Thursday morning started out with rabbit showmanship. Maria had to show she knew how to handle her rabbit and that it was healthy and cared for. Hailstone didn’t like being turned over, but none of the rabbits did. The judge gave the whole class some tips at the end.
Then there was the long, long wait for the breed show. You had to just wait for your breed to come around on the program, and we spent hours hanging around. It was cooler and more comfortable in the goat barn.
When Maria’s turn finally came, the judge spent no more than five minutes looking at Hailstone and comparing her to her breed standard. She didn’t place, and Maria suspects her sun-faded highlights.
Friday was pet rabbit day, complete with cage decorating and costume contest. Snowball showed well, as usual, and Maria even improved her place from last year. For the cage contest, there was some serious competition. “The Rat in the Hat” had his tank all decorated like Whoville… and he wore a stripy hat. Snowball ran for president, as an independent, I am told. His speech was excellent, even without a teleprompter.
For the costume contest, Maria was a pharaoh and Hailstone was her revered cat. The rabbit next to her was supposed to be a taco. He kicked his tortilla apart and ate all his lettuce.
Both kids really enjoyed the week, and not just because of all the ribbons.
We got home from the reunion and the very next morning moved the goats over to the fair. They ate their original pen decorations, so this is take two. They really liked having that hay bag all to themselves all week, but were less excited about the small pen.
Maria participated in goat showmanship Monday night and the rabbit skillathon on Tuesday, but the best part of the week was Wednesday: the pack and cart competitions. Maria trained Flash to wear a full harness and pull a wagon Jeff built. She had to lead him around the ring in a few different directions, including backwards.
We thought that was what she had to do, anyway. The judge said that a first year goat and first year exhibitor would only have been expected to lead on a leash, no harness, no wagon, even. The judge was so impressed with Maria that she gave her a hug.
After that came the pack goat obstacle course, which has long been my favorite event of the fair. Maria was excited to see the teeter-totter; she knew Flash liked that one.
One of the tough obstacles every year is walking through the branches without stopping to eat. For goats this is like Uncle Rick not stopping for someone handing out free bacon.
But even worse is the water trough. Goats HATE getting their feet wet. The evening before the event, Maria and Adam were trying to practice in the puddles behind the poultry barn. Flash and Crash were making spectacular, arcing leaps to avoid the puddles the children were trying to drag them through. During the competition, they both went through with only a little argument. (Of course, other goats had spilled out most of the water by then, but don’t tell anyone…)
Adam did not do as much specific training with his goat as Maria did. His philosophy was that he would ask Crash to follow him and Crash would. Dang if it didn’t work for most of the course.
The one thing they worked on a lot was the hay bale jumps, but the first jump in the series was a broomstick, which Crash just walked through (kinda like he does when I’m trying to clean!) and he climbed over the hay bales. He didn’t stop to eat them though, which was Adam’s worry.
When all points and times were tallied, Adam and Crash won fifth place out of something like 20 entries. Pretty good for a first time out!
Then there was a surprise at the end: a goat fun show, which included a costume contest (little goat on the prairie won), a game of musical goats (touch a goat when the music stops) and parent showmanship. Maria insisted. I won my first 4H ribbon for it. 🙂
The children made the most of our recent three day weekend. Adam had his first non-cousin sleepover at a friend’s house. It was his friend’s first sleepover as well. Neither of them slept comfortably. 🙂 From what he said, he and Ben (whose father’s name is Mike- not kidding!) mostly did the same stuff Adam does around here by himself, like messing around with a ball while listening to an audiobook. But they did it together, which made all the difference, and was worth the interrupted sleep.
Maria made dinner for us on Saturday. She’d been craving twice-baked potatoes, so she made those with the Christmas kale salad on the side. The whole thing was her idea, mind you. She did a great job. It was delicious and we enjoyed it greatly. I also enjoyed the fact that she accidentally used chard instead of kale in the salad. Turns out it’s good that way, too, but if you know Maria you know how she feels about swiss chard!
On Sunday she decided to make a quilt. I confess to thinking this was going to go the way of many of her ideas and end up being unfinished, discarded, and cleaned up by me. Instead, she stayed with it, planning it well one day and sewing the top together the next. It was a perfect project size for a weekend, and with the piecing done, can be put aside and quilted slowly over the next few.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
If you’re interested, here is the Kale apple and pancetta salad recipe that has been so popular here this winter. Obviously, bacon can be substituted for the pancetta for those of us with house payments instead of yacht payments, and now Maria has proven that chard can be substituted for kale. It’s a great balance of flavors… kind of like a successful patchwork quilt top. 🙂
Adam does not approach his birthday party the same way as Maria does. She likes to arrange activities and decorations. He just wants dessert and a mob of children or game adults to play sports with him. It’s tough when you are the only really athletic person in the family.
