on their 'show pigs' and the show started. They guided the pigs into the ring and away they went. Onlooking were both sets of grandparents, an aunt and cousin, two proud parents and many fair goers. The first class was showmanship. Part of showmanship it for the judge to ask random questions about your project and you are expected to know and give the answer. Both kids were in separate classes because of age, but both were asked about their pigs and gave an appropriate answer. I'm so proud of the way they carried themselves in the ring and how they handled their pigs. Not an easy task, pigs have a mind of their own and will go where they want for the most part, especially at 150+ pounds! Both kids took first place in their class and went back in to compete for grand champion and WON! I couldn't believe it! The judge talked about the confirmation of the pigs and why Freedom and Bethany were "more correct" over the competition, he talked about the butt (ham) area, length of body (bacon and loin of pork), width of shoulders, etc.

Good stuff we've got here and to think we picked them out strictly because they were cute! Although I do admit, besides the cute personality they do have the cutest butts, especially when they are jiggling while they trot away from you! Excuse me, the cutest hams!


watering the pigs and helping them to settle in...
spitshining the pigs

Aw mom... do I have to have a bath?! I'm a pig!!!

Faith's up first, entering the ring!

First place!

Andrew's up next!

Grand Champions!

Like I said, what an adventure!

It doesn't just happen in the show ring

As I mentioned before, we've been going to the dairy barn this week so Faith and Andrew can work with their calves. The goal is to eventually be able to show them in a dairy show, but that doesn't just happen. There is so much more to it than simply washing them and walking into the show ring. They are working hard on getting them ready. Not only do the kids need to work on getting the cow clean, they actually need to teach the cow to walk. I know it may seem odd, teaching the cow, excuse me, heifer calf to walk but it's an important thing for them to learn. When the judge says stop, they need to be in position within about two or three steps. Then when the judge asks you about your calf, you'd better be prepared, that all takes time and practice and a level of self confidence I've seen Faith gain already! (Self confidence has never been an issue with Andrew.) That being said, these calves are babies; 200- 450 pound babies, and they can give you an attitude. They've been known to step on feet and decide not to go where asked to go and have taken correction and redirection beautifully. Everything is new to them and it can be a big scary world out there, but in the hands of a confident handler the world isn't so bad. It's a beautiful thing to see these babies gain trust, knowledge, confidence, experience, patience and understanding. Nice to see it happen to the calves as well.

Faith leading her heifer...
...and brushing her...

Andrew leading his heifer...

...and bonding with her...

and brushing her...

and more bonding...

and more bonding...

Andrew has always been the cow nut, any type of cow he's always loved, Holsteins and Texas Longhorns being the top two, and he is really the one that wanted to join a 4-H dairy club. In fact Faith had very little interest in it but went to the first meeting because she had no choice, she had to go because I was not returning home before the meeting started. Surprisingly, she loved it and was totally on board with it and even looked forward to showing! I was floored. It's been really nice to see her try something she wasn't really into and gain a level of self confidence that she really needed.