Johnson County Fair

Our county fair is in full swing and although my daughter is not showing this year, it has been fun to go see the projects, watch some of the livestock shows, and enjoying the chocolate milkshakes from the Farm Bureau building as well as the delicious foods that many of the vendors have. I absolutely love the fair!

Things that I have noticed is that the number of kids involved seems to be down as well as the number of projects and animals that are there. It is sad as I have always enjoyed the fair and once we became involved in 4 H certainly looked forward to it each year.

I am going to try to share much of the week with you. I have taken some photos and I have enjoyed sharing some of the ones that my friends have shared as well.

This sign sits at one of the entrances to the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds is a beautiful area even when the fair is not going on.

Livestock is a big part of the fair. 4H kids spend a lot of time with the animals and I have seen tears when auction night comes. Pigs, Cattle, Sheep, Goats, Rabbits, Chickens, and Horses are all shown during the week.

There is a lot of work that goes into the fair, but there is plenty of fun to be had as well. This was taken last night during a celebrity goat milking contest. There were  a couple of local news reporters that we involved in this competition. Elizabeth Choi, a reporter from WISH TV Channel 8, was the winner as she was able to get 2 pounds of milk into a bucket in the allotted time. She is on the far right in this photo. You can also see members of the fair queen court in this photo.

The Farmer's Olympics is a favorite event of the week. This was during the three legged race or sack race, whichever you happen to call it. The gentleman in the blue shirt in this photo is the fair board Vice President. I personally know him as he attended high school at the same time I did. He and his partner done quite well in their race, but was unable to win the entire race competition.

The two young men are sons of my dear friend and are going to each be 10 year 4Her's when they are finished with their time in the clubs. They show pigs along with a few other projects, but were happy to take part in the Farmer's Olympics. They were the winners of each set of their races. I believe they could be called the Sack Race Champs.

Another part of the Farmer's Olympics is the wheelbarrow race. In this particular version, you literally have two people and one sits in the wheel barrow while the other pushes to the opposite end of the barn. Once they are there, they change places and race back to the starting line. A lot of laughs and a lot of fun had by all.

Tonight and tomorrow night, the grandstands will erupt with a lot of loud cars and many wrecks as the demolition derby drivers will hit the ground. Each year this is one of the largest drawing crowds to be found at the fairgrounds. I know a few of the drivers and they take this quite serious. The competition is fierce and they look forward to taking home the money! It truly is fun to watch if you never have!

This is the 4H logo. Do you know what the 4 H's stand for? Head, heart, hands, health. Ask any 4H'er what the pledge is and I am sure that they can say it without thinking. It is something that they normally do at all meetings and something that they know is important.

Of course, you can't have a fair without rides. This was taken on kids day and is just a sampling of what kids can do at the fair. This is a Thomas train. The company that runs these rides is known as Poor Jack Amusements and this year is their 50th year of providing rides to this fair.

I will leave you with this beautiful photo that was taken by a friend of the ferris wheel. It is an absolutely delightful photo as far as I am concerned.

If you have a local, county fair, please take a few hours out of your day to visit and let the 4H kids know that their work is not in vain.

A Rampage in Germany

My post that I began writing was about our county fair, but it is with great sadness that I feel I must write about the horror I am seeing on the television right now. It is of a gunman shooting innocent people at a McDonald's in Munich, Germany. Reports are that six are dead and there are possibly 3 gunmen on the loose in that city.

Witness reports are that the gunman entered a bathroom at the McDonald's and came out opening fire and targeting children. The reports are coming across that it is potentially another terrorist attack. There is no credible confirmation that it was ordered by any particular group, but there have been reports of ISIS activity in Germany for several months.

It seems that we are still shocked by these types of attacks and yet, it seems that they are becoming almost a daily occurrence. Munich is warning residents to stay in and away from all public places and mass transportation has came to a halt due to this attack. It seems that terrorist attacks are becoming more common and that it might lead to an end to many of the public events that take place.

My heart goes out to the families that have been affected by this tragedy. My prayers go up to God to protect anyone that is in the area. I have cried as I can't imagine how a day at McDonald's could possibly end in such a horrible way. These families were simply enjoying a lunch and time together. How terrible that innocent children were targeted! How terrible that children are threatened by an adult that has no ties with the children. How horrifying that children need to fear going into a public place like McDonald's!

As a nation, we must stand for our rights and we must stand ready to fight this type of terror. I do not believe in vigilante justice, but something needs to be done to stop these types of killings. Whether a person is Christian, Muslim, Jew, or even an Atheist, should not be a reason for them to be killed by anyone! We are all humans and we all need to show love and compassion to those that are less fortunate than us.

#lovetoMunich

Deam Lake

After we returned from our vacation, I promised that I would share some of the photos that I took of the area we were in and just realized that I never done that so I will on today's post. With all of the trouble going on around us, it is nice to wake up in my small corner of the world with the ones I love and a beautiful view of my garden, my horses, and a wooded area that seems to cut us off from the rest of the world at times.

