White Pine County Fair 2012

This weekend is the White Pine County Fair. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I love county fairs! We drove into town Friday night to go to the big Cattlewoman's BBQ. Several hundred people went, and we had to wait in a long line, but it was worth it. The food was delicious! The kids were getting a little tired (meaning whiny) so we had to leave before the band got going. Maybe some other year we can hear the band!

The next morning Desert Girl woke up so early. Arghh! This was a morning we could sleep in a little. We did a couple errands and then headed to the fairgrounds. We were in time to see the cousins show their animals.

Megan had a nice-looking lamb.

She had to work hard at getting the lamb to mind her.

Kayli had a lamb too. She also had some eye-catching pink cowgirl boots!

The judge had them all line up in a row.

My husband watched intently while Desert Girl just enjoyed climbing.

When the judge touched Megan's and Kayli's lambs, they jumped! They ended up getting blue ribbons. Nice job, young ladies!

We went and visited Melanie's lamb. She was busy with last-minute grooming. Then we went over to see the pigs. They were so fascinating that I didn't even get any photos!

Then we went in search of the cousins and found Alyshia preparing her steer. She and her steer have had quite the battle of wills. Her first steer cleared the fence when he jumped away from her, so she had to use her alternate steer. The alternate steer apparently didn't have quite as good jumping skills, but it didn't want to be around anyone. During the last few weeks when it was supposed to be finishing, putting on that last weight, instead it lost weight. That still won't keep it from going to fair and getting sold.

I'm not sure who dislikes this more--Alyshia or the steer!

She led her steer into the show arena without any problems.

Smile, Alyshia!

Caleb's steer had had some of the same problems, but still made it in the heavyweight class.

Caleb has gotten so much taller and stronger this last year! It's fun to see photos of Caleb at Desert Boy's age, as there is a strong resemblance.

While we were watching, Desert Girl found her new friend from the night before, little Kate. They had fun in the grass and then climbed the fence.

That was enough time to be fast friends, hold hands, and go for a walk!

We headed over to the exhibit building. Both Desert Boy and I had entered some projects.

I entered five photos, all of them in the photo above (although one is displayed sideways!). Can you spot any?

I was so excited to get a Reserve Grand Champion for my portrait of Desert Girl!!

Desert Boy found that he had received a blue ribbon for one of his pictures, a train and the Big Dipper.

He also got a blue ribbon for his artistic flower arrangement, and another for his jewelry entry of California floater shells from a nearby reservoir (I still have a bunch of photos to post from that excursion!).

Those girls were just so adorable!

Next it was time to wander about the booths. One of the mining booths had this sandbox with some simulated mining structures. The kids absolutely loved it!

Desert Boy did an art project involving a hammer at the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition's booth. That was another winner!

Ely's Hometown Band played some wonderful tunes.

We really enjoyed watching the puppeteer and clown make balloon creations for the kids.

Then it was time for some games. The first was the water balloon toss. Desert Boy paired up, and I figured he was going to get drenched because he hasn't had much practice throwing and catching.

Looking at this photo, I now understand why he has some problems catching--closing your eyes doesn't make it easier!

The next game was a watermelon eating contest. I'm not sure if Desert Girl was unhappy about being in a light drizzle or being woken up from a nap or something else. When the starter said, "On your mark," she started eating. We told her to wait, and she burst into tears and didn't eat any more. She did get to take her watermelon with her and eventually ate some of it. It was really good watermelon. I tried it.

Desert Boy went to the table with the next age group.

He did an admirable job munching away at his watermelon.

While I was nibbling at Desert Girl's, they announced that the last category was age 13 through adult. A sudden flash of inspiration hit me. I was an adult (well, technically, maybe not mentally!), and I could enter. I still had room for more watermelon, and it was REALLY good watermelon. Plus I have all these terrific memories of blueberry pie eating contests and watermelon seed spitting contests from when I was a youngster and my parents took me to the fair. I tried to round up a few more people to enter, and found one willing young friend.

The rain was pouring by now, but I had a rain jacket and decided to go for it.

We had two picnic tables of people competing. We had to keep our hands behind our backs and eat as much as we could.

The starter said go, and as we bit into the sweet melon, the rain continued to pour. About half way through, the guy next to me got up and went over toward the watermelon cutter. I wondered what he was doing. The next thing I saw was a man giving him the Heimlich. Yikes! I wondered if I should get up and help, but the person assisting him was doing just fine, so I kept on trying to get down to the rind. And then our minute was up, and I was surprised how well I had done. In fact, I had done so well that I was declared the silver medal winner! And my young friend was the gold medal winner!

