Saturday, July 21
Abbie and I went to the fairgrounds around 9 to help put bedding in cages. The man in charge of poultry wasn't there yet, so we put bedding in all the rabbit cages (they share a barn). After finishing there, we visited our Dad, who was helping with special interest judging in the armory. Abbie and I headed back to the camper for a little bit and chilled in the AC (no pun intended). By the time we found out the person in charge of the poultry part of the barn had arrived, they had already gotten all the bedding in cages. We helped put the stall cards on and picked where we wanted the cages for our club to be.
The afternoon was filled with bathing chickens. We had four tubs full of water with soap, bluing, vinegar and a rinse. Ever since I started showing chickens 7 years ago, I now know the true meaning of the expression 'as mad as a wet hen'. Believe me, they are pretty furious.
Sunday, July 22
My family actually went to church the first Sunday of fair. This has been a rare occurence the past 6 or 7 years because we usually have my horse at the fairgrounds. Of course, the entire fair I wished I had her at the fairgrounds. After church was over, I drove to the armory for the girl's judgings for Horseless Horse. They all got an 'A' and it looked like they did excellent in their interview.
Kit-Kat and I gave a fair tour to one of the members and her friend. We then headed back to the campsite and helped Kit-Kat's mom and brother set up a few of the canopys. After that was finished, I went home to help with the chickens. We moved them to the fairgrounds and got them in their cages about 30 minutes before weigh-in, pictures and barn meeting started.
The barn meeting began at 5 and was for both poultry and rabbit members. Immediately following, we started the weigh-in and pictures. Rabbit members went first, with the broilers and turkeys following. Weigh-in is basically just getting a starting weight on your bird at the beginning of the fair. This determines where you are placed in the market class and, as long as you don't get Grand or Reserve, where you are placed in the sale order. A picture is taken with you and your market animal and then placed on a plaque. This given to your buyer after the livestock auction on Saturday.
Monday, July 23
Chicken show day! We got up early to take care of the birds before 9. Abbie, Tim and I cleaned out the cages and then started to bathe our show birds. Thankfully, only the light colored ones and the broilers needed washed, so it was a much shorter ordeal than we at first thought.
The show started at 1pm. I was in the second class of showmanship. I took my Black Australorp hen for the class and she did pretty well. Showmanship, in chickens at least, isn't judged on your animal. It's judged on how you show your bird and the knowledge you have. I guess I didn't have a whole lot of knowledge this year, because I only got third. :P
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| The three girls and third place ribbons. I felt so short. :P |
Abbie and Kit-Kat also got third in their showmanship classes. Tim on the other hand, got first! He was so excited that he couldn't stop smiling during the championship, or Showmen of Showmen, class.
We finished off the night around 9 PM, which is a record time for poultry day. In previous years, they've had all the poultry (waterfowl, fancies, pullets, turkeys, broilers, etc.) on the same tday. This year, they only did fancies, pullets and broilers on Monday. So it was much shorter and it gave the judge a lot more time with the kids instead of having to try and rush through.
Tuesday, July 24
Kit-Kat and I had Jr. Fairboard office duty. We sat in the office for 2 hours and got to answer questions. Quite fun.
The style review for clothing projects was at 3 PM that afternoon. My grandparents came to watch, so it was great to see them. Abbie and one other girl from our club did sewing projects this year and they both did very well! Christal, the other girl, modeled a skirt that she had tye-dyed. Abbie modeled her modest swimsuit.
Directly following the style review were the awards for special interest. All the girls in our club who took horseless horse got an award, whether it be Honorable Mention or Outstanding. Both Tim and I are State Fair Representatives for the rifle project and will be going to the State Fair on Friday, August 3rd.
Our club's family pizza party was that evening as well. We sat around and ate pizza and then I went to work at one of the concession stands, Brain Freeze.
Wednesday, July 25
Kit-Kat and I again had Jr. Fairboard office duty. It was this day that we decided animals were having some major problems. Or at least, animal's owners were. There was a new rule put in place this year that all pens must be cleaned, watered and fed by 9 AM. Seems like a rather ridiculous rule, but you'd be surprised how many people don't properly take care of their show animals.
