I am supposed to be working on someone's Squidoo Lens right now which totally explains why I am here instead; Procrastinators of the World (of whom I am queen), take a break!
Seriously, I can't focus on html codes and punctuation and links and very confusing internetty stuff that I don't fully understand (but pretend I do) until I get the big Saturday report up here for all of you. After all, I'd feel ever so guilty if any of you were losing sleep over our latest goating adventure.
You are all losing sleep over this, aren't you? I mean, how could you possibly relax until you know how well Girly-Girl did in her goat show? Hmmmmm?
Saturday was insane. We had to leave here by 6:45 am to make it to Bangor by 8am which is when we are supposed to check in. There were some paperwork snafus at the check-in, but we eventually got everything worked out. Then we went to check on our goats and THEY WEREN'T THERE YET! Aaaaaaaack! Panic!
Fortunately they arrived around 9am, which gave Girly-Girl some time to work on Emma before the show at 10am. Poor Emma and Midnight were the only goatlings from the farm who were coming to this fair. Our fearless 4-H leaders had just brought them in the back of the truck. One happy, crazy Nubian (all nubians are crazy) and a poor, terrified, unhappy, stressed-out, underweight, badly clipped LaMancha.
Our usually lovely Emma had diarrhea from the stress and she looked awful. The owners had been out of town for a week or so and the farm sitter had underfed the goats. They had all lost weight and poor Emma looked emaciated. If you add that to a choppy job with a shaver (an unsupervised 8 year-old "helped" Girly-Girl shave her), and the hung dog look of a stressed out goat, you will understand why Emma placed sixth out of 6 goats for "fitting". Fitting = grooming.
Then I, groovy but unexperienced 4-H mom that I am, entered Girly-Girl in the wrong showing class. They were all 7 year-olds like Girly-Girl, but they had all shown before and had some experience. She had next to none since this was her very first show. She was SO adorably cute and oblivious while she was showing. She just put on her charming smile and beamed and paid no attention whatsoever to where the judge was. She was so precious! I know if that judge had taken one look at that beautiful, proud face she'd have gotten an immediate first place. Unfortunately, he was more concerned with her goat handling and maneuvering abilities; She also got a sixth out of 6.
We were momentarily concerned that she would be discouraged by taking last place in both events, but our fears were unfounded because sixth place participants get large PINK RIBBONS!!!!!!
Do you understand that? They are PINK!!!!!!!!!!
Even better, she got $13 for EACH sixth place. Three cheers for 4-H events!
Girly-Girl LOVED the whole experience and is pushing us to go to every fair in a 2,000 mile radius. She is also scoffing at my attempt to register for an easier class in the next show. In fact, I think she's completely oblivious to the fact that she and Emma "lost". She loves her Emma and was very proud of her kid for walking so well and not misbehaving. She is also proud that she (Girly-Girl) wore white clothes for over 2 hours at a muddy fair ground and stayed reasonably clean!
As for Silly-Head and Midnight, they had a great time too. Silly-Head ran around and ate candy and played with her goat. Midnight kept escaping her stall and running out to find us. She's a clever goat! She also had an even WORSE shave job than Emma, so I'm kinda glad Silly-Head didn't want to show!
We have 4-H today and we're going early to do some SUPERVISED shaving so Em looks a little smoother for the show next Sunday.
Here's Girly-Girl working to get Emma ready for the show ring. See how Emma's head is down? Note how bony she looks and how choppy her fur is? Not good.
Here's Silly-Head with Midnight. See that near bald strip on Midnight's back? Hahahahaha!
Ready to show!
Here's Silly-Head with Midnight who persisted in escaping from her stall no matter what we did to block her in.
Girly-Girl and Emma in the show ring.
PINK RIBBONS!!!!!
10 comments:
oh my GOSH, i'm SO PROUD of gretchy and emma! haha...i sat here cringing and worried that she'd feel bad 'losing' but PINK RIBBONS...oh it does NOT get any better than that :-D :-D YAY GRETCHEN!!!!
and...poor sad little emma!
if you have more pictures you are obligated to send them to me because come on, these are my sisters and their goats!
Adorable post, Groovy. With a mom like you and your attitude your girls are certainly winners and so are the goats!!!! It's the journey that is the advanture.
Susan
That was great! Congrats to GG and Emma! Pink ribbons ROCK!
All for of those "kids" are so adorable! What great attitudes - winners all around!
Alot of mention of Bangor in bloggyland here lately. I'll have to check that place out one of these days. Preferably fall or spring!
Congratulations! What a proud moment for all of you!
Those pink ribbons would make any little girl smile! :)
I was looking into various clubs for the coming year, and 4-H was one of them...my oldest seemed especially fond of this idea! If you have any pointers about getting started, I'd sure appreciate it!
(I've e-mailed the contact person in our town but haven't heard back yet...)
Anyway, loved all these pictures! Adorable!
Those pictures are just so adorable! hey it's a pink ribbon so what else matters?
I want one of those pink ribbons!! I'm just soooo proud of Girly Girl...as I use to tell my boys, it's not what place you win, it's that you tried your best with what you had and had FUN:-) I so love all the pictures...poor little Emma, though, but I'm sure she'll bounce right back once she's fed properly and shaved properly!! Both girls are so adorable:-) xox
Those are the most adorable pictures of Girly-Girl and Emma. I'm so happy they both got big pink ribbons and $$$. What a grand and wonderful experience. If I had been judge, I would have cracked at the total cuteness of your duo and given them Blues and all the prize money.
What a fabulous post. Congrats all round. Your girls look so proud. I wish they did shows like that in Sydney. My son would love it!
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