Stock show

Back in October, I told you that SweetBoy got a lamb to show at the stock show.  It was a wonderful experience!  I must admit that I had visions of chasing the lamb down the street because she jumped the fense, but we had none of that.  And SweetBoy did an excellent job taking on the responsibility of feeding, watering (even breaking the ice when it was frozen), and exercizing her.  He would walk her to the post office, make jumps for her, or just run around the yard with her.

After months of preparation, it is time for the stock show!

First, they had to shear her and wash her on Thursday.  I felt so sorry for her!  It has been cold!  SweetHeart assures me that she will be fine.

Then it is time for weigh in on Friday.  SweetDoll has been SweetBoy's righthand helper all the way.  No big surprise there!

I completely forgot the fashion for these things.  SweetBoy did have his Wranglers on, but we didn't have the boots and button down shirt to complete the outfit.  Next time we will know!  SweetDoll had the boots and jeans and a horse shirt.  On Friday night our ag teacher's wife said, "Oh, I have a hat my daughter outgrew that will just match those boots!"  Saturday is the show and we are all ready!

This is our county show, so it is a smaller group of exhibitors.  Many of these kids will go on with their animals to bigger shows in the next few months.  The judge we had was fantastic because he explained exactly what he was looking for.  It was great for this newbie to understand what was going on!  And the other kids were great to help the younger ones.  They are definetly a group of kids I don't mind mine being around.

Meme and Granddad were able to come up, and Granny and Papa came over, so we had our fans in the stands!

There were three classes of lambs (distinguished by weight of the lamb).  SweetBoy won first in his class!  Then he was in the drive for grand champion.  Don't you love how I have the lingo down!  His lamb won reserve grand champion, which means that his was the second best lamb at the show!  It was partly DNA--that is just the way she is made.  But part of it was the muscle that she built because he worked with her.  Way to go!

After the lamb and goat part of the show, they had a pee-wee showmanship competition where the little ones can show an animal.  It is great for the little siblings who have been out there working along side big brother to have a chance to get their feet wet in the show ring.  Of course, SweetDoll signed up for that!  And the ladies from school were telling her, "Now you always look at the judge and give him a great big smile."  Oh. my. word.  The girl poured on the cute and poured it on thick!  And the hat just made it! 

That picture made the front page of our local paper (a better version of it).  The poor boy that was up against her just didn't stand a chance--and he had a big kid helping him. SweetDoll walked off with the prize!

At first I thought oh no, she got a trophy and SweetBoy only got ribbons.  But there was no need to fear, he got a belt buckle!  A huge, beautiful belt buckle!

Then it was time for the auction.  We preped the little ones that when the auctioneer started, he would talk really fast, and they were not to be raising their hands!  We didn't need to bid on an animal tonight!  He started and SweetDoll's eyes got big as sausers!  It was funny!  Then, I should have known better than to tell SweetTate not to raise his hand!  Of course that is all he wanted to do, and we were close to the front!  The guys catching bids did see him, but thankfully understood that it was not a serious bid.  At one point the auctioneer teased, "That boy just wants to help, let him!"

Some very generous people "bought" Snowflake at the sale.  It was a fun, successful day at the stock show!  Now it is time to say good-bye to our award-winning lamb!  It will be a little wierd without her in the backyard, but they already have plans for the next one.  In fact, SweetBoy has a whole 5 year plan and is scoping out land for his sheep farm.  Gotta love that boy!  God has some kind of stratagizing, managing career ahead of him!  And I'm thankful for positive experiences like this that prepare him for it.