Some Sheep!

The county fair...

What have I been missing out on?!

Stumbling out of bed at 8 a.m., quick shower, and the tiniest layer of make-up on, I rumbled to Hamilton, Ohio to see what the fuss was all about.

Ah. The fair. The mere mention of the word brings to mind the sensations of the glaring sun of a warm summer morning, the bright colors of the ferris wheel and the buzzing anticipation in the air of animals knowing their importance this week. The whole county seems to be busy! Phone calls are answered amongst the sounds of baaaah and moos and the ever, "Let me get back to you when I finish loading my cows."

And so, as I arrived to the gate of the Butler County Fairgrounds in the wee hours of the morning to a quiet, yet vibrant ticket stand for the 2011 county fair, I was greeted by the fresh smell of excitement speckled with a bit of drowziness of the people who had decided to camp at the fairgrounds for the week.

I absolutely loved the gaudy colors of the county fair, its colors reminding me of something between carnivals and amusement parks.

The fair was still empty, with a few stalls open to serve the folks that needed breakfast, but approaching the Sheep Barn was a whole different story. You see, the 4-H sheep showing was going on this morning.

Before I segue into the Junior Sheep Show, let me babble a little about 4-H. Prior to Oxford, Ohio, 4-H was non-existent in my life. My school had Mu Alpha Theta (a math club), the French Club, Band, Future Business leaders of America, etc. We did not have a "Corn growing Club" or a "Tomato Club" (supposedly this was what the first 4-H clubs were called). Please. Of course, Ohio being the agricultural state that it is, gave birth to 4-H in the little town of Clarke, Ohio. Since then, it's grown to a giant youth leadership program that emphasizes youth growth and development with a healthy dose of a pro-agriculture agenda. Think of it as a boy/girl scout where instead of learning to tie knots and start camp fires, you learn how to grow grain, breed horses, and collect honey(also make robots, learn quilting, and make a business plan). It's pretty kick-bumbum as far as I'm concerned and I regret not having known of its existence before now.

For folks like me who've never stepped into a county fair, it's quite the experience of a lifetime. Imagine a ten-year old girl, clad with a sparkling fuschia hair band, leading an animal twice her weight around a small enclosed space covered in mulch, animal manure, and pee. Like I said, an experience of a lifetime.

You'd be hard pressed to find a suburban soccer mom encouraging her precious child to walk around a barn with a lamb head in her arm, never mind cattle weighing hundreds of pounds.

This event was intense! And the youth, aged anywhere from 8 to 18, experts in moving and positioning their animals for the judge.

I have to say, I sure am glad I'm not the lamb standing there while the judge feels my ribs and leg to judge how yummy I would be once slaughtered....

And you can really tell how much these kids have bonded with their animals. It's very heart warming to see with how much care and pride these youngsters guide and lead the livestock.

For me, the most exciting moment was watching the breeding ewe class. By far the most competitive class of all (16 entrants!), the winner was one of the lamb ewes from the Colegate Sheep Farm in Hamilton Ohio (the place where Paul and I get our freezer lamb!).

Boy was Carol Colegate excited!

After the competitions, Paul and I got a chance to walk around the fairgrounds and visit with all of the animals. It was the best $6 I ever spent.

The sheep lied down on fresh fluffy straw covered in little garments to protect their newly washed fleece.

I laughed and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Paul was pretty "meh" about it.

There were some breeds that looked so sweet

and other that looked just silly.

One baaaaaahed for its life as it was held by a mechanical arm

And others just got held down the old fashioned way.

The alpacas looked quite angry and annoyed. A sign warned me, "We spit!"

Look at that guy's evil eye.. haha.

And if one wonders if sheep were the only thing being shown that way... have you ever seen a chicken show?

A dog show?

I really envy these kids.. can you ever imagine my lazy dog ever being able to do something so dignified?

I heard the cattle show was supposed to be the next day and so kids took advantage of a slow summer afternoon to practice leading their cows around.

The other livestock exhibited in the various barns were in tip top shape. No factory farmed chickens here!

This man had no idea what kind of chicken he was raising until one of the 4-H told him he had a tufted arucauna of sorts (I already forgot the breed name.. heh). Man, these kids know everything!

Other furries included bunniesss!!!!

Watch out, this winner bites!

By far though, the most popular animals were the goats. Really, there were goats EVERYWHERE.

Seeing these cute little pygmies made me want to get one for my own one day :)

I especially loved the hand made signs a lot of these animals had. How modern.

My goodness were they friendly!

Paul and I didn't stick around for the demolition derby (maybe next year!) but we still had plenty of fun. All in all, a great first experience at the county fair.

I can't wait for the fair to come again next year! Thanks Butler County!

Dog days of summer

I've been feeling slightly off the rocker lately with all the stuff going on here in O-Hi-O. This coming week is the Butler County Fair. There is so much excitement built up from waiting for this for a year, I'm about to explode. There is honey judging, and livestock judging. You have no idea. I hope to the good lord there is no deep fried butter available in the fair food stands. Dear lord.

