Elizabeth had a great weekend earning two Best of Breeds with her purchased Woehl's Majestic WR106 and a home grown junior doe!   All of her rabbits represented her well.   She has some young ones coming up that will be great on the show table but too many to keep.  She will have some bunnies for sale in the next couple weeks.  When we returned home she had to say good-bye to some old timer rabbits. Mike went to the sell line this week, after 3 years of breeding winners.  While Woehl's WR143 will be taking his place. Liz was hoping to have a homegrown buck but her solids are all interesting colors this year and we are little nervous about color genetics if we stray to far from the beaten path.  

We have 10 feeders for sale in about 2 weeks. They are on feed and weigh about 25lb. Let us know if you are interested.  (605)830-5234 or (605)830-1176. 

The girls had a busy week with Homecoming Activities but we have made it through and rabbit shows are around the corner. 

Elizabeth has had a great fall being the Gregory Gorillas!  She is done with her home games and hoping for some playoff games!

Lydia has been improving with each meet and is hoping to run again next year!   She is looking forward to basketball season and has started her daily barn time!

The girls have been competing throughout the fall and are improving with each practice!  Lydia is anxiously waiting until she can join next year!

I was doing some more canning and made one last flower arrangement for the season. I have a juicer on the way for some tomato juice. 

Today we put on a different hat!  Lydia had her first cross country meet in our hometown of Gregory.  Even after running daily during the South Dakota State Fair it turned out to be quite a tough race.  She learned a lot and is ready for the next one.  

Mom made her day today getting the rabbit barn put back together and mapping the barns. 

We had award day for the kids in the small animal barn!  They received their showmanship and skill-a-thon awards.  Elizabeth had her 4-H Rabbit Show (if you are keeping track, this is show 3 for the rabbits).  Elizabeth's rabbits did their best showing in this show.  The judge took her time and was really posing the rabbits.  Of course the rabbit we were going to cull placed first in class and Elizabeth again wants to keep her.  WET1 has been a barn farvorite but she has attitude and sometimes she will show herself off and sometimes she just wants to be a lop.  Unfortunately some of Elizabeth's rabbits rubbed their faces off on their pens during the heat a couple days before fair.  

Lydia ran to Dairy Skill-a-thon froom the awards pictures and did an amazing job even though she thought she did "horrible", She placed 3rd in Dairy Skill-a-thon.  It looked like this girl has been living on a dairy farm all her life when in reality our first heifers are about to calve.  She is exctied about the fair again and has found a new passion to match her birds.  

Then it was a quick tear down by 1:30PM and we sent Hank down the road by 3:00PM.  Tearing down 4 barns is a lot and moving out is a lot.  Hank and Lydia tore down the dairy barn while I tore down the beef barn and hauled it to the end of the barn.  When the trailer came around to the beef barn, Lydia and I headed over to start collecting birds from the poultry barn.  Once the brids were collected and loaded everyone remembered that the mat was still in the dairy barn.  The girls and I told Hank we would handle it and he headed out.  Even when you get home the trailer needs to be unloaded.  

The girls and I went and finished looking at the rest of the buildings we didn't get a chance to walk through before the showing frenzy started on Friday. We are so lucky to be able to stay at a house in town with Hank's cousin so we headed over there to finish loading everything up.  We stopped and grabbed some food and headed out of town.  We had to grab a trailer and 4 Wheeler on the way home at the repair shop and made it home as the sun was setting on the day.  It was a beautiful ending to the South Dakota State Fair.  

We arrived at the gate of the South Dakota State Fair at 5:45AM and brought Elizabeth's heifer in to be rinsed.  Then to the shoot it went to get dried, glued, filled, and painted. (If you are a first time 4-H family check out the beef page for more information on this).  We also fed Janice the cow and Elizabeth the 4-H member before Elziabeth changed her clothes and was ready for the show ring.  

Meanwhile, Hank and Lydia were in the Dairy Barn getting ready for the Dairy Show.  Thankfully my brother, Jake, who is a great dairy showman was able to hel them prepare for the show.  

I went over and checked on Willow and Lydia but quickly realized the girls would be going in the ring at almost the exact same time.  I ran back to the beef barn, thankfully next door but a huge building and requested help from Maggie, our 4-H summer assistant to stand with Elizabeth.  Then back to the dairy barn to catch Lydia walking in the ring.  I took a couple photos and then ran back to the beef barn to get Elizabeth in the ring at the right time.  She did great however Janice was a little more spritely today and decided for the first time ever she would hop around in the ring.  Elizabeth held on tight and held it together.  She placed in the middle of the class and for our family that is a great place to be.  Wins aren't always about the trophy or banner.

Back to the pig barn to watch and help Bradley and Sam with the pigs for his show.  Unfortunately when the time finally came the pigs were going in the same time as Lydia for Dairy Showmanship.  

Lydia made it worth everyones time to run over and see her by winning Reserved (2nd) place junior in the 4-H show!!!! Awesome for her first time showing dairy on this big of a stage.  

While all this crazy was happening Elizabeth went and participated in Rabbit Showmanship without mom and dad's help and also performed amazingly!!!!  She received Reserve (2nd) Junior Showman with her rabbits out of 50+ kids!!!!  We are so proud of her.  

Then at 5PM the 2nd Rabbit Show of the week took place!  The Jackpot Show!