Today the storm continued... Elizabeth I got up at headed to town for her first competitive cheer competition.  It was great and she learned where she needed to work harder.  They performed at 11AM and we were back on the road by 11:15AM for the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Huron so she could show rabbits at 2PM.  

Hank and Lydia did morning chores and then Lydia went to Poultry Skill-a-thon before we arrived back at the fair. 

Lydia headed over to the Dairy Barn for Dairy Showmanship.  This was something new that most people in the barn had not seen before and it took a long time.  But we made it through and Lydia performed pretty well for being in the State Fair ring for the first time.

We started preparing animals for their big show day tomorrow.  

Friday was the Open Beef Show for Elizabeth.  We were all happy with her results as she moved up a couple places compared to the rest of the summer.   She has improved in her showing so much this year but we are still learning even after 7 years. 

Then we headed over to the dairy barn to watch my 5 year old nephew show his first diary heifer calf.  It was so much fun to see him learn the ins and outs of the show ring.  

Then the storm hit!!!!  Elizabeth and I hurried to the pickup to get back to Gregory for cheer practice at 3:30PM.  From practice, straight to the football game to be the mascot and home to bed for an early morning.  

After we left Lydia participated in Poultry Showmanship and the Poultry Show.  All of her birds received purple ribbons this year which was greata!!!!  She also receeived a purple ribbon in Poultry Showmanship.

Today we spent the morning helping my brother and nephew show pigs.  The had a very successful day and are looking forward to the rest of the week. 

We are moved into the barns!  We are located in the Dairy Barn, Beef Barn, Poultry and Rabbits Barns.  The girls took the day to walk around and look in a few buildings and collect some feebies throughout the fair grounds.  They also competed in the livestock skill-a-thon.  

We got up with the sun this morning and headed to the South Dakota State Fair in Huron, SD.  We unloaded Janice the Angus heifer, Willow the Jersey heifer, (which we are crossing our fingers is still a heifer when we get home), 18 rabbits and 8 birds.  Up with the sun tomorrow for a full day of tending to animals with livestock skill-a-thon at 5PM.   

The tame plums have gone past prime however the wild plums are just thinking about getting ripe.  I hopethey will wait until I get home from fair so we can make some jelly. The trailer and the suitcases are almost packed and we leave at 7AM tomorrow.  

The girls are ready for their 9 month vacation... school!  There is always a lot of work to do in the summer and they look forward to some down time at school.  They were both ready to go this year.  However, they will only be there 3 days until we leave for the South Dakota State Fair.  We are supposed to have nive weather and hopefully not a lot of wind.  

We had a great day with grandma school shopping. We filled the back of the Jeep full of clothes and school supplies and headed home.  It is a 3 hour drive to a major shopping hub. We were lucky dad did the chores so we could slip away today. Hope everyone reading is ready for the school year.  We have State Fair right after school starts.  We call those first couple days their vacation.  

The girls attended Best of th West today and had a great time.  This is a regional show for all of the kids who get grand champion at their county fair to participate at a higher level.  The girls are usually competitive with their small animals if they win the county and yesterday did not disappoint.  Lydia was able to pull out a 3rd overall poultry at the show. She also showed her market goat which we are still learning.  Her goat didn't place but she held in their and improved her goat showmanship skills.  

The girls participated in the beef show today.  This is the hardest animal they show each year.  This year Elizabeth recieved a grant to purchase a heifer to show.  We have always struggled to get them big enough and this year that wasn't the problem they gained super fast and we worked to make them more lean all summer.  So we will try again next year.  Elizabeth and Lydia both showed improvement in showmanship but fell short with a mistake and the length of time it takes her heifer to pee and a crooked heifer in line that would not stay straight.  So we will try again.  Lydia is ready for some more prosepct calves.  Time will tell.  The girls took the afternoon to clean up a little and load everything they didn't need which was maybe a little more than should have been loaded before the premium sale.  The premium sale is always exciting.  It's like their paycheck for the summer.  

We finished the night with load outs and fairgrounds clean up and the much awaited 4-H Dance.  My girls love this time to unwind at the end of busy week and still find the energy to stay up and dayncce the night away.  

After a 5:30AM alarm for opening the fair grounds and getting the girls going on their washing of animals we were greeted with a nice rain shower that delayed the morning by 1 hour.  The girls then got started showing swine around 9AM.  The girls had great succes with a Elizabeth receiving Reserve Champion Breeding Gilt and Reserve Junior Showman.  (Read on the swine page for our swine story).  Elizabeth has greatly improved her showmanship skills this year and is looking forward to State Fair Showmanship. 

We took a bread during the sheep show.

The Swine show was followeed by the meat goat show which Lydia competed in.  This was our first year seriously showing market goats.  It was a learning curve and Lydia is hoping for some more goats next year to start her own little herd.  We will see what time brings.  

At noon we started the Dairy Goat Show which was a much needed extended lunch break but not for long as the Dairy Cow show followed.  We were at a little bit of a disadvantage this year with our two year old heifers being bred.  We made the decision to not make sure they were exactly show ready as they are bred.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of three calves.  Which for those who don't know will lead to two-a-day milkings.  (Yes my husband and I understand we grew up on dairy farms and it runs in my girls blood).  The girls received purples in the Dairy Cattle Show and Lydia received Grand Champion Showmans with Elizabeth right behind with Reserve.  

The rest of the afternoon was a much needed break.  This was the first year I let the girls skip livestock judging knowing that they would practice later this month at Best of the West.

We finished the evening with the community meal and watching the  watermelon eating contest.  The girls were to bed early knowing the beef show is coming tomorrow which brings anothe big day.  

The girls had a pretty successful day.  Elizabeth received Reserve Champion Rabbit with her homeraised Mini Lop, WET1!  Elizabeth won Grand Champion Junior Rabbit Showmanship and Lydia receive Reserve Championgh Rabbit Showmanship along with Reserve Champion Poultry Showmanship.  Lydia had a little bad luck with a crabby cat, Simon, who was not happy to leave the farm and has decided maybe she doen't need to show anymore cats (time will tell.). The girls continued their day with Fashion Revue Practice, Public Speaking Finals, STEM Challenge, Fashion Revue Show, and Ag Olympics.  It was a busy day and was only the first full day.  So on to tomorrow.