I wish I could add some sounds of the fair but I just can't figure out how to do that ~ it is doable but not for yours truly. Wouldn't it be great to open the blog and also hear Jimmy Buffett! The possibilities are just endless. Maybe someday I'll find my brain and be able to make sense of complicated, technical instructions but probably not today!
So the fair finally opened yesterday and LOOK who was there (and is required to be here all week!). None other than Miss Sioux Empire - aka Lexy. She won the competition Monday night and will go on to the Miss South Dakota competition next spring!! She is a cutie and a sweetie indeed and Rick thought it would be delightful to have a photo of us with her ~ so here's lookin' at y'all!
We had so much fun (well I did anyway) walking and walking the grounds several times yesterday. I think my favorite part is "Old MacDonald's Farm". This is sort of a petting zoo for kids - well maybe not as a lot of the animals are not accessible but it is a nicer, much better lit area than the barns are. We did go through a couple of the barns and Rick made a comment that the smells (hay) took him back many years to the Hingham Riding Stable where he, Patrick and especially Nancy spent many many hours - it was an interesting observation, a nice trip down memory lane I think.
Below are the piglets in the OMF area - I haven't made it to the swine barn yet so stay tuned for that ~ as some of you may know I just have this thing for pigs - it all started with the movie Babe and the stuffed Babe that Rick gave me for Christmas one year. My Babe talks and she and her pal Wendy traveled all over the country and many Caribbean Islands with us before we retired - we have pictures of them everywhere raising havoc - Wendy has a reputation for bad behavior (problem child that she is). Anyway, I may have to go back to OMF today and try to count the piglets in that pen cause I certainly can't tell from this picture how many there are, but that's quite a pig pile isn't it!
The pen below (not accessible for children to put their hands in!) is a bull and a buffalo. I didn't notice the ring in the bull's nose until I uploaded the photos but when I saw it it reminded me of my mom because........... many many (perhaps a thousand or perhaps 40) when I wanted to get my ears pierced ~ this was a huge long long battle in my house ~ my mother was so horrified that one of her daughters would want to do such a trashy thing that her most often used line was "what will come next a ring in your nose" ... so I guess that was my trip down memory lane yesterday but I think Rick's was a better one.
Here is Mama goat and baby ... that baby just would not leave Mama alone - it got really physical trying to get in there and poor Mama just put up with it. I think that baby needed a few minutes in a time out chair but I decided not to suggest it and let Mama do her own child rearing without any outside interference.
And below are tiny horses - smaller than a Shetland Pony I think. A few months ago I found a picture of Patrick (taken in September 1981 when he was three) walking a small pony around Hingham Riding Stable and these horses reminded me so much of that picture. (p.s. I have been trying to upload that photo for 20 minutes and just gave up so I can post this blog entry!)
Outside OMF they had this wooden cow (Rick says it is "udderly ridiculous" isn't he so witty).
Inside the cow is a bucket of water with four "udders" sticking out the bottom and kids "milk the cow" - well I still remembered how to milk a cow successfully - I guess it may be like riding a bike tho! Rick had no interest in trying to milk the cow .. silly Rick.
And how about these beauties - Kimberly are they guernsey or jersey cows? They are such a nice color. In the dairy barn there also is a cow who had just given birth two hours prior - they had already taken the calf back to the farm and were going to "hand" feed her with Mom's colostrum for three days then they feed her for three months (I think it was) rather than her having her mom's milk which, being a dairy farm, is income for them! For some foolish reason I thought that of course they would allow the calf to nurse from Mom!
The last photo today is me with the Sioux Falls Marine - I wish it were my own Marine, who I think is visiting Graceland today. The Marine booth here at the fair had a pull up bar set up and a list of "prizes" (stickers, shirts, visors) you could "win" for doing a certain amount of pull ups - Rick won a sticker! Too funny. I did discuss with the poor recruiter that my Marine preferred going to Iraq rather than recruiting again - can you imagine trying to recruit right now!
Today we have a couple errands to do, Sir has a doctor's appointment and we need to pick up Rick's new eyeglasses. Then tonight we start our "work job" selling tickets ........ we have official "staff" shirts and all! Stay tuned for that one! They wanted us to start last night but we had already made plans to have dinner with our Sioux Falls friends Rick and Jaye so we officially start at 6:00 tonight! Sioux Empire here we come!
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