4-Hcentric.

I have begun to get emails from friends that have similar questions posed within. "When is the County Fair, and are you going to write about it again?" pretty much sums it up.
I have been writing about The Fair for a few years. If you were on my email list, you got a daily treatise on The County Fair through my eyes. I wrote because it was worth seeing. And, many of the folks on the email list found The Fair to be an amusing trip to a place visited before only with Wilbur and Templeton.
This year, I shall be able to write about it in this arena.
Fair prep has not only begun, but the burner is set on about medium right now. By next week we'll be on medium high, and then, boil. The kids are rising early and on their own, headed out to the barn, or straight to the work table. This morning, Middlest washed both her ewe lambs, starting the process that will make them bright white and curly by Fair. They are not very halter-broken, so stand forlornly baaahing with their heads extended out straight on the end of the lead line, eyes rolling back into their heads. Evelyn threw herself on her side in protest, legs straight out in the air. I set her back on her feet- not easy to do with a wet 100 lb sheep- and she baahed and threw herself right back on her side. Eldest had appeared, to ask a question about her current pasting project and in an effort to help held the end of the lead and pleaded hopelessly with Evelyn to get on her feet. ( I told her the sheep would bloat right up and stop breathing if she left her on her side. I amuse myself.) Middlest has some work to do with those lambs!
Middlest also bathed her show birds. Bathing chickens is just another thing that struck me as ridiculous several years ago. Now... well, we keep an old wash tub and a bar of Ivory for chicken washing.
The show birds are a pair of year old Australorp hens she selected back in February to keep separate from the rest of the flock and away from the roosters. They are housed in the Winter Palace portion of the chicken house, with french doors, hydrangea wallpaper and little windows, open now and with a fan to keep them cool. They go outdoors, into the shade only, either in the dog crate with the bottom removed so they can scratch, or under strict supervision to protect them from the roos. See, the roosters will jump on their backs to breed the hens, and in doing so, grab the feathers on the hen's head and neck, pulling some out everytime. Bald hens are frowned upon. We know this because Eldest showed a bald hen and her matching rooster- with broken tail feathers- and the judge dismissed them from the judging, stating they were "fine breeders", but apparently, not fine fancy chickens. Also, since Australorps are black, they are kept out of direct sun before showing because it dulls the green sheen of their feathers. Middlest's birds are a deep black/green. After bath, Middlest let them wander the lawn, eating bugs and drying off, while Arthur-itis (our pretty Welsumer rooster with very crooked feet) patrolled the edges, hoping Middlest would get distracted and leave her charges unprotected. No luck for Art.
In less fine shape, but giddily happy about life are Youngest's Khaki Campbell ducks. They are much hugged and carried about, but they have broken feathers, and one of the three still has no feathers on her neck, a consequence of having been with a whole crowd of drakes (male ducks) before Youngest picked them out. Still, he bathed them, too, today, and optimistically applied baby oil to the naked neck of the one with duck pattern baldness. It is his first time showing ducks, and the subtleties of duckmanship are yet to be acquired.
Eldest worked on her fair booth displays- 4 of them, making little posters about Swedish soup (Global Gourmet), business phone calls(Leadership), handwriting fonts (Scrapbooking) and a family tree (Geneology). All the projects that don't have an animal at The Fair must have a display in the club booth. She also got her Thank You Poster completed, as did Youngest. The Thank You Posters will be displayed in the show arena during the fair. I have yet to see Middlest's Thank You Poster, but it is in the works. She had an afternoon riding lesson, which we chose to have at the fairgrounds to give Mikey his first look at where he'll be spending Fair Week. There is also a racetrack at the fairgrounds, and Mike being an ex-racehorse, I wanted to see his demeanor when the ponies went by on the fly. He was pretty contained, but rather interested. Middlest does a very nice job of riding him, and keeping him focused. She stays quiet and calm- just right.
Tomorrow is another day of 4-Hcentric living, followed by another. And another......