There are large numbers of Ladybugs in my garden.




Even though they are bugs, I don't mind them too much. They are nice to photograph because they stay still. Besides, they are beneficial insects. What's not to love?




This bug, on the other hand, is a pest. This bug is the reason my garden looks so ugly. This bug is evil.



The spotted cucumber beetle is not photogenic. He moves too fast, and will quickly fly off to find another leaf to munch.

I. Do. Not. Like. Him.

Squ-i-i-i-sh

Napping

My friend Chuck---an update...

Another day in the chicken coop. Chickens milling about; the doors cracked to let in the breeze.

But...what's that I see? Let's take a closer look.



It seems that Chuck has decided to visit the chickens.





They don't quite know what to do with him...




In fact, they seem quite baffled at his appearance.






He just wants a friend. Someone with whom to while away the lonely hours.





He appeals to the viewer...





...but sees that it is no use.





He will always be an outsider, alone in the crowd.

Market Chickens

My daughter raised 3 broiler chickens to take to the 4H/FFA market auction at the fair. When starting this project, the plan was to sell the chickens at auction. First of all, she had to raise more than three. Since we were raising some anyway to sell, the chickens all lived together. Then the day before fair, she chose out the best 8 to wash and clean up. The next afternoon we chose the 3 roosters that were closest in weight and took them to the fair.

There isn't a lot that goes into showing a group of chickens in a market class. There is no pressure on the person showing to perform (unlike the showmanship classes) so all they have to do is stand at the table and make sure the chickens don't get loose.



The judge goes down the table, looking at the chickens, picking them up, looking at the weight papers, and feeling their undersides. Gross. She needed gloves. There were 5 other groups of chickens on the table, 3 of which were ENORMOUS. The top weight limit is 6 pounds (my daughter's were 4.5, 4.5, and 4.75 pounds) and these guys were definitely at the top limit. The others were smaller.

As I mentioned before, the plan was to sell the chickens at auction. Market chickens don't get as much money as a pig or steer, but for the money and time investment they are worth it. The plan, however, did NOT include winning Reserve Champion Market Poultry.



But I am not complaining. It came as such a shock to me I could hardly snap the picture. She looks a little pleased, don't you think? The judge said that my daughter's chickens weren't as fatty as the other FAT chickens and she liked their straight toes. YES!! We must be doing something right.

Along with the lavender rosette ribbon and banner, my daughter won a fancy belt buckle.



Somehow, a belt buckle that looks like it belongs at a horse show doesn't quite look right with chickens on it...


The auction started Saturday afternoon. The champion and reserve champion winners decorate the cages for auction to make their entries stand out:





I had several people ask if my daughter would have trouble selling her chickens--would it upset her too much. Uh...no. It isn't like they are cute fuzzy bunnies, or a beef that she has nurtured for almost a year. It is dinner. Yum.




Maybe next year winning won't be a complete accident.

Bragging

Warning: This entire post is a shameless brag on how wonderful my kids have done so far at the 4h fair. If you are put off by parents who brag about their children or if the mention of the color PURPLE makes you cringe, go no further. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I mean it.

Really. I really, really mean it.

This is your last chance.

Okay, fine. Yesterday when we took the animals to the fair, we had to stop over in the static exhibits building to get wrist bands for the girls. It so happens they had all the exhibits from yesterday judged and beribboned, so we took a look at how everyone did.

One more note: Please excuse the quality of the photos. I was in a hurry as I didn't know if taking pictures was allowed so I wanted to do it quick. Also the light was dim and I didn't have on the right lens for low light. And I was in a hurry.

How about if we start off easy. The scarecrows haven't been judged yet, so we don't know how they did on those.

Here is 14 year old daughter's mummy:



11 year old daughter's gorilla:



and 10 year old son's hunter:



My 10 year old son got a blue ribbon on his drawing, and it will go to state fair.

Now for the purple:

All from 14 year old daughter. She did a cooking contest a few weeks ago--and won.



Beautiful peas. The radishes weren't so nice and got a red. She did that on purpose so as not to discourage the other 4hers with her skill.



A purple for both art projects! She also got a blue on her carrot cake (according to the judge it was too moist. WTH? Not gooey, just too moist. Can a cake be too moist? Apparently so.) and another champion ribbon for her tortillas.




Then the topper. The over the topper. This is the third year she has entered an educational display. There is always something wrong with it. Too much this or not enough that. She took all the criticism to heart and created this:



The judge loved it and gave her a champion ribbon. I said (being a perpetual mom, always on duty) "See what happens when you work hard and learn from your mistakes?" She also won a Premier Exhibitor award for the display, which will net her $20.

Today is Showmanship class for rabbits and chickens, and Market Poultry class-- my daughter's chickens weighed 4.5, 4.5, and 5? No, please reweigh that last one... 4.75 pounds. Not what we had at home, but I am not going to challenge mean animal barn lady too much. She was actually fairly not rude (one step down from semi nice) to us yesterday. We will see what today has in store.

