County Fair

I don't know what it is about County Fairs and State Fairs, but I love them. Part of it is tradition, part of it is mingling with others who also like "country" stuff, and part is just the fascination with all the entries and displays and offerings.

A couple weeks ago went spent an evening at the Sedgwick County Fair. It was a perfect evening for our visit - overcast to keep the heat down, not too windy, not too many people. We had a great time.

Of course we always go through all the barns an inspect every specimen of livestock and make comments ("not near as many sheep this year"). We admire the vegetable garden entries, and enjoy the Fair food (my favorite part!).

Below are a few photos I took that evening.

Waiting for their turn to show off.

Steven and his sister enjoying some fair food.

(I liked the red & white one)

(Well, she quit washing the sheep right as I snapped the photo. Oh well)

One of the pen full of bulls for the Bull Riders Blowout (which we did not see)

and


This little gal went home from the fair with us! This pullet was being shown by a young 4-Her, and Steven liked her coloring to fit with his breeding program. So we made a deal with the owner, and she became ours. She has a very tame temperament too! (Wish I had a photo of her standing up instead of lying down like this)

= = = = = = = =

This week at home, our young peach tree split in half under the weight of too many peaches on the branches! :( That was sad, but we saved all the peaches, and I will probably can them this week. We're not sure if the remainder of the tree will survive. Our pears and other fruit trees are also very heavy laden this year (it is a good fruit year) so we will do all we can to prop up their limbs or thin down the amount of fruit per limb so we don't lose any more branches.

It is extremely hot here this week - dangerous heat index warnings (like, around 110 degrees heat index). Not a lot we can do but take it easy and make sure all the animals are cool and well watered. Since we don't have air conditioning in our home, we have learned to endure the few days of summer that are almost unbearable like this; enjoy the other summer days that offer a breeze and a more modest warming to get things done, just as our forefathers did!

This week Steven also purchase a Black Copper Marans rooster that someone had listed on Craig's List. He is young, but very handsome. This all fits somehow into Steven's master plan for his poultry breeding project.

Photos to share

Haven't updated in awhile, so thought I'd share some photos of what we have been busy with around the home place.

First, several of our chickens went broody around the same time, so Steven put about a dozen eggs under each. As we got into the very hot weather a week or so ago, the success rate wasn't as high, but we still got several chicks. These will probably be our last batches for this year. Steven will go through and select the ones that best fit with his breeding program, and sell any others at the poultry auction.





Also, we still have some of the older chicks, which are doing well (we already sold a few of these). The brownish/strange colored one is a cross between our Iowa Blue hens and our New Hampshire rooster.


Steven also did some maintenance on the windmill head. He makes it look like its so easy. (I should note there were also hornets up there who didn't appreciate his interference, and buzzed around, but nothing stung him)


Then this weekend, we got a deluge of rain that pretty much flooded the pasture. You can click on this link to see the whole album of photos of it.


The rain has made the weed-work in the garden quite taxing. That is why I'm not sharing any garden photos with you this time. *wink* Things are still growing, it just isn't pretty. However, our young peach tree is really loaded!

and Steven found a bird nest in the lower branches: