Fair is over once again and that makes us sad! I have to say that my beautiful daughter made me so very proud this year as she won 13 ribbons in all and tried many new things. All of her projects won blue ribbons and 3 of those won honors ribbons. She also won a fourth place in the horse and pony costume contest by dressing herself as a zookeeper and by making her horse into a zebra. How cute she was!!
 Her groovy cupcakes were a hit with the judge at the create a mix booth and she received a blue star for those. She was impressed with the creativity and using the bubblegum flavored icing was a real addition. Way to go Bridget!! I think she is going to try to start a small business using these for birthday parties. She can add flavoring to the cupcakes as well for an added touch. The fact that the cupcakes turn out almost tye dyed is simply exciting for her!!
 She also ran her first barrel race and done rather well considering that her horse is not a barrel horse. She unfortunately ran the wrong way around the first barrel and was disqualified, but better luck next time I guess. I am sure that we will be doing a lot more as she LOVED  doing them. She also done her first trail class and done well in controlling the horse when he seemed to be spooked at the yellow rain coat that she was to rub across him. Oh well! He will learn the same as she is.
 She sold her bunny at the 4-H auction on Friday night and was thrilled that it sold for $100 and the gentleman who purchased it was only doing so to sponser children so she got to keep the rabbit as well. We really would not minded if he would have kept it, but she can pass it to someone else now. Her total earnings were $125 so she was happy about that and that will go into some of next years projects.
 Well, looking forward to next year and hoping that she had as much fun as I did. For anyone who has never participated in a county fair, you really don't know what you are missing and I say if you have ever thought about entering an item into the fair, then do it!! You will not be sorry that you did!

Summer Drought

Well, as many parts of the United States have seen severe storms that have knocked power out for days, we in the central part of the United States are struggling with very hot and very dry weather. It has been a long time since we had a good rain here and I know that the farmers are in need of rain as well as our lawns and the animals could sure use a break from this horrible heat! Temperatures are to be over 100 degrees the next few days and with very little rain in sight, there are many ways of celebrating this Independence Day holiday as fireworks are being cancelled and banned in most places in our state.

I have found that putting frozen water bottles in for the rabbits has been a great source of  relief for them. The horses are getting fresh water several times a day and they really enjoy a cool bath when we can provide it for them. It is just too hot to really enjoy them and as we are getting ready for fair week, I am certainly praying for cooler weather. I hope that we get some ran and cool before then. Last year the heat index was over 100 degrees most of the week and it caused major problems for most of the livestock at the fair. Certainly do not want that for this year!

We enjoyed a long week of camping at Deam Lake last week and I must say that it was a nice family vacation. We went with our neighbors and really enjoyed the trip. We got to do some swimming, which I learned to do a little bit of last week while being terrified of water above my shoulders. We also done some time on the water in our paddleboat and we spent a lot of time just sitting and chatting.

We did visit Marengo Cave and I suggest anyone who has not been there should go. It is absolutely beautiful and at 52 degrees year round, it was a perfect place to spend a hot summer day. It is a US National Landmark and so we can count it as a field trip for school as well. This cave was discovered by two young children, a boy and a girl who were both under the age of  16. I certainly hope that they knew in later years just what a natural beauty that they had discovered!!

Well, lots to do so I better cut this short. Hopefully, I can do more later. Look for photos soon of fair projects!