~Home From The Fair~
We showed chickens at the Florida State Fair…..again…
But, we’re home now…
Phew…
I can take a breath…….and put my feet up…
Prior to the Fair…..I finally bought one of those garden wagons…….
…..the type with removable sides…….
…..and voila…….
…..you have a little, flat-bed on pneumatic tires…….
…..how did we EVER live without this adult-version of a child’s Radio Flyer?
***What’s A Radio Flyer? Well, Here You Go…***
(my daughters’ Radio Flyer (from their youth) is now comfortably tucked up in the hayloft…….
…..awaiting the next generation of play-transportation for baby dolls and blocks…
But my new, adult-version wagon…….IS JUST GREAT!
It carried my chickens in their cages to the State Fair’s Poultry Barn…
It carried their empty cages around the fair grounds with me, while I was stapling up informative flyers for our Hunt Club (on any bulletin board I could find)…
I registered four birds in this year’s competition…
~~Two were for friends of mine to show…
~~Two were for my daughters show…
Our Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte rooster (Rex Goliath…aka Rooster Rex) was again shown by Simone…
Another of my long time friends from the Hunt Club showed one of our Buff Orpington hens (Billie Jean)…
My younger daughter showed our French Black Copper Maran hen…
And my older daughter showed one of our Speckled Sussex hens…
Billie Jean needed a full-fledged bath…….apparently she hasn’t earned an upper perch in the coop’s pecking order…….
…..poor ole’ Billie J. had a bunch of caked/dried poop on her back…….
…..she needed a good soak prior to her Fair debut…….
I only had to flick the big chunks off of the other birds…….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AMAZINGLY………….our four, country-bumpkin, real-free-range chickens…….
…..cleaned up at the Fair (ribbon-wise)…….!!!
Simone’s rooster got a Second Place in the Wyandotte category…
Billie Jean won a Blue Ribbon and Best of Breed…
My older daughter’s Speckled Sussex hen won the same for her breed too…
And last but not least, my younger daughter’s French Black Copper Maran took…….
!!!!!!!………………………Reserve Grand Champion………………………!!!!!!!
Tra! La!
…..and then my little, new wagon and I collected all of our chickens…….
…..stuffed them into their travel cages…….
…..loaded them into the bed of my truck…….
(…..I had to put my truck into four-wheel drive…..to get out of the deep mud in the livestock exhibitor’s parking area)…….
…..and then we motored home…….
…..and we’ll do it all again next year…….
………….if we’re lucky enough………….
………….sigh…………..
6 thoughts on “~Home From The Fair~”
Oh darn! We were planning on going to the fair tomorrow to visit you. I figured that you’d be there at least for a week. Guess I should have called and asked. No goat showings? Horses? I really miss the old days of the fair with you and the girls!
Open Chicken competition is only the first five days of the Fair (now it’s Youth Competition). The Dairy Goats are the same time. (And chickens take less work than goats.) Sad to say, the regular Draft Horse Competition was replaced by………….riding-lawn-mower races…
BUT, this Thursday at 12:00/noon there are the State Finals of the Draft Horse Pull Competition in the Stampede Arena if you can make it…(I think I have an extra ticket)
AND, you should be getting your Christmas card shortly…….I just finished the “r’s” in the alphabet…
…….what can I say…….
Well done Swamp Hag et al.
Good on y’all!
Silly isn’t it!?!
But it’s sooooooooo worth it for the fried-food from the Fair’s Midway.
I wonder how old the oil is that they use for frying?……..maybe I don’t want to know…….but it sure is tasty…
Love Rex! Thanks for transporting such a beautiful Rooster to the Show! Glad he is safely back home “free ranging”.
We’ll do it again next year…
Coyotes and foxes willing…
(That’s why Rooster Rex has a back-up/body-double…..Rooster Rex (II).
ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………….