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.  

The girls took their small animals to the fair today along with their pigs and goats.  They showed their poultry which included Rhode Island Red Single Comb Bantams in the Clean Leggeed, Single Comb Class, Belgium D'Uccles in the feather legged class and some standard birds such as Buff Orpington (English Class), Rhode Island Reds (American). Lydia took Grand Poultry with her bred, incubated, hatched, and home rased Rhode Island Red Bantam pullet.  This was a huge accomplishment for her.  She took Reserve Poultry with her Mille Fleu,r Belgium D'Uccle cockerell, which we purchased this year form a breeder in Nebraska.  What a great evening!  Tomorrow is the rabbit and cat shows along with poultry showmanship.  See you tomorrow.  

The girls have been showing dogs sin e they were 6 on and off.  This project is teaches the kids a great skill of how to train a dog. Maybe not the success we were looking for but improvements were made by all. 

Elizabeth stayed home for the State Softball Tourney and did chores so this week is her turn.  She has grown so much this year in her showing. We had a great week. Mom and Liz had to unload, setup and load by ourselves with a little help from my brother who was there with is some showing pigs.  

Hank found the time to coach Lydia’s softball team for the last 4 years and it has paid off!   They have a great team!

fashion revue has helped my girls confidence while teaching them the dos and don'ts of fashion.  For example stock to one kind of tie die per outfit.  Even Elizabeth who hates shopping has learned how to shop online.  Next years mo. Will try to stay healthy throughout the summer to make this a little more fun.  Thanks to my mom for stepping up tohelpwhile I was in the hospital.