4-H Anyone?

I know was I raised on a farm in Wyoming, and many may think I actually liked it. I did like the lifestyle, but not necessarily the agriculture behind it. I did 4-H but all I did was cooking. My option for taking an animal was a steer and my answer to that was hell no...well heck since I was little and probably not allowed to say hell. I watched my siblings show their sheep and steers as they grew up and watched my mother work so hard, and I decided I wasn't going to do that with my children....I have once again eaten my words. My kids are involved in 4-H.

Blake and Bailee are both in 4-H and taking sheep this year to the fair. This had been totally stressful for 2 years now. They have to be 100 pounds to for the kids to show them and to sell them at the fair. Our fair is Labor day weekend and we don't get the sheep until June 1st. Poor Bailee her little lamby, Zac, is weighing in at 86 lbs right now. He isn't going to make weight and she is bummed. We have this ewe which Beau named Bay (as for the Baa Baa sound they make) that we wanted to keep so Blake can do a breeding project next year. Now Bailee has to take Bay and that ewe will be sold. We are all a little bummed about that. Blake has Larry the Cable Sheep, and he has to add another 20 lbs so that he is finished...are you getting all the lingo that goes into the 4-H animal world? I am definitely learning. the amount of money my kids have spent on feed this year is incredible. Not only have feed costs gone up they have had to put so much weight on these lamby's.

Blake also has chickens. He ordered 10 that he researched to be great chickens both for show and hearty enough to make it through MT winters. Don't get me started on what I know about chickens...it is in fact scary. The dog has eaten 9 of his new chickens. We are hoping to keep the 1 that is left alive. He has 3 from last year, but we already know that the judge won't like them since they are sun bleached! I guess you are suppose to keep chickens indoors so they aren't exposed to the sunlight?! Who knew...I just know I let them out to eat grasshoppers, cuz I hate grasshoppers worse than chickens.

These projects have been fairly stressful this year and my kids will probably not do well at all and I think Blake is going to be very disappointed. Bailee will not know the difference...and in fact she won't plain care...she is her mother's daughter. She is just mad since she can't take any of the money she will make and go shopping.

So that is the beginning of our 4-H story for this summer. It will continue.

Here are some pictures of the stars of this post!Blake with his chicken...she is not cooperating

Larry the cable sheep, and Zac (the little one is Zac)