I have plenty of other blog posts in my head that I want to share but I haven’t had time. I’ll skip ahead to the State Fair that just finished. I’ve given up keeping this blog “journal” in order.

The last time we were at State Fair was in 2019 and after that the world changed. The pandemic shut everything down, but my “altered universe” began after a serious accident in October 2019. I don’t know why I’m including that here, except that I think it contributes, along with the significant demands on my time, to how this seemed so complicated this year. My thanks go out to my Farm Club members who pitched in and to my husband who did a lot of the “heavy lifting”.

I didn’t get a “before” photo. Imagine the blue pens extending all the way to the white chair on the left. That is was a double row of 8 pens back to back. The first step in setting up the display was to remove four pens and figure out how to deal with the tall double panels that make up the fronts and have the power cord attached.

These are the four pens remaining on this side for sheep. We also have sheep in the pens on the back side.

The fair has a Marketing Program competition with the goal of encouraging livestock participants to provide educational information for fairgoers. My display has always been competitive, sometimes trading 1st and 2nd place with some of the other producers. I wanted to rate on top again this year. This is the display area near our pens.

Farm Club members help set it up and demonstrate for the public. Some members came for two or three days and some came for one, but they all contribute in very important ways.

New for this year was that my granddaughter, Kirby, was at the fair all four days. She and her mom and brother were here for two weeks prior to the fair, and Kirby stayed behind when they returned to Texas.

Kirby spent a lot of time at the Touching Table talking to visitors.

We had raw wool to touch (Q: “Why is it called greasy"?), horns and horn buttons to examine, and temporary tattoos to give out.

After talking to people at the table Kirby was glad to show them the sheep and answer questions.

This is Kirby with her lamb, Rose.

Friday was Kirby’s 8th birthday. She had a party on the weekend with her cousins and other grandparents, but we needed to mark the actual day before we left.

The main gift from us was a stable (thanks to a FC member) for her horses. She also got a coupon to pick out a new Breyer horse at the feed store on one of the days after the fair.

We spent Friday with more public interaction. This post has includec mostly photos of Kirby, but notice all the Farm Club members in the background. They played a front and center role even though Kirby is the focus of most of these photos.

These were long hot days, but Kirby hung in there very well. I’m impressed.