Waiting for Spring

I'm dusting off the farm blog again. Here's the link to today's post...Waiting for Spring. Enjoy!

Razor clamming on the Washington coast

Five layers. Hood up. Rubber boots on. Outside in the wind. Sloshing through surf. Whatever would voluntarily drive someone to those extremes? In our family, it was the call of trying out something new…razor clam digging on the Washington coast during the last day of its season at the advice of a friend. Notice I didn’t mention anything about rain. And it’s a good thing it held off because eventually I was soaked from the knee down and dragging around forty-degree sea water in my boots, all because I got a little preoccupied watching my nine-year old harvest her very first razor clam by herself. That surf has a way of sneaking up on you and catching you off guard. Never turn your back on the ocean or look down for an extended period of time, I tell you.


Anyway, we had a blast. Between the five family members and two friends that we took along we had purchased only four tags but had a haul of over fifty clams...fifteen-clam limit per tag holder. And these guys are big…about six inches long and several inches wide. Not bad for only having two clamming guns. Hopefully the photos will give you a little better idea what’s involved...scanning the wet, receding surf for signs of a clam digging in deep, popping the clamming gun over the top, getting it wiggled down through the sand, and then sealing the air hole while pulling it up with the clam hopefully trapped inside.



Cleaning them was an adventure for my husband about midnight last night, but I left him with the suggestion of checking YouTube for a tutorial while I took home a friend. Good thing, since the video’s advice was a little more specific than that he had been casually told. A pile of shells and innards later, there was a nice bag of clams waiting for the refrigerator.

Now I’m anxiously waiting returning from the girls charter school to start a fire and sit in front of it for an extended period of time to get warm down to my bones. And tackle the sandy, wet laundry and the dishes heaving out of the kitchen sink...but that's beside the point. I haven’t been able to really get warm since yesterday. Then it will be off to try my hand at throwing together some sort of gluten-free breaded and fried razor clams for dinner. Here’s hoping those guys will be delicious!


For those of you who might have noticed, this blog posting might be considered a bit of a celebration at least on my part. I have truly missed the chronicling of our hectic life. I just can’t seem to fit it in. Partly because my perfectionistic procrastination takes over…WANTING perfect photos...WANTING witty renditions of our family’s adventures…when all I really NEED is the recording of little fleeting memories to hold on to in some tangible form other than in photos and our aging memories. Our little day-trip has only been one of a million activities that has kept me away from my blog. It and a radical diet change for the entire family…supporting our catch-up learning of our little right-brained, creative learner who had been struggling with dyslexia…getting our senior son on track for deciding a college and applying for athletic and academic scholarships…being an active member with my husband in our fifteen-year-old’s musical theater program involving building sets and sewing costumes…keeping our livestock happy through the winter…all while trying to keep our focus real and on those matters that really count.

So…look for a blog post…once a week…once a month…whenever I can steal a few moments. I certainly will be relishing the opportunity.

County Fair - Day Six and We're Done

All good things must come to an end, right? So does county fair. Today was promising to be another warm one for us, relatively speaking of course compared to the rest of the country, but still what one would call 'hot' here in the Northwest. Agenda for the day included the Master Showmanship Contest of which Goat Princess would participate in, the 4H Awards Ceremony, and then the task of dismantling our club decorations and the tedious job of getting all of the livestock and participants out of the fairgrounds in an orderly fashion. Full day.

But not before I took H-Bob to get her face painted. I had been promising her that all week...



and a ride around the fairgrounds on the little train...



and a stop at the frozen lemonade stand.



The contestants for the Master Showmanship Contest started out by taking a written test covering various aspects of the different species they were about to show: dairy goat, meat goat, fiber goat, pygmy goat, dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, swine and llama. Goat Princess felt it was a breeze and was up from the table in about 20 minutes.



Next came rotations through each of the species with each of the age categories, juniors grades 4-6, intermediates grades 7-9, and seniors grades 10-12, plus those in FFA. Here they were being judged on their ability to show their given animal to its best advantage for the judge. And the fun begins. Some kids who raise more than one species find this contest simpler than those who concentrate on just one. For example...

When your swine decides to lay down in the show ring, then what?



How do you handle your monstrous dairy cow who decides she's stopping at the bale of straw in the ring next to the panel gate and about pancakes you against the metal bars? Of course I'm not quick enough to capture that on film. I was feeling a little panicked actually.



Or the market goat that attempts to swipe a piece of your face while setting up her feet? Ditto with this photo. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be worried when I saw that head swipe at her face.



Did you notice some of the intense eye contact those showmen were making with the judge? A key factor for sure.









All fun and games in the toasty heat. Those kids had the sweat dripping down their faces for sure. But in a couple of hours, it too was over. This became the first time all fair that Goat Princess felt she could actually enjoy herself without the pressure to show, study, or be otherwise productive. So off she took with some friends who were visiting her at the fair and had a great time for a couple of hours before the awards ceremony.

It was a proud moment seeing her in the lineup of Master Showmen participants, sporting her newly won Champion Showman belt buckle. She didn't win the overall Champion or Reserve Champion title but did find out that she nearly aced the exam: 51 correct of 53 questions is pretty impressive.



