fair prep

One special aspect of fair is the anticipation. The younger kids have come to expect a few hours baking time with mom to prepare some foods to enter in the fair. Andrea made bread. 

Merle made chocolate chip cookies. 

Lia made a few things and got to help clean-up. The amount of dishes we use in a day is staggering. 

Afton made banana bread. She made quite a bit of that this summer. I'm pleased with her advancement being able to follow a recipe and make tasty food. 

We had a lot of tears over this. Afton had painted her most favorite animal a cheetah as her final art project for the year. A sister somehow stabbed through the canvas thus ruining the picture. We got rid of it as it was no longer useful. When we couldn't find the picture many tears and insults were thrown. Livy found the remains in the burn pile. A few days later I remembered the why. Poor Afton she was very proud of this picture. 

Livy, Reed, and Bruce spent time gathering crops at our farm after getting the pivot moving again. Something happened that they had to spend a few hours fixing the pivot thus cancelling their time to go gather crops at Uncle Kevin and Papa's farm. We don't usually do  very well at the fair as our soil is just not as strong, deep, or water retaining as other places in the valley. But Reed found some very impressive samples and was proud to enter them in the fair. 

We got the pigs weighed early the next morning all made weight this year. Then it's time for their first bath. The strong stalls make for a secure handling environment. 

After picking beans we stopped to harvest some wheat for Addie to make a wheat sheaf. Livy helped.

The lead-up to this fair was rocky and stressful. With the resignation of the Ag teacher a lot fell on Addie's shoulders to answer questions, organize, and be the leader of the chapter. Another teacher volunteered to be the adult "sub" but the main make it happen was on Addie. She has been to countless training workshops and seminars and this time to actually be the leader, organizer, communicator has been good for her.  

Photo advertisements were completed for each chapter member. 

And with that we were headed to fair with lots of hope, excitement and caution about what could happen with the very conteneous lead up we were not sure how smooth the week would go.