Minnesota State Fair

State fair was a little different for us this year.  Dancer started school and wasn't able to bring a project this year, but she still wanted to be able to go to the the fair. To make this work we had to work around her class schedule and Spark needed to attend the encampment (where the county buses the kids to the fair and they stay in the 4-H Hilton on the fair grounds). He went down the day before us and we dropped him off for the bus. I don't know if he was more excited or I was more nervous.  The next day we picked Dancer up from school and headed down, which was an adventure all on it's own.  It took us almost as long to find a parking spot as it did to drive there.

Spark did great, he earned a blue ribbon for his pelargonium. The judge said she wasn't impressed with his plant, but she was impressed with his in-depth knowledge of it. 

Our county also had a team in the "Chef for a Day" competition.  The kids get an hour of instruction and then they have half and hour to prepare a salad with meat for the judges.  It is similar to the t.v. show "Chopped."

I took the two pictures above and then had my phone in my purse. The only other picture I snapped the whole day was of Paul Bunyan made out of recycled goods. We will just have to remember the rest in our minds like in the good old days. 

Llama Herdsmanship

At the 4-H awards banquet, the kids won the award for llama herdsmanship at the fair.  That means that they kept the stalls and area clean and the water buckets and feeders full.  The llama kids in our county all work together as a team and take of whatever they see isn't up to par when the walk through the barns, but it is nice to be recognized anyway.  Actually, I am more proud that they all are willing to take care of someone else's animal than worry about winning the award just for themselves.  

State Fair

There was lots of llama brushing and hair blowing to get Nora ready to go. 

Loaded up the two llamas were going from our county. 

Dad touched the butt.  This actually got people there excited.  Settle down people, it was one finger print. 

Spark and friends were in a cooking contest.  He also showed a bonsai tree.  As he was carrying it the mile plus back to the car, a lady asked where he got it and he gave it to her.   I wonder if she carried it around all day. 

Dancer and Nora lined up for the costume competition. 

We stayed at a motel with a two story tall mermaid on the roof.  Rather odd for our part of the country.

Dancer doing public relations with Nora.  

Fun, fun time but happy to be home until next year!

State Fair Whirlwind

 

Dancer and her llama, Nora, won a state fair trip.  A great feat for a llama girl who made Dancer work for half an hour just to get a halter on her back in the spring.  Now she is all refined and strutting her stuff with the best of them. 

 

We enjoyed a beautiful cool summer here up until the week of the state fair when the temps rose into the 90's and the heat index even higher because the humidity was in the 70's.  All this heat made a the trip a bit more challenging, like when we stopped for a break on the way down and I said to Dad, "There is green stuff running out of the car."  Thankfully some more coolant fixed the problem because what does one do in extreme heat with a llama along side the freeway and you are still at least an hour from your destination?

 

 

We brought Dancer on Wednesday, but two of her shows weren't until Thursday, so while Dancer stayed down at the fair the rest of us drove back and forth.  It was well worth it to see her compete.

 

 

With Dancer busy in the barns it left only Spark to walk around with Dad and I.  One of Dad's favorite kind of soda is RC Cola but we never see it in our grocery stores.  There was a vendor there that sold only RC Cola, probably because no one can get it here, and since it is such a novelty, Spark posed by the sign.

 

 

 

The state fair mascot - the gopher is the mascot, not Spark.

 

 

Spark won a blue ribbon for his potato cannon!  Luck was on his side that his judge was a high school physic teacher so he understood his project.

Llama Costume Parade

 

Dancer was Alice In Wonderland and Nora was the queen of hearts.

 

 

Spark was a minister and Marceline was a blushing bride.

 

 

A side view to show off her beautiful gown.

The Llama Show Must Go On

We had three days after our county fair to mow the lawn, wash the clothes and a few other tasks before heading out to the next fair.  Llamas are new to our county this year, only four kids, so we joined another county fair for our judging. 

 

 

Showmanship - keep smiling even if it feels your cheeks are going to crack.

 

 

 

Obstacles - fun for the audience - stressful for the kids.  

 

 

The kids in our county, even though we were at another fair our kids were judged by themselves - Dancer and Nora won a state fair trip!

 

 

Since we had to be there for four days, and the llamas could use some more time in the ring, we also competed in open class.  If you are only in the open class you only had to come one day, there were llamas coming out of the woodwork, I had no idea there were so many llama owners.  It did make for a very long show on metal bleachers - over five hours.  Here Dad is giving Spark some last minute advice. It must have worked, Spark and Marceline took fourth place and Dancer and Nora snagged third in their classes!

 

 

Those darn obstacles again. 

 

 

Although she has the look of, "there is no way I am going through there," she did.

 

 

 The final obstacle of tying the quick release knot and putting a towel on the back of your llama.  Whew!  We got the first shows done and now it is lots of intense training for Nora before the state fair and studying up on llama knowledge.   We also have a lot of sleep to catch up on!

And Now, For The Rest Of The Fair

 

To the back of our camper is the horse arena and we have a wonderful view of all that goes on there, either from the camper or we set chairs in the back of the truck and enjoy a few of the shows.  Our favorite is the parade of draft horses and other large animals pulling wagons.  These two ox weight 2700 pounds apiece, that certainly qualifies as a large animal!  It was almost unreal how large they were.  They were in a pen but only because they chose to be there, all they would have had to have done was lean against it and I am sure it would have gone down. 

 

 

Oh, the rocket launch.  Spark had his rocket out there three times before it did anything and then when it did it flew up in the air about three feet and came back down.

 

 

Here he is laughing at how bad it did.  What we think happened was that we had bad glue and when the engine went off it went up in the rocket instead of staying in place and the rocket taking off.   His rocket also had some serious heat damage so it isn't even fixable.  Well, if nothing else he learned not to use that glue any more.

 

Fair hair.  This is Dancer's favorite part of the fair and she was bummed they only did it one day this year.  All the kids couldn't get their schedules to work out to do it more than once.

 

 

Lunch time.  What we save in food costs more than pays for the camping spot, fair food is expensive, especially if you are eating for six days.

 

 

Hanging out with friends on farm equipment. 

 

 

Spark and the llamas waiting in the show arena.  They were part of the showmanship program so other kids could get a chance at working with them a little bit and hopefully we will gain more interest in our county.

 

Share the Fun.  This is the first year Spark was old enough to be in the show and he jumped right in by being the announcer.  People were amazed at how well he did but, Dancer is our shy one, not Spark by any means.  I guess when you are the second kid you have some stereotypes to break down to show that you aren't the same as your older sibling.

 

Dancer is more than happy to be in the background.  Although through different 4-H things she has come a long way in being able to come forward and break out of her shell.

 

 

The four kids from our club that were in the show.

 

 

We also had a llama meet and greet.  Even Grandma Pat came to spend some up close time with them.

This was senior citizens day where the kids hand out lemonade and cookies.  Spark also helped with day care day and gave barn tours.

Now it is time to reflect and start planning for next year!

Goats At The Fair

 

Arriving at the fair.

 

 

Their stall decorations were Duck Dynasty themed.

 

Bath before the show.

 

We made a big, big mistake with Jamal.  The goats weren't really drinking the city water and we were a little worried about dehydration.  The morning of the show we brought a bottle with some sugar in the bottom to mask the taste of the water.  Solomon has never had a bottle and didn't know how to drink from it.  Jamal knows very well what a bottle is and he sucked the bottle down.  When it was time to get them washed for the show the sugar was through his system and he had he worst poops.  Dancer washed him but it just kept coming, so after his bath she had to wipe him off with baby wipes so he was clean.  Thankfully he didn't go during the judging because they check their tail area and I had visions of him going right as she lifted his tail.

Jamal came in 4th in his group.

 

Solomon came in sixth out of eight goats in his group.  We were pretty proud of that though.  Market goats have to be 40 pounds to qualify for the show and he squeaked in at 41 pounds.  Even though he was tiny compare to others his rate of gain was higher.  Here he is in showmanship and you can see how little he is next to these big girls.  In showmanship Spark came in fifth out of 16, Dancer came in 3rd in her group.  Good job for their first year showing!