Among other things, he got a rebounder soccer net so the ball will bounce back to him. For the day of his party, though, he and his cousins used the big net and played until they were sweaty. He loved it.
Adam didn’t have cake this year; he wanted trifle. It was significantly reduced by the time I got a picture. (Actually, this isn’t even supposed to be a picture of the ‘cake’, but I don’t remember what silly thing Tara was doing when I took this. 🙂
I think Adam was hoping for lots of leftovers, but the trifle was demolished by the time everyone went home. I think it was all that soccer playing .
With Halloween on a Saturday this year, there was an opportunity for Kettner and Lane cousins to be together for trick-or-treat, something that hasn’t happened in years. Grammie and Papa were sorely missed, especially since we went the rounds from their house. They have the only real door-to-door sort of neighborhood. The kids had a great time together. I’m not sure any one of the four ever stopped talking the entire time.
Adam went as Hockey Death, his own creation obviously, but it really worked. He looked good, and now he has a goalie mask to wear when he plays in the basement. Bonus!
Maria went as the White Witch from Narnia. The original intention was to go as a group with Zoe and Ben as the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but there appeared to be difficulties with the wardrobe. Ba-dum-bump.
Zoe was a mummy, the best I’ve seen. The jewels and gold wrapped into the sheets were perfect. Maria’s crown stands out better in this picture, too. It’s just baling wire, but it looks great, just like the illustration in her book.
Jack was an assasin. I think he was a particular, named assasin, but I never quite caught the name. Each time it was said while he ran past me. He looked good, whoever he was! Assassins should be incognito, right?
Now that you’ve seen the posed pictures, the one below comes a little closer to how the evening actually played out: talking instead of looking for cars, tripping over sidewalks, hoods in the face, etc. They had a great time.
Fair week actually started last week for us, since the Food and Nutrition interviews are done early. Maria took a Quick Breads project and Adam did Grill Master. Both really enjoyed their projects and learned a lot. More importantly, they fed me for a change. 🙂 The interview itself was a learning experience, too, but the major lesson was to always look online just in case there are extra requirements not mentioned in the project books! Maria walked in with a scrapbook and a basket of muffins, and Adam with a notebook, and we saw children laying out whole tablescapes and meals. We were completely unprepared, but they impressed me. Both did very well with the actual interview, and although Maria had to go to the library to recover while waiting for Adam to take his turn, neither of them let it ruin their day. Walking to the ice cream shop after may have helped a little.
They didn’t have any other interviews or shows until Friday, but we spent a lot of time watching. Maria has big plans for next year and wanted to see all the events she was considering participating in. We saw goat showmanship, alpaca breed classes, pack goat courses, rabbit showmanship, and of course a few horse shows. I am sure there was more, but the big finale was the small animal show. There were competitions for showmanship and cage decorating. Here are my favorite entries:
Adam and JeromeSnowball the space bunny
I got to sit waaaay back here in the parent section. It was the same way with the food project interviews, but this time I didn’t have to sit at the back silently willing them to be OK with the situation and not sink into the floor. Whew.
Nosebleed seats
They waited a good hour for their turns, during which time Maria sat perfectly still and watched the others while Adam crawled all over the floor and fidgeted. Jerome mostly looked confused.
Can you tell me what is going on please?This little piggy went to market…Adam introducing JeromeMaria gestures while the judge strokes SnowballThis little piggy stayed home…
Did I mention that these children interview well? They were full of smiles and confidence.
Both got A’s on their interviews and when the scores were all tallied, Adam got a fifth place ribbon for his class and Maria got a second. Maria also won the cage decorating contest with her spaceman theme. She made a cardboard rocketship for Snowball to hide in, hung stars from the top of the cage, added some plastic aliens, and had a background with the motto ‘One small hop for a rabbit, one giant leap for Lagomorpha’. How could anyone pass that up? She got the trophy for best theme and the overall champion ribbon.
Maria rode in the cargo area with her rabbit
They both enjoyed the rabbit project a great deal. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how it would go at the beginning, but Maria in particular has really taken to it. In fact, she plans to expand into the breed show next year. Yesterday she bought a pedigreed MIni Rex at the end-of-fair sale. Introducing Hailstone:
Both of our children went to bed early last night, having somehow caught germs while being away from school. They were off for a whole week due to snow and cold (our new low is -14 degrees). We had a break over the weekend, but school is delayed today since it was still -6 when the Jr. and High schools were due to get on the bus.