Spending nine days camping this year for vacation was a true delight. Nine days of no news, no shootings, and a fairly calm and nice trip. There were a few glitches and a rather large snake involved in that trip, but overall, it was a nice break from reality. A nice time with family and friends since both of my girls were able to go as well as my grand doll, a term I have borrowed from other bloggers.

I would wake before others most of the time and so I would walk around camp just to enjoy the quiet that comes from being camping. Here was the view that I seen while walking near our campsite. This was from a site just a couple down from us. The cabins that you can see our located in the family camp, which is really not that close to the horse camp but looks like it when you look from this viewpoint.

The following photo is one of the lake basically right behind where we were camping. It is so nice to be near the water in order to fish or go out on the boat. Normally, we take a paddle boat, but we decided against it this time.

Here is a photo of our campsites during the week. Our neighbors that we can with have the same trailer that we do and we both have white trucks. It's interesting how similar we are in about all that we do. You notice that the campsites are shaded and nice. The grass was a little taller than I would prefer, but not bad.

This is taken from the back of our campsite. As you can see, we are right by the water. This is nice because even the younger ones camping with us can fish while we are still able to see what is going on. Nice for the boats as well.

This is a photo of the hubs and I after we enjoyed a nice meal at Huber's Family Restaurant. If you are in the area, you must visit this restaurant. Great food at good prices and there are two farm markets, a winery, and a couple of play areas for the kiddies. Great times for all!

Enjoyable vacation and we always look forward to this week. This year was nice as both of our girls went and some other friends went as well. The trails are good for horseback riding and it's the perfect place to relax. I did not get a photo of the beach, but it is very nice and the water is refreshing during the summer.

Service Personnel

Those that choose careers that serve others can be called heroes even if they never do anything extraordinary in their careers. These days our police officers, fire fighters and military are in harms' way at each turn and we take those people for granted. They have a job and they do it.

When I think  of Sept. 11, 2001 and the tragic events of that day, I think of how many fire fighters chose to rush into those buildings to save lives of people that they did not know. Yet, they went! Their duty and honor to serve and protect came into use immediately!

The Dallas Police officers that were policing a peaceful protest that turned deadly for some of them never once thought that they did not want to do their job. Their duty and honor to serve and protect meant that they put themselves in harms' way when the shooting began. They chose to defend themselves the best that they could under a planned attack on them. The only reason those men died was because they were police officers.

This week, a dear friend of mine lost her brother in a suicide. He had served three tours in Afghanistan and suffered with PTSD. The disorder won. He chose to rid himself of the pain that most of us never will understand. His duty and honor was to protect his country and he done his job well. Did his country do him the same duty and honor? No, soldier related suicides are becoming a huge problem and we all need to be aware. Do you know that there are 20 suicides a day of veterans? How scary is that number? We all need to be aware.

Today, say a prayer for those service individuals that do their duty to serve and protect us. Say Thank You to a policeman, fire fighter, or service personel.

Dallas Officers Ambushed

My heart breaks as I hear of the ambush on police officers at a protest in Dallas, Texas yesterday. Suspects in custody doesn't ease my mind as I think of the families that are dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one that was only doing his/her job. I realize that police officers are always putting their lives on the line, but this was totally an attack on them.

5 lives lost due to someone else deciding they should die. This attack involved multiple shooters and was a precise attack on the officers that were aiding with the protest and were not wearing assault gear. Dallas officers, Dallas Transit officers and civilians were all under attack but the attack was set to kill officers. I believe that there are 12 others injured and some of those are civilians.

Police are saying that the attack was a planned attack with 2 shooters that were set up in high areas to viciously attack these officers. A sad day in America when police officers can't go to work without fearing that someone will purposely take their life from them. I realize that officers are being given a bad name when it comes to so many shootings that seem to be black men shot down by a white officer. I understand the Black Lives Matter protests, but let's remember that "All Lives Matter".

I don't care if a person is black or white. I don't care if an officer is black or white. During any kind of confrontation with an officer, people need to be respectful and do as they are told. If an officer is rough with someone, then it should be reported to their authority and it should be dealt with the correct way. Police officers have a hard job to do and many times are sent into a situation that is very volatile and are unaware of the danger that may be there. Drugs have a lot to do with the way that others approach officers, but that is why we need to handle some of the issues that we have.

Officers that shoot anyone for no reason should NEVER be allowed on the force again. An officer that handles a suspect roughly that is not resisting arrest should NEVER  be allowed on a force again. Let's remember that they are the enforcers of the law but they are not there to take law into their own hands.

As a nation, we need to be aware of what is going on around us and we need to demand changes to the justice system in our nation. We need to demand that criminals stay in jail where they belong and not be allowed to murder and be out in 2-5 years. Murder should be a just cause for the use of the death penalty. Let's quit feeling sorry for the criminals and stop worrying about their civil rights as they do not consider the civil rights of those that they are killing. Anyone that shoots an officer should receive the same. Criminals need basic civil rights, but sentences need to be harsher and longer.

#ALLLLIVESMATTER