For Dotch

[fishinchicks]

Do you know these sheep? I was at the State Fair on Friday the 26th, and stopped by the sheep show on my way to the poultry barn.

[Dotch]

Busted. Sorry I missed you. Yup, those were our Border Cheviots, all blanketed up before they showed on Saturday afternoon. Yes everyone, the blankets are to keep them clean before they show. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been asked that question in the past 20 years at the State Fair. I'd have enough saved up to visit Mr. Foss for a fishing excursion! I didn't come up to the Fair until Saturday a.m. On Friday I was still a smoldering pile of detritus, still coming off the Crop Tour. Those 3 a.m. bomb sessions where we come up with national production figures will do it to ya. And, being that Mrs. Cheviot is the superintendent of the Open Class Sheep Dept., I have to be rested and prepared for anything.

[fishinchicks]

I was wondering if you were even going to be up there, assuming you were on the crop tour. Since we listen to the Linder Farm Network every day (it is like Gospel Hour to the farmers over here), we heard the tour reports. Everyone sounded pretty coherent, even on the final days of the tour.

It was fun to show my city sister the differences in breeds - one of the reasons we walked through the barn. We tried to give her a tour of the fair through our eyes. And yes, we could explain the reasons for the blankets.

[muc33]

Darn I wish I would have known that. My daughter shows cattle so I was up there all weekend. This is her third trip in cattle, she owns 5 cows and then either keeps calves or sells them. She loves it and I spend Thurs - Sunday every year. We had two very good market sheep from our county they are usually very tough up there. 4th and 6th overall this year.

[Dotch]

Wow! Sounds like we could've had an HSO livestock convention. The 4-H kids who had leased a couple ewes from us did well too at the State Fair, both winning reserve champion in their respective categories. It was hilarious when they brought them back over to show in the Open Class show. They were the only tame sheep in the ring. Our show string was so wild it was like trying to show bighorns.

[fishinchicks]

mucc - If I had known, I would have looked for you. I have a lot of friends in the beef/dairy area from all over the state, so I usually cruise the barns for awhile.

Went up again this weekend for our general encampment. My middle daughter was in the 4-H Fashion Revue on Sunday, so we brought her up for the day. It's her last 4-H activity, since she has now "graduated" from the program. She had to come home from college to participate.