Giving Chickens a Bath

This is one of those things that I never thought I would do. Three years ago if someone had said, "Hey, Cristy, how about giving these chickens a bath!" I would have laughed. You don't give chickens a bath!! Or do you? Well, you do when you are getting ready for a show, apparently. The white chickens my daughter is raising for the 4H market auction are going to the fair today and they need to be clean.

We went out to the field pen with our scale and picked out 8 chickens of similar size to wash. For the fair, they have to be very close in weight so we will choose the three best ones before we leave. It is best to have a variety to choose from.

How to bathe chickens

You need: Dish soap, vinegar, a toothbrush:



A big pile of towels and three tubs of water: one with bath-warm water and a bit of dish soap, the second with cooler water, the third with coolish water and a little vinegar.



It is best to have two people--one to hold the chicken and one to do the scrubbing. Guess who got to do the scrubbing. Hint: it wasn't my daughter (although to be fair, she did wash the other 4 chickens earlier in the day with no help).

Put a chicken into the warm water and get wet. The chicken, that is, but you will probably get pretty wet as well. Scrub him up. For the broiler chickens, since they spend a lot of time laying on their bellies, the toothbrush is handy for scrubbing off the caked on poopies.




Put the chicken in the first rinse bath:




Then the second (and hope he doesn't poo in the water):



Wrap the chicken in a towel to dry him a bit. We try not to get the head too wet--I just scrubbed it a bit with the toothbrush. They hate the entire process, by the way.




Next we put the chickens into a pen with clean straw and a heat lamp. They look pretty bedraggled and sad at first:




But after about 45 minutes, they look all pretty and fluffy:



The countdown begins: 4 1/2 hours until we take 7 chickens and one bunny to the fair.

My New Friend

Meet Chuck. Don't be shy, go ahead and say Hi! My friend Chuck is a Chukar. Hence the name. I don't know if he is male or female, but I am going to say male. Unlike most birds, male and female Chukars look much the same.

Every morning when I go out to feed the chicks, Chuck is there, sitting on top of the chicken pen.



I talk to him while I walk around feeding the chicks and, like most good friends, he laughs at all my jokes and doesn't mind if I talk too much.



He gets a little nervous if I get too close, though, and if I make any sudden movements he will fly away. I don't mind, because I know it isn't personal. He is still my friend.

I don't think I will be going here anytime soon.

Things

Many things have been happening here at our little house that leave me little or no time to blog. Either that or I have been wasting my time doing other things besides blogging, you decide.

Sick: I was sick for several days. Then almost my entire family was sick. They ate some tainted pizza. Then I was sort of sick again for one day. I only had one piece of pizza. I think that is over now.

Fourth of July: Parade, family bbq, fireworks. Who could ask for more? There was even some swordfighting.






Big chickens: My (daughter's) broiler chickens are getting big.



They are mostly over 3.5 pounds which means they are at fair weight. That is a big load off my chest. My oldest daughter will be taking three of them to the youth fair next week. They will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. If only we hadn't lost almost 1/3 of them on our hot day this week, I would be very happy. Live and learn I guess, except that I am tempted to give up on doing chickens since I can't seem to get it right.

Getting ready for fair: I wish this didn't involve a lot of time from me since the kids are the ones with the projects, but I have to do a lot of nudging. Yeah, nudging, that's it. Not nagging. Nudging sounds so much nicer.

One child is not doing any projects because he didn't take his photographs by the deadline I gave him. He still hasn't said ONE WORD about it either, almost 2 weeks later. A simple "I really don't want to do photography this year, Mom" would suffice. It isn't like I am forcing him to do anything; I really don't care whether he does the project or not. It is the ignoring of it that I care about.

Another child was to have 3 rabbits to show at fair, but now she only has one--also because of our hot day this week. She should have taken some ice bottles out to her bunnies, but she didn't and 2 of them died. I am feeling guilty because I should have reminded her. I really didn't think it was all that hot. The animals were fine last year when it was over 95 degrees for almost an entire week.

One child has about 10 projects, plus all of her chickens. This is the one child I don't have to nag...er, nudge. Much.

Then there is the filling out of all the records. Ugh.

Swimming lessons: We finished 2 weeks of swimming lessons yesterday. The kids had a great time swimming with cousins and playing at the park afterwards. Except the 4 year old, who cried the last 3 days of lessons. Her excuses: "I'm nervous my bandaid will come off." "I am nervous because I don't want to get cold." "I'm nervous because __________." Whatever. Obviously, she went in the water anyway. I just threw her in and the instructor rescued her. Not really.

New deck: What? Finish the garage? WHY??? We NEED a new deck. Besides, a deck is a quick project, then we can get back to the garage. Right? Right. Heh.





Right now, most of the siding is on the garage. We need to put the drywall upstairs (12ft long pieces that won't fit up the stairs) through the wall, then close up the end. Paint garage, then roof. All of this must be done quickly because once the pile of drywall is in the garage it can't get wet.

The stringers and joists are all up on the deck. Floor, railing, and steps are left.

See? I have been busy. Or lazy, but looking busy. Can that be done? I didn't mention driving to gymnastics every day, or weeding the garden (which I haven't been doing) and the flowerbeds (which I have been doing).



I have been squashing a lot of Spotted Cucumber Beetles too.