Cody can work the stick too

Here's Cody with Bubba in the HEAVY WEIGHT class, of course. Bubba is generally pretty content to stand there and have his tummy scratched and that's what they did, until the judge placed them. These two were also in the middle of their class. We had a pretty good night. Now we have almost three weeks off till they show at State Fair, the Market Steer show there is Aug 12th. Our vacation, if you can call it that. For anyone else who will be attending, we will get there sometime Saturday, the 9th and be there through the 13th, look for us in the cattle barns. (if we're napping don't wake us up! LOL!!!)

Audrain updates, mid-fair

Well we are sort of 'mid-fair' at this point. For the events we participate in, WE are about two thirds the way through.
Friday was full of the hustle and bustle of finishing up projects, and rounding up everything needed to check our exhibits into the building Friday evening. We had 4 hams and an assortment of posters. Our club, F and L Hustlers, was in charge of the check in process, so Cody Sam and I had to be there before 3 (which we didn't quite accomplish, but close) Seth and Jenna stayed with our neighbor, Janie Schmidt and then Matt, her grandson/our adopted 5th child watched them later in the evening.
The check in was hectic and long and stressful. Will make me remember next year to be very courteous and appreciative to whichever club is in charge in coming years!
Our personal results:
Cody's hams both received reds with scores 82 and 83 points (had to have an 85 to get blue)
Sam's hams both received blues with scores of 86 and 87 points (The Grand champion ham had a score of 92, so I didn't think that was too bad overall) The Grand Champion Ham was exhibited by a girl in our club, Erica Cornett, congrats to her!
Other building exhibits were, for Cody, posters about things he's learned in his projects. He made a poster that labelled all the parts of a hole on a golf course, he did one for beef that gave a diagram of a side beef and showed where the different retail cuts came from and gave best preparation methods for each cut. He made beef stew, took a sample and made a poster with the recipe and pictures we took of him preparing it.
Sam did a poster showing different equipment used in welding, made a beef poster outlining the origins of the Angus Breed of cattle, and also did a beef recipe. Both boys got all blues with their posters. Two of Cody's are going on to the State Fair. It's just so different than when I was in 4H, I lived in town so of course wasn't in beef and was a girl and didn't take welding, etc....... all the things that my boys take. I did things like clothing and foods, which had obvious building exhibits with your finished projects. You have to be a little more creative with some of their projects. Since you can't exactly bring your steer to building, although he's a wonderful example of your years' work, you just have to come up with other ways to show the things that you're learning. We've done beef foods, they made cookbooks last year for both beef and for ham, since they are in the cured hams project as well, we've made up little educational booklets. Kind of makes me think that my skirts, aprons, etc and batches of cookies and all that were pretty easy..............
Okay so Friday evening spent at the fair, with on short side trip by David and I back to Centralia to pay last respects to our friends the Benoit and Rohl families and express our sadness at the loss of our dear Angie. Her loss will be felt by so many. Defintely an example from the song about the good dying young. We will miss your smiling face and bubbly personality for a very long time.
Left the fairgrounds about 10 pm Friday night and was back on them before 8 am Saturday morning. We didn't leave till almost 11pm last night. Yesterday was the Audrain Fair Cattle Show. We took 2 steers, a heifer and 2 bottle calves. Seth and Jenna showed their babies yesterday morning and got 'trophies' the boys had mixed results, Sam ended up with the Reserve Champion Angus Heifer, not a bad place to be. But the judge didn't like either of our steers. Buddy who was showed by Sam, was too tall and lanky in his opinion and because of his frame size wasn't finished, which we kind of knew. Then with the weirdest comments I have ever heard, Bubba, who weighed in at 1475, 30 pounds heavier than anything else; didn't do well either, but I thought he would say that he was overfinished, he didn't. He mentioned how he could use more muscling.................okay. Whatever. This guy was very influenced by appearances and was easily impressed by fancy grooming. Didn't put his hands on many of the calves and if he had I think we would have faired better, but one mans opinion. And life goes, the boys will still get a nice price for the calves and gives us an opportunity to help them save some money. (We buy the calves and feed the calves and the boys get the check, but we do make them put it in savings!)
Back to fair............. we'll make a little 'field trip' to the Monroe County fair which is also going on Tuesday for their cattle show. Then Wednesday is our Fairs' closing events. The Ham and Livestock Sale. Both boys have Hams to sell. Then Audrain Fair will come to a close for another year. I have been kind of sad, I feel like summer is over, we have about two weeks between county fairs and State Fair, we exhibit there, come home and go back to school 5 days later. Just seems like summer has went fast. I know Gladys and I were talking about that this evening. Summer has seemed to be screwed up with farming being so messed up. The last several years the men have had crops planted pretty early and there's been more free time, 'to have summer' this year we've just kept waiting and it never really got here, so to speak......
Anyway, will 'enjoy' my day off from Fairs tomorrow, playing catch up on laundry and housework. Probably bake some cookies and get ready for the 'next round' on Tuesday.
Up to my eyeballs from Tulip~
KH

