THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN

Our town is large enough to support almost the whole list of fast food franchises.  Still the agricultural roots go deep.  There are usually more four-wheel drive pickup trucks than cars on Main Street and no heads turn when a person walks through Wal-Mart wearing a cowboy hat and boots.

A lot of the local kids grow up learning how to care for ranch and farm animals.

 

They bring their best work to the county fair.

There the animals are shown for the judges.

Plenty of hard work goes into getting things ready.

The livestock are bathed, shampooed

trimmed, and buffed up ‘til they sparkle.

Part of showing an animal is keeping the stall clean of, um, critter poo.

 

All kinds of beautiful dairy cows

and beef stock are on exhibit.

Horses and riders are put through their paces

 

for the judges.

 

Even the little kids

 

love the animals.


And, yes, most of the livestock are sold at auction at the end of the fair.   And, although most of the attendants don't want to admit it, there are tears in spite of the money that goes in the bank. 

THE CHICKENS OF MADISON COUNTY

A little over two blocks from our house is our county fair grounds.  It’s the venue for all kinds of events, from demolition derbies to small circuses.  But the County Fair draws the biggest crowd.

 Friends and neighbors gather to show off their produce and projects.  There’s a small carnival with rides of questionable safety.  Merchants set up booths and the aroma of a fine variety of greasy and sugary food fills the air. 

My favorite part of the show is the animals.  The farm kids exhibit their four-legged and two-legged friends all shined up and spiffy for the judges. 

 The chickens have such personality.  This big guy knows he has something to crow about.

This big red just looks like he has evil on his mind.  He’s the same kind of rooster that provided feathers for my Indian Headdress.

 Double winners.  Double gorgeous.

 This poor little lady is missing her comfy hen house with the quiet roost.

TRIPLE THREAT

As mentioned in the previous post there was a triple birthday party at our house.  Birthday cake and ice cream were dessert after an afternoon of swimming. The combined amount of years to be celebrated added up to eighty-one--too many candles for one cake.  We got out our number candles, but discovered we had no number 4--thus the four little candles.

Those celebrating birthdays had plenty of help blowing out candles.

Presents followed. Such as Barbie stuff.

There was fishing gear.  Plus a bell and a horn to go on the 

cool bicycle DH got earlier.  

The above photo was taken when he rode it around
as we were waiting for the Independence Day Parade to start.

GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES

Our place has been a zoo for the last three days.  We have celebrated three birthdays that are three days apart on the calendar.  We had three of our children and their families visit.  And three members of our family:  First Son aka Bobert; his wife, Greasy Lightning, and Youngest Son, aka Beavis participated in the RUSH Triathlon.  Beavis and Greasy Lightning were in the Intermediate Race which is:  swim one mile, bike 24.8 miles and run 6.2 miles.  Bobert was in the Sprint Race which is:  swim a half mile, bike 14.2 miles and run 3.1 miles.  Last year all three did very well and Greasy Lightning was the fastest overall woman in The Sprint Race.  This year Bobert came in first in his age group and Beavis cut his time to a new personal best.

I followed them through the course with my camera.  I managed to get some good shots of all three in all three parts of the triathlon. Lots of pictures follow, mostly here for the racers to show off to their friends and family.  (note to family: high rez pics will come later on disk).

Beavis is the one in the yellow cap and black wet suit.

They're off!

Greasy Lightning

Out of the water and on to the bike

Beavis right behind her.

Transition to bike.

Bobert leaves on the Sprint Race

Almost through the half-mile course.

Bobert on his way to his bike

He's outta here!

I hurry to the next transition just in time to catch Greasy Lightning as she leaves on the run.

And almost miss Beavis on his way in.

And he is off to run the 6.2 miles, much of it is up hill and along dirt trails.

Bobert zooms in.

And zooms out to run 3.1 miles.

In no time at all...he's back.  This year First in his age group in The Sprint.

His wife is right behind him, at the top of the rankings in The Intermediate Race.  She looks cool and fresh after swimming, biking and now running over six miles.

Without much of a wait we see Beavis coming in--way under his last year's time.

These guys may be from Idaho but they're not couch potatoes!

Everyone said, "Wheeew!"