Fair Wrap Up

Well fair is finished for another year.

Thanks to Trudy for posting a great write up

on Krista's accompolishments this year.

As you may remember from an earlier post about the cookie jar

http://trio-of-sisters.blogspot.com/2008/07/project-deadline-fast-approaching.html.

Krista finished the jar up on Sunday afternoon. Heck she still had two days to go.

Side one of jar.... a cow

Side two of jar.... a horse

Side three of jar ...... a windmill

She baked cookies all day on Monday and into Tuesday.

She had to have four kinds of cookies.
She made snicker doodle, Oatmeal Raisin,
Cowboy Cookies and Apple Sauce Cookies.

Yes, she used Grandmother Hall's recipe for the apple sauce cookies.

 Applesauce Cookies (Grandmother Hall’s)

½ c oleo
½ c brown sugar
½ c sugar
1 egg slightly beaten
1 t soda
1 c applesauce (unsweetened)
2 c flour - not sifted
1 t cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg
½ t salt
½ t baking power
1 c chopped raisins
½ c chopped nuts
Cream oleo, sugar - add egg - blend
Add soda to applesauce and stir into mixture
Add flour
Frost with powder sugar frosting.

By the way she received a purple ribbon for in her Six Easy Bites entry, applesauce cookies!

The cookie jar was judged on Wednesday and she received a blue ribbon for it.

On Friday afternoon, after the beef show was done the auction began.

Krista sold her jar for $285.00! I think that figures out to $5.94 a cookie!

The gentleman that purchased the cookie jar is working with Keith at the ranch for the next month. I told Krista she will need to keep the jar filled, while he is getting the angus herd ready for the dispersal sale in September.

Of course Trudy just laughed at this...... as she is still waiting for her refill from two years ago.

Dani also had fun at the fair. She entered projects in the Cloverbud division and received some great ribbons.

Dani showed Ginger in the pet parade

Dani showed a sheep in the peewee show

and a goat in the peewee show.

But the most fun for Dani was

hanging out with the fair royalty all week.

Yowza!

I forgot to post the most important picture of the day from the fair! What can I say? It was late and I was exhausted from trying to keep up with Sister Two.

Isn't that just the sweetest belt buckle you've ever laid your eyes on?!!!

Krista really, really wanted one of these! Her hard work paid off,

I wonder if she'll stick with her lucky 4-H belt buckle that she got from

Grandma Pam or if she'll wear this one next year.

Krista, Krista, Krista

It seems like just yesterday that Krista was playing in the sand like these kids were at the county fair.

Now she is busy with her own livestock.

She works hard all morning and is finally ready for the ring.

But first, she has to wait.

and wait.

But Snoopy doesn't seem to mind.

Mom does though .... she's nervous and seems to be saying a last minute
prayer while Dad dispenses last minute advice.

Finally, they get to enter the ring.

The guy in the checkered shirt is Lance Miller, the judge.

She has to set the feet just right and she works at it.

But finally, Snoopy is set and Krista waits for the next set of instructions from the judge.

The judge really works them out and has them move their livestock throughout the ring. He also has two competitors exchange places to see how they handle their steers when they move.

Then he asks questions.

Then they parade them through the ring again so he can have another look at them.

He likes what he sees and after a very, very long narration as to how he made his choices he finally announces that Krista has won Champion Intermediate Showmanship.

She's just a little happy .... and rightly so after all of the 5 a.m. bathing and grooming!


The really cool part was that she received it from Dani, who was helping out with the ribbons.

I'd say that Dani is just a tad proud of her sister!

Posing for championship picture

after Championship picture!

Dani congratulates Snoopy and tells him that she wishes they don't have to sell him now.
Krista assures her that she's going to try to buy him back.

After she won the Intermediate Showmanship, she competed in the overall competition.
But before that took place, the senior division had to show.
So, Snoopy, Krista and Mom waited patiently.

They showed again and then the results were in.

She was named as the Reserve Grand Champion for Market Beef.

All in all, Snoopy and Krista had an exceptional day. She won Reserve Champion for Market Beef, Champion Crossbred Steer, and Champion Intermediate Showmanship. Oh, and let's not forget that she also got a purple ribbon in the carcass division.

The day before she had received a blue ribbon for Intermediate Sheep Showmanship

and a purple for Market Sheep Rate of Gain.

She got a blue ribbon on her art entry as well.

It was a great day and I am exhausted, but I can hardly wait until next year when Dani gets to show for the first time. It will be interesting to see how it goes with two kids showing .... they can both show three beef entries. Dani wants to do a goat and has already struck up a deal to buy one.

Speaking of goats, this little guy was my favorite part of the fair. He is only three weeks old. I wanted so badly to steal him, but I also value my life and my happy home so I left him with his momma. But believe me, it was hard.

Congratulations Krista! Job well done!

Sister 2 and Hubby Rock

In the 15 years or so that my sister has been married to Keith, I have probably had two dozen conversations with the man. It's not that we don't talk .... we do .... but we just don't have real conversations. But let me tell you, he has my utmost respect. Anybody that can live with Sister 2 does! Just kidding.

Seriously though, I've always felt that Keith was worthy of Katie (and vice versa). They complete each other and are totally dedicated to their kids. I can't begin to imagine trying to keep up the pace that they do. Between fund raising for their private school, to taking leadership roles in 4-H, to church, to sports, concerts, dance recitals and other school functions as well as working full time .... they are constantly on the go. I get tired just listening to their schedule.

I got up at the butt crack of dawn to drive to Hemingford, but these two had been up long before that and by the time I got to the fairgrounds they were already immersed in readying the livestock for the show. I don't care how stressed they are or how tired they might be, they never lose their cool and become impatient.

The three of them work so well together. They seem to just know what they should do and they do it. And they do it without running into each other or getting annoyed about anything. To top it off, Keith is fair superintendent so while he and Katie are busily trying to prep the livestock, they were both bombarded with a gazillion questions. Really, it was a gazillion. I counted them. And yet, they never lost their composure. They could help everyone out and if Keith needed to take off for something, Katie just stepped in and finished up whatever needed finishing.

(Sorry about the butt picture Krista --- that just happened to be where you were working!)

Out of the 173 pictures that I took of Krista and her cows today, this is one of my favorites.

Simply because she and her dad work together so well.

Synchronicity. Pure and simple.

I've been going to the beef show for three years now

and I still can't see how they know what to clip.

To me, it doesn't look like there's anything there to clip.

Prepping the legs is also interesting.

Even when I think they look pretty darn good, Keith welcomes tips from the neighbor.

Your diligence and hard work has paid off. You have two fantastic kids.

You guys both rock!

project deadline fast approaching

The county fair is fast approaching and my darling daughters are

waiting until crunch time to start their projects!

We have 12 days and counting......

One of the projects is the kids turning a ordinary pickle jar into a designer cookie jar,

filled with 2-4 different kinds of cookies.

So here is how it goes

Ordinary, empty glass jars....

With a little creativity and a dose of aren't you done yet talks..

we have

or perhaps

My favorite one she did was of a cowgirl picture decoupauged on red western print material. That was edged in thin rope.

It was her first and my favorite.

But somebody forgot to take a picure of it.

Ummm, who would that have been??

But the best part of the cookie jar contest at the local fair is that after they are judged

they are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Let me tell you some of those grandparents get kinda crazy

once the bidding starts.

So I will entertain ideas on what to turn this ordinary glass jar into.

Since it is still an ordinary glass jar and not some unique, great, exciting creation yet.