Here I am with my medal! Yippee!

I'm still waiting for those endorsements to roll in. I'm sure my phone will be ringing any minute now.

Moving Cows

 On the way back from Cedar City, I saw something up ahead. As we got closer, I could see horses, trucks, 4-wheelers, cows, and dust. They were moving some cows.

 It looked like the cows weren't the only thing on the move--a flock of birds flew alongside some of them.

 The cows were strung out for miles, cows and calves plodding along towards their summer pasture.

 Most of the time they were single file, with fabulous mountain scenery in the background.

 Isn't that great geology? Or are you looking at the cows?

 A Red Angus is daring to mix in with the Black Angus.

We rounded the corner and the cows were a little bunched up. But then they figured it out and continued as far as the eye could see. When I see cows like that, I feel like I'm in an old Western movie.

It's That Time of Year

 I saw lots of cows out in the meadow near the road, and then I noticed that these cows were sporting an accessory. Do you see it?

 I'm not talking about the mismatched earrings. Although I kind of like that fashion, and I could really make it work. What I'm talking about is the piece of orange tape across the top of their tails.

 They seem rather nonchalant about the tape.

The heifers (female cows that have never given birth) are fed a feed additive to help synchronize their heat (reproductive cycle). Then they are taken off the feed additive, given a drug and a gray tape is put on the tail head (top of the tail). The cows mount each other when they are going into heat, which scratches off the gray and shows the orange. In this way, the cowboys can easily detect which cows are in heat. Within a day, they are artifically inseminated (AI'd).

In the old days (like when my husband was 15 years younger), he helped detect the cows that were in heat by watching them all day and as long into the night as possible. If he saw a cow mounting another one, he would shoot the one being mounted with a paintball gun. After awhile, the cowboys would come out and separate the marked ones.

It wasn't always easy using the paintball gun from a distance and from a horse. In addition, my husband remembers the old method was rather boring. It would also seem to rain a lot, making it an even more unpleasant chore, so this new method is much appreciated.

After the heifers were AI'd, they went out to the meadow. If the AI'ing doesn't work (about 20% of the time it doesn't), they will get to be visited by a cleanup bull in the near future.

If you want to learn more about the whole process (in more detail than you might want--but where else are you going to read this stuff?), than check out this previous blog post.

Cows and the Moon

 Last night we happened to be outside as the nearly full moon was rising. The heifers were nearby, so we went out to visit and enjoy the peaceful high desert evening.

 The colors are muted in winter, with no leaves to cover the brown branches of the trees, no verdant grasses emerging from the ground, nary a wildflower peeking from a pile of manure. But it is still so beautiful.

The kids wanted to say hi to the cows. The cows were willing to entertain a distraction--from a certain distance.


Then it was time for a different distraction--some snow. I love how Desert Girl is checking out her big brother.

Tonight is the full moon. It seemed to take forever to rise, but by the time I came out of a meeting, it was obvious. While we were waiting for the full moon, we could see four bright objects in the sky: to the west were Venus (the brighter light) and Jupiter. They are getting closer together every night for the next few nights. To the east was Mars, with its reddish tinge. And to the south was Sirius, the dog star in the constellation Canis Major. Before long the stars making up Orion were twinkling at us. It was fun showing the kids a few objects in the sky.

One of the things I want to learn next is about the moon. So here are three things to look for in the photo above (and I must say it's a much better photo than some of my recent attempts!).
Where is?
1. Copernicus Crater
2. Mare Tranquillitas
3. Oceanus Procellarum

Answers coming soon!

Newcomers

 Desert Girl isn't the only one celebrating a birthday in recent days. We've been welcoming lots of new calves on the ranch. These calves are born to heifers, first-time mama cows. And they are absolutely darling!

The ones in these photos are a few days old. They've been moved from the circle field, where they were born, to a different meadow, which I drive through twice a day. That means there's lots of time for oohing and aahing.

 It looks like this calf and heifer are sniffing each other to make sure they've found each other okay.

 This heifer and calf are giving me a dirty stare. I guess they wanted a little more privacy.

The calves love to play and go running all over. I can just imagine these heifers trying to figure out where their little one has run off to.

We've had a really mild winter so far, so that's making these new calves have an easy welcome into the world. We're hoping they continue to do well. If you want to see more about cows on the ranch, just click on the cows label below, and you'll see lots more posts.