Return Of The Kat
Farewell To The Fair
It is after emerging from a three hour nap and washing and drying a whole tractor bucket full of laundry that I am finally getting back to my Steemit blog. The past week of my life spent being a 4-H beef leader at the North Idaho State Fair was one of the most challenging and rewarding chunks of activity that I have ever engaged in. There were victories and heartbreaks, moments of levity and an incident of bullying. Everything about being a human was magnified while at the fair. At times I honestly felt like I was going a bit mad.
There were a bunch of new benchmarks in my timeline. My phone said that I walked over 72 miles from Monday night to Sunday night. Nearly all of that walking was too and from the beef barn. If anyone had told me that being a market beef 4-H leader during fair week was a guaranteed ten pound weight loss, I would have totally scoffed. Slightly humbled and lighter post fair moi would nod respectfully in the receiving of such news. I mean, I never even got to eat any fair food until Saturday, almost a week after I had arrived in the place. Don't worry though, I made up for my lack of fair comestible intake on that day!!
Another first was getting over 100 text messages in two hours. I felt almost like someone important. Heh. Wednesday and Thursday were show days for my Beeflings, and all I have to say is that I have a whole new respect for people that show anything from themselves to animals and everything in between. Showing steers on a crunched timeline was an incredible bit of maneuvering, and if you know any kids that do show steers, please shake their hands and tell them you are amazed by them. It takes a ton of grit to train, bathe, groom, and show a 1400lb animal, all whilst crowded in with about 60 other 1400lb or so animals. What a rush it was!
I have tons of pictures, anecdotes, tales, and behind the scenes insights to share with you all. What I don't have is a whole lot of energy at the moment. Tonight I shall leave you with some sights from this year's North Idaho State Fair, and this coming week when my brain cells finally reboot, I plan on catching up on my sharing all of the things I want to share with ya'll in the blogosphere that is Steemit. I have missed you all, but my absence has also been in the service of something super amazing and excellent!
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Yay! Glad you are back! Our fair is smaller and shorter and I haven't allowed the kids to get into any animals yet. It's just too much for me with the little guys and no family to help. Last think I need is to lose a 2 & 5 yr old among the animal barns! Lol! This Mama is stickin' with Sewing, Archery & some good old open class entries as long as possible! Lol!
I love the BC fair!! And I totally understand the no animal projects thing right now. My two are 11 and 13 so they are old enough to do all the required chores and handling, but there is a ton of work in parent land too, so it is totally all hands on deck in the labor department!
I'd love to see all the Crowbar family's handiwork, maybe I'll get to wander up that way for a perusal next year:)
@generikat Ah yes.. What fun ages. My oldest is 12 and I just reecently, as in the last couple weeks, have taken a renewed interest in my appearance. Don't get me wrong, I shower and brush my hair and teeth, but it's all been very basic and minimalistic for the last 8 years especially. I used to be a cosmetic consultant. I had always loved doing makeup and hair. Even after the first baby, I continued that, but with baby #2, I remember seeing moms who looked so cute and polished and thinking I just was struggling to get enough sleep and was not about to wake up half an hour earlier when I was already sleep deprived to impress whoever. So, now the baby is actually 2.5 and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. Perhaps this will continue and I'll feel more adventurous by next year... 😆
Welcome back from Fair-Land! I hope you didn't get too wet on Sunday, but it sure was nice to have some rain again! I don't think it had really rained around here since early July. I am looking forward to your future fair posts, once you get some sleep and regroup. I haven't posted about my trip to the fair yet, either, and I don't even have a good excuse!
Thank ye! I was sad to have missed you Saturday, but that was auction day and an especially crazy bit of running around with my Beeflings!
I am so, so happy to get the rain, I can breathe again! Yesterday when I was cleaning the trailer out I stopped and marveled at how nice it smelled, and I could even see the mountains, LOL!
Sleep did happen, but regrouping is still in progress, hopefully you have gotten a bit of both:)
You were looking a bit wrung out when I passed through the fairgrounds on Sunday, so I am glad to see you survived the demobilization drudgery too!
I had achieved maximum exhaustion by that point. You were lucky I could make an even semi passable and coherent thought by then. I kinda felt bad that you showed up on sad wrung out Kat day, lol! I'm still out of it!
You had to spend nearly a week at the fair before you could enjoy the glorious food? That's the makings of a terrifying horror movie. I'd be too scared to watch it.
Get your rest Kat, I'm sure you earned it.
There was a funnel cake, deep fried candy bar, roasted turkey leg, and cheeseburger place within smelling distance of my trailer, but honestly, I didn't stand still long enough to really even eat much until Saturday afternoon, and I had been at the fairgrounds since the previous Monday night! It was slightly torturous, ARGH!
However, I totally made up for that lack of comestible enjoyment. I am still having fond memories of the double bacon cheeseburger that I inhaled, lol!
Hope life has been treating you well my friend:)
Always take your time and come back when refreshed. Remember this is supposed to be fun, not a chore! I love when I have just oodles of material to share!! We all look forward to hear all about the highs and the lows. You always are a master storyteller, just sayin :)
Awe, OGP, you are always the voice of reason, and more than a big part of the fun too:) I just got in the door from a full day of work and a bridal shower, so no writing tonight, so you see, I am taking my time and trying to be refreshed even though I feel a bit like stale lemon at the moment, LOL! Hope you are having a fantastic evening!!!
What a week! I helped my cousin show one of her Jersey cows at a Summer fair - that is a lot of work! I can only imagine being the leader of the 4-H group. Hats off to you, Kat!
On another note, Moo Bear looks adorable, and I had to take a second at that camel rider to see if you were the lucky one on top.
I would have totally ridden that camel if I wasn't running the beef sector of things. Maybe next year, lol!
And I so love that your cuz showed a Jersey. They have the best noses and eyelashes:) That was too kind of you to help!
Nice animals fair . Beautiful animals photography i appriciate you . Thanks for sharing @generikat
Without Wi-Fi, I just feel under the weather!!
Beautiful animal photography post I appreciate your valuable content thanks for sharing this beautiful life
I enjoy fairs when I can get to 'em... I just don't get there often enough.
Nice photos!
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