Fair Week

This is Fair Week here in Malad

When the kids were little we had a great time during fair.

A lot of hard work and long days.

Fair was so exciting and rewarding after a summer of preparing and working so hard on their 4-H projects.

Sundi and Wind were the only ones that did 4-H during the summers.

They did sheep, pig, horse, sewing, leather, art, cake decorating, scrap booking.

Blue did leather and rockets.

The fair was the highlight of the summer. 

I really enjoyed watching Sundi and Wind care for their animals then perform and compete.

So I am going to spend this week blogging about our 4-H Fair Week memories.

4-H classes start and animals are purchased just before school lets out.

At first the animals are cute and fun!

Not much to do but feed and water them.

Diesel and Polly, Sundi thought Polly was cute in the beginning!

 About a month before fair the work begins.  

To have animals qualify for fair they must meet weight and

in order to win Quality the animal must be exercised to gain just the right amount of muscle tone.

That means they had to walk their animals EVERY DAY!

T.J. (Wind's friend) walking Sundi's pig, Polly, hummmm!

 Wind was really good about walking his animals for fair.

Wind is quietly competitive.

One day Wind had finally gotten Sundi out to walk her pig, they walked better if done together, so he needed Sundi to walk her pig with his.  I could hear her screaming and crying because she DID NOT want to walk that "Stupid pig". For showmanship they needed to start training them with a stick that was flexable and had a little flat piece of leather on the end to slap the side of their faces to train them to be led around the arena. If done right, eventually the stick just needed to be placed on either side of the face, without touching the face and the pig would go where they wanted it to. This skill helped them to win in Showmanship. Sundi would be out there WHACKING Polly with the stick.

 Blue walking Limo, Wind walking Wooly, Sundi walking Wizzer, Louise and Rachel (sisters)

While walking their sheep, Louise would say how she was going to win Grand Champion, and this drove

Wind crazy with competition! He had determined that he was going to be the Grand Champion.

The sheep always walked better together, so the neighbor girls walked with the kids almost 2 miles everyday.

Notice who Blue walked! Hard work there.

He is barefooted too, always was.

At the end of fair an auction is held to sell all of the livestock.

The goal was to win Quality and Showmanship and to be awarded the Grand Champion ribbon.

It is the Grand Champion that gets to be auctioned first and is sold for the largest amount of money.

PAY OFF!

The last day of fair at the end of the day they livestock is loaded onto a semi and taken away......

TO THE BUTCHER!

Sundi and Wind never had a problem with this.

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My friend Erica and her sister started a new, fun blog,
Titled "The Giant Blog of Cooking, Crafting and Other Fun Activities"
Her sister, Monica recently moved far away and to stay in touch and feel like they were still doing
something together they started the blog.
They have started Friday Favorites and Monday Match-Up.
Become a follower and win a price HERE

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My Cousin Pam and husband Kirk came to Utah with their family for two weeks.
They are planning to move to Utah as soon as they find employment.
It was so fun to be with them even if only for a couple of days.
See more about their visit HERE