Two pig pens were reported as not clean and they had no food/water, so the vet went to award the 'Dirty Pen Award', as she called it. A man from the chicken barn brought his daughter's barred rock bantam hen in looking for the vet. Apparently the rooster had pecked at her overnight, so she had no skin left on her head. The vet gave him an early release form and sent the bird home. There were also some problems in the rabbit and sheep area, but I don't remember what exactly they were.
After we got off office duty, we headed to the camper to finish things for the Poultry skill-a-thon (knowledge test, basically). We filled out our record books, which list how much we spent on feed and things like that. I read 22 pages on Avian Influenza out loud to Abbie and Kit-Kat, that way we knew what the tie-breaker was on. Kit-Kat's mom (Ms. Brown) said that she really liked it because it put her to sleep.
The poultry skill-a-thon went by pretty quickly for me. The stations seem to be getting easier and easier every year. The only one I had problems with was the breed station. As a senior, you had to name over 20 different breeds of chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. So it was a little difficult. The ones that I did name I got right, so that was exciting.
One of the mom's in our club organized the annual scavenger hunt and that's how we filled out afternoon. It started with a shaved ice eating contest and my team won. I was pretty surprised, becuase it usually takes me 30 minutes to eat a small. I managed to eat it in 3 minutes, with several brain freezes and interesting faces I'm sure.
That evening, my friend Rachel Ramm (check out her blog. She's an incredible artist!!), her grandparents and younger siblings came. I showed them around the fair and then we went on a few rides. It was quite a fun evening!
Thursday, July 26
I wasn't at the fair most of the day. Instead, I went to an 8 hour long writing day at the Mustard Seed Retreat. My friends Emily and Reagan (check out his blog too) were there as well. I got 2,500 words written in Freedom's Bonds, edited one chapter of Reagan's book, Renengades, did some brainstorming for a collective novel idea with Reagan and near the end of the day, did some fun character development with Emily.
Emily and I left at 6 and went back to my house. My parents had just gotten home with the new horse trailer, so I was very excited to see that. It's supposed to be red, but it's weather-worn right now, so it looks pink. Personally, I like it pink. Dad would like it to be red.
We grabbed the movie equipment and returned to the fairgrounds. It was 4-H girls night. That night in the grandstands was the bull riding and girl's barrel racing. The girls in our 4-H club and I stayed for the first half and got to see a double rainbow. We went back to the camper and sung songs from various musicals and Disney movies.
Mom and Ms. Brown started the tye-dye activity while I got the movie set-up. All the ladies and girls got to tye-dye a shirt and watch Sound of Music. Of course, we turned the captions on and sung. It was a lot of fun.
I went to bed in the middle of the movie because I was so tired. Both Kit-Kat and Emily stayed the night.
Friday, July 27
Another morning of Jr. Fairboard duty. Kit-Kat and I actually got to something interesting this time. We glued the pictures of livestock members onto the plaques that would be given to the buyers.
I didn't do much Friday afternoon. Kit-Kat and I lounged around the camper for a bit and then went to TSC, her house and Chipolte. We both laid down and took a nap and then I went to work at Brain Freeze again.
Saturday, July 28
Sale day. Finally. The morning started with the annual 4-H pancake breakfast. My brother, sister and I went and ate some pancakes and then went to the poultry barn to care for the chickens. Thankfully, none of the broilers needed a bath before the sale.
Livestock awards were presented in the Show Arena at 9:30. Tim and Abbie both got outstanding in the poultry skill-a-thon. I got outstanding and third place in the senior division. We went back to the camper afterwards and chilled out for a couple hours before the sale.
The broilers didn't start selling until around 3:30. Businesses in Union County are very supportive of the Jr Fair. The lowest amount that someone got for their birds (a pen of 4 meat birds) was $250, I believe. All the little kids usually got more, because they are much cuter. The Grand and Reserve Champion broiler got over $1,000 for the birds. Broilers are the best project to make money on at the fair. About $15 goes in to raising each bird, so you don't have much that you need to recover from after you get your sale money.
Kit-Kat and I worked in the Jr Fairboard office for the last time that afternoon. Nothing too exciting happened, other than the fact that I managed to get my ice cream bar all over myself.
That's a pretty typical fair for my family and I. Next year, I'll be showing my horse again, so the '2013 County Fair' post will be much, MUCH longer.
Look for a post soon about the writing day at the Mustard Seed Retreat!
