The fair is over!

The fair is finally over.  Goats are home and happy. Kids are rested and happy. Parents are recovering and happy.  It was a long, cold, rainy fair this year.  We didn't do as well as we expected to, but the kids had fun.  They are already making plans for next year.

Robin, over at Fishing For Words, summed up our fair rather nicely.  Check out her post.

For us it looked like this

Fudge for the fair

Putting the finishing touches on the boxes of fudge this morning.  We are donating 15 lbs of fudge for the auction this year.  Besides auctioning the animals the kids bring, every year the fair auctions off products that represent the animals that don't get sold, like dairy goats.  We are donating goat milk fudge for this years goat product auction.  We hope it sells for a lot so the kids make some money on their fair projects.  The total from the auction gets split among the kids who brought non-meat goat projects.

We made Chili Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Espresso, and Butter Pecan.  You can get some for yourself from our Local Harvest Store. 

Fair Game (on!!!!!!!!!!!)

Goats are shaved and delivered to their pens in the BARN.

Milk-out is done.  (We all milk at the same time to insure that your overinflated udder has had the same time to get there as mine...)

Goats are stressed, but in their pens with as much good food and fellowship as possible.

5 production does in the mix this year.   Part of me says "what's the point..... the other part says if we don't then goats disappear from the gene pool in our area."  Which is more important?????????????

The Fair

The County Fair starts tomorrow.  It's a fun time for the kids and for the community.  It's something we have looked forward to every year.  But, this year I'm not feeling the excitement.  This year the timing seems bad.  Fall is here, it's getting cold, and we have a ton of stuff to do to be ready for winter.  School has started, and the kids have a pretty heavy academic load.  And then there is my brain.  It won't turn off right now.  It keeps throwing out questions like WHY?  Why would you shave your two best goats just as cold weather is arriving?  Why would you make them live for a week in a tiny pen and eat bad hay?  Why would you try to compete with people who raise one goat as a pet just for the fair, feeding it pelletized show food and never letting it out on grass?  What are your kids getting out of this experience?  You raise your animals one way (because it's best for the animal and for the land) and then you make your kids compete with them against other animals raised in a completely different way (a way that will produce the results the judge is looking for, but not a healthy, productive animal).  What's the message you are giving your kids?

It's going to be a long, bleak week.  I'll try not to inflict to much of it on the world in general, but ...