Kids and Black Cows, Part 3

Cody is showing a 'little' (lots of sarcasm intended, read on) steer this year. He had the champion 4H Crossbred steer (Angus/Gelbvieh cross, we got from Bill Harris) at Sturgeon, (where this picture was taken) ended up 3rd overall. And got 3rd in his Super heavy weight class at Centralia. We got in line to weigh his steer and it was funny how several people who had seen him Friday night came over to see what he weighed. Poor little thing only weighs 1495 POUNDS!!!! We have had several little things that have been problems in breaking calves this summer. Although the kids took a calf a piece to the fairs, they have THREE calves a piece that we've been working with. One of the mishaps has been that Cody got his big toe stepped on by his heifer and ended with the toenail ripped off, a laceration and crushed bone in the toe. I couldn't think of any 'good way' to blog about it, so I thought that I would throw it in as an aside in this one. We kidded him last night and said be glad it wasn't BUBBA (this steers' name) or you might not have had a toe left. He's just a monster, almost as big as one of our bulls. If we can get it done, Cody has another Steer that was too 'green' to go to the shows this weekend, but we're hoping to take him to Audrain or Monroe County fairs, after the guys have worked more with him. Sam has had bad luck as well. He's got a beautiful red steer (crossbred Red Angus and Gelbvieh) but the darn thing figured out he can get away and even David and Jason have trouble keeping ahold of him, so he's probably out. Sam also has an older heifer, Daisy, that he showed as a Sr. Heifer Calf last summer, but she's big and pregnant and grumpy and goes where she darn well pleases, doesn't get away, because she doesn't really run, she just walks wherever she wants, so she's probably out as well. It's been one of 'those' years, like throwing gas on a fire, the more we work with them, it seems, the worse they get. But the kids love the shows, so we keep plugging along. Maybe next year will be better, crops and cows both!

Kids and Black Cows, Part 2

Sam had mixed results for the first two shows. At Sturgeon, Friday night, he competed against an older heifer and the judge never asked the calves birthdates and he lost out. Then Saturday night he had the Champion Angus Heifer at Centralia, so go figure who knows. Anyway I always try to find good pictures, but it seems that pictures of kids showing cattle you either end up with the kids backside, or the cows, sorry! Sometimes you end up with both, oh well. The above picture was when Sam was in the show ring competing for Supreme Female, which was won by a Centralia girl, Tara Fountain, you can see the 'best side' of her Charolais heifer there in the edge of the picture. He was thrilled also though with his 'trophy' which was a mesh tote bag that holds all the sprays and 'goops' that they put on the calves, in fact the kids already have it full of their 'show stuff' ready for the next show, this coming Saturday at Audrain County, in Mexico, MO.

Kids and Black Cows, part 1

This is a picture that I took Saturday night at Centralia Fairs' Cattle Show. Jenna, with the black calf, braids and hot pink shirt, is talking to the judge, Charlie Gerloff (Angus breeder from Bland, MO who we've gotten to know through the years from showing at the State Fair) The Open Bottle Calf class is always a popular event and as Charlie said it was the best reason to be there, to see these little kids who aren't even old enough to be in 4H out there, I think there were about 8 exhibitors in the class, ranging from 6 yrs to almost 4 yrs old. Jenna had a pretty good weekend at Sturgeon she won the Open Bottle calf class and was thrilled to come home with her grooming brush/trophy. Saturday night thanks to Papa Charlie's donation, all the exhibitors won a new rope halter, which Jenna picked out purple, so Barbie now has two halters to choose from, pink or purple. If Jenna stays this enthusiastic about showing cattle, she'll give her brothers a run for their money.