It’s that time of year again! With Wild Man and I up in the mountains for the winter it felt like the fair arrived very quickly this year, he and I only had a month to get to know Lilia’s resident sheep, Shrek and Fiona. On Tuesday it was go time with tack setup in the late afternoon followed by an early pickup Wednesday morning to get the sheep to the fairgrounds (thanks Lance!).
As always, lots of primping in the early hours before showmanship on Thursday morning. Both sheep were looking pretty spectacular with a fresh shear and a few hours in Lilia and Wyatt’s tent salon. Max skipped school to support his sister and we even had a surprise visit from Gramps to see Lilia show, great to have everyone there to root for her.
The first few pics below are of the junior 4H class, great to see Cam Munselle take out the honors there. Her signature mean stare – something she’d perfected over the years showing pigs – as well as some deep brace positions did the fam proud. Lilia performed super well in the senior 4H showmanship class, she was rock solid for the first three quarters of the comp with bracing so still she was like a stone and great eye contact with the judge. Shrek unfortunately didn’t cooperate when the judge asked Lilia to reposition him close to the barricade, which would have pushed her down the ranks a little, but we were all pumped for her with a sixth place finish and ribbon amongst a pretty solid senior field.
I think Lilia was a bit disappointed with Fiona’s place in the lightweight market class (market class is more of an assessment of the animal’s fitness for market rather than Lilia’s ability to show the animal). Fiona was at the bottom of the pack, with comments from the judge that she needed to fill out a little more and have more continuity to her sections. Shrek performed better in his midweight class, again notching a sixth place to match Lilia’s efforts with him in showmanship. Might be time to try a new breeder next year!
The main event – the livestock auction – this afternoon was fun to watch, as always. Prices for the kids seemed to have recovered from last year (although not back to their pre-2022 peak, I don’t think…). There were so many pens of rabbits, I think a few participants probably only just broke even there, but otherwise a lot of 4H and FFA members will have walked away with an expanded stack of pocket money after all their months of work raising their animals. Lilia’s lambs were deep in the schedule but the 60+ buyer letters she sent out over the past few weeks paid off and she was very happy with the auction prices for Shrek and Fiona. That’s it for another year, I have no doubt Lilia is looking forward to her first sleep-in since late January tomorrow morning!
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