At home, things have been crazy too. I think I told people about this, but two weekends ago, Paul and I showed up to the Berry Patch thinking that I'd get my fill of blueberries for the year. The place opened at 9a.m., and after getting lost for half an hour, Paul and I showed up at 10, only to find out they were SOLD OUT FOR THE DAY. How does that happen?! How?! I think I took that too personally because I then became determined to find blueberries. I did, at Rousters, where I then proceeded to pick 25 POUNDS OF BLUEBERRIES (edit: and PTB, the best ever).

Pictured above, half a bag out of 4 full bags.

And my god, what wonderful blueberries they were!

All plump. And Juicy. And delicious. I had blue poop for days. TMI??

Take that Berry Patch. That is what you get for not letting me pick your berries. You lose my crazed customership. So, now, not only do I have over a gallon of blueberries in the freezer, I also have over 30 jars of various blueberry preserves.

Raspberry season is right around the corner. Heh. Heh.

Aside from that, I've also taken on a few projects over the last few weeks. I made a blue knitted pig. Why blue? Well, WHY NOT BLUE? >.<

He's so cute :3

I don't know what I want to do with him though... maybe send it off to a poor unsuspecting fool off the internet??

I *think* I'm just about ready to tackle the crazy royal corgi but that means a trip to the yarn store. Yay! Never mind the two overflowing boxes of yarn I acquire within the last two weeks... thanks Lolli for fueling my budding yarn addiction!! Yay!!

Bought 3 giant bags of linen-grade t-shirts to make a rug with.. I mean, I did make a rug with it... and a pretty rug she is!

She sits in front of the kitchen sink after a big argument with the poops about how it's not their bed. Hehe, next project? I still have a 2-foot pile of old t-shirts that need to be converted into yarn for various projects so perhaps a pooper bed would be a good use. :)

Also, a great thing happened this week. Tank discovered the ramen box. Now, before people get all shocked about me buying ramen, I'd like to preface that I paid 13 cents for the entire box. Just wanted to point that out. Anyway....

!!!! How great is that photo?!?!?!?! Ramen puppy!!!

To end, we bought 12 pounds of popcorn.

Thanks Amazon Prime!

Midget corn and gardens!

Oh my! Is the summer ever busy! The weeks seem to just fly by.

I was having an argument the other day with my sister about whether Chicago counted as the Midwest or not. Her argument was that Chicago was the epicenter of the Midwest. It was Midwest X 100. No details to back up her statement. I argued that Chicago is too metropolitan, heck, cosmopolitain even to be a Midwestern city. People did not say "doughnchanough" enough, were Amish, or have 4-H fundraising spaghetti dinners in Chicago. Instead Chicagoans get their fancy pantsy reflective bean,their own Alessi store, and a giant Arts museum. How dare they say they are Midwestern. That's like saying Boca Raton is soooooooooooooooooo Floridian. No way, man. Just because you produce 'Prairie Home Companion' doesn't mean you can share in the secret Garison Keillor midwestern jokes.

So for those of us in the REAL Midwest (before Caroline comes and lectures me about living in the real REAL Midwest) need to talk about corn.

Remember me talking about the weather being all screwy in spring? Well apparently the weather wasn't just trolling me.

It so happened that Ohio has got some record rainfall this year. Thank goodness we've been spared by the summer (some other parts of the Midwest are getting pummeled still, I hear). I'll bet my butt that there will be a drought though so maybe I should be more thankful... Anyway, what the heck is going on with the corn? I moved to Oxford just around this time last year and had corn visions until my eyes bled. The gigantuous plant monsters were checking out my size and picking fights with me on my birthday. NOW, they are only a foot tall. I could squash their little corn villages like godzilla squashing Tokyo. I think the farmers must have gotten delayed this season, hence the young crop (I don't think midget corn is suddenly in vogue this year.... Did I miss a memo?) but man does it feel weird being outside with 90+ degrees weather (here we go with that archaic numbering system again) without having my view of the road (which is curvy for no reason at all on this flat PLAINS roads) obstructed by vegetal beings.

Well, annyyywayyyyyy. Aside from the corn being tiny midgets this year (I feel your pain, corn), my garden has been doing A-OK. Aside from the aphids that seem to have blown in, everything looks as healthy as they could be and although peas are long gone, we're starting to see some of my other summer crops coming in!

OK, no one told me that cucumbers are so prolific. There are like 4 cukes coming in strong on my tiny little vine. There are going to be some pickles this year.

Unfortunately for Paul though.... I forgot to plant hot peppers this year.... erm... I THOUGHT I remembered to plant all different varieties but alas, no... all 3 of my pepper plants are paprikas.. oops.

They look good though!

Tomatoes are coming on. I think all of my plants are having a little trouble because they're only getting about 4 hours (max) of direct sun everyday (Ideally they should be having 12+) so the plants aren't as prolific or as bushy as I'd like them to be, but for the situation, I think they're doing amazing(ly)!

Green beans coming in! Paul can't wait!

And forest of basil!!!!!!!!!

The basil has been sooooooo good. Fresh pizza (homemade dough, of course), spaghetti sauce, even sandwiches all get a nice perk from fresh basil. I can't wait for these to get bigger so I can make me some delicious pesto!