So here's the deal.... Last week was fair week. It was crazy, exciting, nerve-racking, dirty, overwhelming, wonderful, sweaty, & special. I'm not sure how to communicate to you all how many emotions we went through.
First things first... here is Isabel's Digital Photo entry... she did such a great job. She took pictures of random things that resembled letters to spell out the 4H's in the 4H theme. (Head, Heart, Hands, Health). She turned it in and won Reserve Grand Champion! Woo Hoo!
Whew! Now on to the chickens.
Before we got started, we decided to take them out to our backyard for a little "photo shoot". (Sorry the pictures are so small... click on them to blow them up)
OK, with that done, it was time to focus on getting them ready for the fair..... First, we took them out to Ronda's house to bathe them in her TUB!!!! Score!! We didn't even have to do the dirty work in our own house!!! Everyone needs a "Ronda" in their life! (For more reasons than just letting us bathe our chickens in her tub... I could go on and on about my Ronda!)
Next, it was time for "Chicken Check-In"... (Ok, may I say that I LOVE to say that... over and over and over. It's a fun one... try it!)
Chicken Check-In (hee hee) was quite the process, first we had to have them tested for disease & lice... thankfully we passed. Then we had to purchase a special water thingy that hung on their cage with... get this.... a FIGI water bottle! (Well, actually it didn't have to be a FIGI water bottle.. but my "chicken guru" Ronda told me that FIGI worked the best because of it's square-ness... so FIGI is what we got!) After all that, we were finally able to tuck them in for the night so that they could get their beauty sleep. (After all, they were being judged the next day!)
The next day is kind of a blur... there were a lot of chickens, dust, judges, ribbons, sweat, questions, corn dogs and kids! It was a long 8 1/2 hour day. But get this:
OUR GIRL WON GRAND CHAMPION!!!
What is that about? Who knew that chickens that were raised in a tote on the deck of a condo would win??? Isabel did such a good job! She placed 3rd in her showmanship too! Wow!!!
The "Champions" were auctioned off a few nights later... My girl made major bank! Let's just say that she doesn't need to hit us up for money for awhile! Here are some pics of the events:
Now for the hard part.... SAYING GOODBYE. Wow, this was hard man. After taking care of them for the past few months and then experiencing the whole "fair" thing.... We're all very bonded. (Don't laugh... it's a strange thing that we're feeling...not sure how to deal with the separation.)
Here are the last few moments....
Farewell sweet birds.... be good, stay pretty, do us proud.