The goats had frost in their beards again, but everyone survived the night, including Maria, whose side hurts, whose throat hurts, whose head hurts, whose eyes hurt, who only wants a piece of toast for breakfast, didn’t drink her tea and said she wasn’t allowed to bring it with her, went out into -3 degrees to wait for the bus in tights and dress shoes, refusing to wear the scarf and gloves that I was trying to put on her as she went out. “Mommy! I’m fine!”
Adam, on the other hand, has accepted that he has a cold, and is enjoying his breakfast in his pajama pants while reading Danny Dragonbreath, going through tissues and coughing germs all over the place. He still doesn’t have to catch the bus for over an hour.
Perhaps the chickens and goats would be this dramatic, too, if they could talk. I’m very thankful they can’t!
We had our first snow day of 2015 on Tuesday, so when the snow stopped, I had the kids come out with me to help shovel. Their technique has not improved much since last year. Adam shovels randomly, and doesn’t have much staying power. He needs to wear his snowpants to shovel snow because he will be rolling in it long before the job is done. (I’m still not sure why he put out the orange cones. He said it was for football…in the snow…in the driveway.) Maria, who is untidy in every other way, goes over and over the same ground, picking up every tiny bit of snow that falls from the shovel. I guess that makes her hungry. Her theory is that if you eat only the top layer of snow, it doesn’t matter that it’s from the driveway. Amazingly enough, we actually got done before Jeff came home. 🙂
The weather stations here are predicting up to 1/4 inch of freezing rain accumulation overnight. We may have to test out the children’s ice-chipping skills next…
There’s always some catching up to do on the website this time of year, isn’t there?
Goodbye, Bob and Robert!
Eunice’s babies sold in July. They went to go be pasture buddies to a mare. We had four bucklings, and somehow all of them got permanent homes, and both sets of twins got to stay together. The children are very happy that none of the babies got eaten. Now that we’re getting all the milk, I’ve been having to learn to make a lot more cheese. I’ve gotten the hang of mozzarella and chevre, feta and ricotta, and am trying cheddar. It has to age a few weeks before eating, and we’ve only just been able to open the first one. It was quite edible. Eunice is difficult to milk, but has been giving a gallon each day, and Lois milks easily and is giving two quarts. Adam quit drinking milk when we got the goats, so there’s plenty to experiment with.
Zoe milking Eunice. Zoe decided that she’s a righty for everything else, but a lefty for milking.Swimming at Cowan Lake. It was so funny watching Zoe turn to kick-splash Maria when she got tired of her face getting wet… JUST like her mother and I used to do at their age.
Amy and I traded a kid for a week after Maria’s birthday and it was fun having Zoe around for a longer stint. Usually I see her in the craziness of a shorter visit, when the cousins are trying to fit as much into the day as they possibly can. Instead of Zany Zoe, I got to meet Zen Zoe, and she’s pretty cool. We went ribbon shopping and made aprons with Grammie, went swimming, took walks, milked goats, played games, and all sorts of good stuff.
Maria and Zoe making coffee cake in their new pink and blue muffin tea-towel aprons.
July was a bit of a blur. There was Nana Whalen’s funeral in Florida, Josh Lane’s wedding in Michigan, the county fair and then the state fair. Adam got a second place ribbon for his archery project, and Maria got a first for her interior design project. We teased her about being first of one again (I guess she keeps taking unpopular projects) but the judges must have really liked it, because she got an invitation to compete at the state level. She interviewed again, and got a participation ribbon and an ‘Outstanding of the Day’ ribbon. We think that means she did well…she read somewhere that the ‘Outstanding’ ribbon is given to the top 20%. She learned a good bit, enjoyed the project, and just had a great experience. The state fair was huge, with tons of food vendors, shopping booths, and rides, but no goats. It did have a giant cow made of butter surrounded by Ohio symbols made of butter. Literally a ton of butter. Hmm. Barring future invitations, I think I’ll stick to the county fair.
For Adam’s display we took pictures of him demonstrating the steps involved in shooting an arrow. I like this one a lot.
We just finished up the first week of school, and this is the toughest beginning we’ve had in a while. Maria is in 7th now (yikes!) and has to catch the bus at 6:15am. Even if the kids still let me take first day pictures, it would be too dark! She’s struggling with it. Luckily, she really likes her teachers and subjects. So does Adam. He never thought he’d like another teacher again after the gem he had last year, but now that he’s met this year’s teachers he is enthusiastic.
Between the coolest August in memory and an extra early beginning to the school year, the transition between summer and fall is a little skewed here, and it’s hard to believe that the children already have homework and I haven’t harvested a single red tomato from the main crop plants. Oh well, it’s an odd and interesting world isn’t it? It must be to contain that butter cow.
EICIE 