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The Orleans County Fair opens today. A week of 4-H kids showing their animals, exhibits from local businesses, a midway with a Ferris wheel, fireworks, and all the features of a back-country punkin doin's. I just love living here.
Alpacas are a big deal locally. You can buy their fleece and spin your own yarn, or get spun yarn from the alpaca farms.
My dad raised Whiteface Herefords, but other breeds are populating our small farms, like the Belted Galloway this young fellow is showing.
4-H Exhibits include common garden vegetables, market packages, cut flowers, indoor gardening, fruits and nuts, plant collections (and scrapbooks), landscape pictures and plants, experiments, and horticulture methods all judged and displayed throughout the week.
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I love watching the veterinarian shows on TV when they go to the fairs and the kids show off their animals. They are so adorable! They work so hard! 4H is a wonderful endeavor for kids. I love that boy's grin in the photo, Doug.
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I admire the kids who participate. My dad tried to get me interested and I did show a calf one year, but it just wasn't my thing. I was a big disappointment to my dad; the only thing that I loved that he appreciated was my basement printing shop with hand-set type and a treadle press. He hoped for a hunting companion or someone who loved his farm like he did, but allergies and an interest in handguns over rifles scotched those. So he tolerated me, and we were on good terms, but not what I would call close.
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We showed milk goats at the fair when I was a kid. We sold grade B dairy from Jerseys & Gurnseys. But we had goat milk for us kids. Goats can eat absolutely anything and produce milk - great if you're trying to feed kids on a budget.
We had one milk goat that won every year. My sister and I took turns showing her - Clover - she apparently looked like what a milk goat is supposed to look like.
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Some good friends of ours raise goats. They are the responsibility of their two boys, 13 and 10 years old. Two of the finest boys I have ever met. Those kids are a lot smarter than I remember being.
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When I was a teenager I knew a lot of kids living on dairy farms. One family showed Holstein milk cows. I was interested to know that not only did they shampoo and brush the cows before showing them, but they also applied black shoe polish to the hooves, and to the dark skin inside the ears.
Holsteins predominated the dairies. Another friend stated there were only 3 herds of Gurnseys in Missouri, including theirs. Holsteins develop large udders that cause problems after a few years. Gurnseys are a bit more hardy over a longer milking life. Most people chose the Holsteins because they produce more milk.
Another family had Jersys, which are known for producing higher fat content. They are also significantly smaller. That farmer chose them so that his wife could handle the milking if he was sick or otherwise unavailable - he had a full time job at the high school.
I never showed any animals, but I loved growing up on the farm. I was not cut out to be a farmer, and I wanted some financial stability so I left. But every kid should be lucky enough to live on a farm.
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