::fair 2013::

 Here we are trying to get our projects in to be judged. 

The stroller had to carry the glass table.

Indoor projects are scored like this -

Blue = you did the project as it was supposed to be done

Red = you were close

Yellow = you were not very close

participation = you sucked, but try again

If you get a blue you can advance from there

You can get Honor Group = you did the project better than it required

Champion = you were the best in your age group

Grand Champion = you were the best in all the project

 Lily got a blue and honor group on her modeling of her skirt.

All that acting paid off.

 Blue on her skirt construction.

Blue and Honor Group on her collections project.

 

HER CAKE GOT BLUE - HONOR GROUP - CHAMPION

AND!!!  She got picked to go to State Fair

 

Her lady bug got Blue

 

And she loved doing it.

Woodworking got a blue.  

 

Her recycling project got a blue

And her Dad made her a stand for it.  

  

Electrical got a blue.

 

My Emma got blues for both her pictures and Honor Group for her color picture.

 

Then she got a blue and honor group on her glass table.

She got Blue - Honor Group - Champion - GRAND CHAMPION on her pickled pineapple.

She did all her indoor projects with her Mother and they did a wonderful job. 

 Then it was animal time.

Emma showed for her first year in Senior Showmanship.

She ROCKED IT!

That girl fought hard and she was pulled out of about 30 for the top five.  That judged worked them over, the class was 35 mins long, but she held on hard.  I was so proud of her for being in the top five.  It's kind of hard for a 5ft 10in girl to do showmanship on a pygmy but she made it look good. 

Then my Lily went in for showmanship and she choked.  She walked in with 25 other kids and lost her focus.  She struggled.  But she is just a little baby beginner and she learned a lot - and showed when she went in the next day for sheep.

Look at that face!!!  
She busted her little tush.  
She brought the heat.  
And she made the first cut down to 10 in her first showmanship class, and that thing was packed.  
She didn't make top five, but I was thrilled with her focus. 

 

Then it was time for her lamb to be judged...

 

Champion!!!!

It really doesn't matter that it was out of two.  

Let's skip that part.

Let's just focus on that happy face.

She loves showing sheep and I can't wait to get a few more.

Princess Annabelle was very popular at the show.

Everyone in the sheep club was so nice to us.  

 

The next day was Pygmy time!

Emma won Junior Wether with her little guy.

 

Meanwhile across the fair Lily got disqualified for a too heavy rabbit.

She shrugged  and said - can we go back to the goat barn?

We are done with that project.  

It's not for us.

So we did.

And she rocked it out with her little doe.

Second place and then Reserve Junior Pygmy Doe.

Very nice.

Emma's little doe got fourth - which was just fine.
  

 

Then the Beast Bo went in and cleaned up.

He won his wether class.

Then went back and won Grand Champion Pygmy Wether!

We have been trying for years to get that illusive prize.

We had to go in at the very end of the show against the Grand Champion Boer Goat and the Grand Champion Dairy Goat for Supreme Champion.

We didn't win but it was still a wonderful experience.  

I hope we make it back soon. 

 Last of all was the Poultry Show.

All you do to show waterfowl is put them in their cage and keep them alive all week till they are judged.

They judge them in their cage.

And those babies showed them how pretty they are.

The male got blue-honor group- champion medium duck - grand champion waterfowl.

The female got blue-honor group-reserve champion medium duck - reserve grand champion waterfowl.

Basically - they were the two best ducks at fair.

Who knew?

I just thought they were pretty to watch play in their kiddie pool.

The males have a curly tail feather and are brighter green

 

This was our best fair ever.  How are we ever going to top it?

Don't worry - I already have some ideas :)

::save the blues::

Look at all those flipping berries!!

It was about two year ago that we planted our first blue berry bush, but we haven't had many to eat yet.  Finally - good weather, tons of grass mulch, and luck have given us a decent crop.  Which just makes me want more.  I think our farm birds have their eye on them too.  I am not going to net the plants, it defeats the concept of a friendly funny farm with short people picking food and eating it.  But I needed to do something.  

On one of our little farm walks I came up with an option. 

  

We put a few old T posts in the ground, grabbed the ribbon tote, and went crazy.  .  

 And it is actually working!

The wind moves the ribbons around and the birds stay away.

It looks so pretty in motion all day.

It helps reinforce to my neighbors that I am a crazy hippy.   

The short people have easy access to blue heaven.

Zen

 

::magical road signs::

 Finally!

Finally!

Finally!

We have the signs hung!

This has been a side project since winter.

Every now and then I would get inspired and want to paint a sign or two.  Lily helped some, and we managed to have enough done to hang them up.  Of course Josh was in charge of construction - as usual.  The post is a junk tree that was straight enough to be sacrificed to the name of art.  Poor Josh had to hang signs while Lily and I nit picked each ones location and even made him move some around a few times. Quinny was happy to help.   

 

 Notice that Burk has burnt edges?  

Toothless is such a trouble maker. 

There is plenty of space to add more signs.  

Next on the agenda is Space Mountain.  

 And here is what happens when you take a babies drill away.  

Melt down. 

One of the first projects I ever pinned on Pintrest was this one - I knew I had to make one.  How can we have this magical little farm and not have a magical whimsical kick A sign post?  I dug around one day trying to find the original source but could never located it.  I wanted to find out how they painted such perfect letters, did they use decals, stencil, what?  Then I found this link and I had the secret insider information.  I used her technique exactly and it worked.  Even Lily (age nine) could paint signs once I had traced the imprint.  It is really simple and much less time consuming than I initially feared.           

::crafty::

These kids got borrrrrrrrrrred.  They felt they were not getting enough craft time. 

So we let them go crazy.

They made an entire window treatment out of coffee filters and liquid water colors.

They made lots of shaving cream and food coloring prints.

They just made more and more and more and more.  The whole thing was simple adorable. 

Sorry for the cell phone pictures.  My big camera is just not feeling small enough right this second. 

::snow writers::

 It's snowing. 

Like crazy. 

The kids are home for break.

They are going stir crazy.

I gathered up any spray or squirt bottle I could find, filled them with HOT water and food coloring, and sent them out to decorate the snow.  

 The hot water part is important.

Notice the kids are not wearing gloves?

Those hot water bottles make all the difference.  

We have done these for a few years.

The kids always love it.  

Cheap and easy. 

::shorties loosing their marbles::

 Max was looking over my shoulder at my Pintrest page.

He saw a pool noodle made into a toy car track and he has not stopped talking about it since.

We couldn't find a big enough pool noodle for cars, but they were just the right size for a marble race.

I cut it in half with a bread knife and managed to not cut off my hand :)

I used tooth picks to stick them together.

Duct tape held them down. 

 Oddly enough we happen to have an entire jar full of marbles.  

 Quinn was present in a purely observational mode. 

 The kids decided that they needed a marble maze, so out came the blocks.

See the fort built around the stove in the background?

Max lost a few marbles under the stove, so he came up with more blocks to protect it.