So the hard work of dismantling the club barn decorations began and the job of keeping the club's goats corralled once some of the stall backings and dividers were being removed. But it was handled. The goats were led out to the trailer once our turn came to load, the supplies from the tack barn loaded up as well, and home I headed with Goat Princess and H-Bob while Hubby stayed back to help load up the club decorations with the rest of the guys.

The way home was almost magical...our first warm evening of the year where there was a slight warm breeze, a gorgeous sunset, and the feeling of relishing the memories of the best county fair ever.

County Fair - Day Five and Feeling the Heat

Have you ever woke up...felt suffocatingly hot...but still too immobilized to do anything about it? Well that was this afternoon in the tent at the fairgrounds campground. Today promises to be the warmest of the year for us here in the Northwest...perhaps reaching 90. That shouldn’t be a big deal. But since we have hardly cracked 80 degrees and only since the middle of July, our bodies are not ready for it...or at least mine...it would seem. So long story short, I found myself feeling a little worn out and decided to take a quick snooze in the tent this afternoon not realizing that the windows were zipped shut. The sun had apparently moved over the tent where it had been in the shade before and bumped up the temp. I truly though I just might die but was still too groggy to do anything about it. Not fun.

But here I am now...in the shade with my Via iced coffee looking out over the scene where the cowboys and cowgirls are warming up their horses, ropes out, and seemingly oblivious to the sun while putting together this post.



I’m relishing the thought that I am lucky to be a 4-H mom. I would never have reason to experience this otherwise. Even though it is quite the draining experience, at times, it is one that sticks with you in a positive way for a long time.

Today’s main event...although Goat Princess was still working on studying for her Master Showman Contest tomorrow...was the 4-H and FFA livestock auction. The members purchase, raise, fit, and show a particular project animal with the end goal being to sell it to a community member for a profit and then some at the Saturday auction at the end of fair. Steer, lamb, goat, and hogs are the main auction animals though there have been some pens of fryer rabbits and poultry lately. Our oldest raised a steer two different years through FFA for the auction and Goat Princess took a market goat one year for 4-H when she was in fourth grade. The experience at that time was too much for Goat Princess to go through again. It was agonizing as a parent to maintain your own composure watching your child lose it emotionally in the show ring with their market animal as the auctioneer is trying to bid it up. She made a decent profit but at a emotional expense. She has not repeated it since and would rather fund her project by breeding and selling goat kids instead.



But here were tears again just a few minutes ago when the mother of a first year 4Her who had an auction goat this year just came up to me to be sure I knew that Goat Princess had stood with her daughter in the auction lineup while the member was bawling her eyes out and being as supportive as she could. The mom herself confided that she couldn’t be there for her daughter because it was too emotional for her as well. Those are the things that warm your heart and make you realize that this is why I’ve encouraged my kids to be involved in 4-H. It is definitely a positive experience. Chalk one up to life experiences.



The breeze is glorious. The view straight up into the towering firs is mesmerizing.



But I should probably wrap things up and see what’s happening down in the barn.



Take another look the piglets on display.



Tomorrow will be a long day with packing up camp, the Master Showman Contest, and breaking down the club display and pens in the barn before we take our animals and memories home with us from yet another year well spent at the fair. But you know what, I'm not going to miss these...

County Fair - Day Four and Still Functioning

By day four of the county fair, things start to feel a little routine. Not even much motivation to photograph anything. It’s all too familiar to be interesting at this point.

Of course there was a goat obstacle course that I missed Goat Princess partaking in which was a bummer. It makes for some funny scenes watching naturally agile dairy goats trying to maneuver some of the creative obstacles they come up with. There was also a milking relay contest where local personalities, law enforcement, and the like are teamed up against the 4-Hers. Rules are simple: get as much milk as you can into a plastic water bottle and return it to a quart jar. First team to overflow their quart jar is the winner. But again, somehow I unfortunately missed that as well as that makes for some great video taping. I believe the first time I attempted to milk a goat or any dairy animal for that matter was in that same contest.

Today I seemed to be mainly occupied with keeping H-Bob busy and by being the support staff for Goat Princess who needs to be reminded to eat and keep hydrated. She has been studying for the written test portion of her upcoming Master Showman Contest she qualified for by taking the Champion Intermediate Showman title the other day. In addition to the written test, they show the different species...beef cattle, dairy cattle, llama, swine, sheep, dairy goats, meat goats, fiber goats, and pygmy goats. That requires the 4Her to connect with the other top showmen of the other species to learn from them the ins and outs of their species' showmanship. It can be a draining experience. I've sure got to give her credit for doing her homework.

Other than that, the day flowed as usual. Wandering the exhibits with H-Bob, checking on the little dairy calves,



making trips back and forth between home and fairgrounds, admiring the handiwork of others who obviously have more time than I,



stopping by the OMSI booth and making some goop,



and avoiding the temptation to gorge myself on fair foods...that gets reserved for the final day of fair on Sunday, and just generally killing time, even if it was hanging out in front of the fans.



One of the goat kids from this year’s kidding that is at the fair on exhibit is looking a little punky. I need to remember to bring some grape leaves from home in the morning. For some reason it tends to perk them up a bit. It is always a worry that they will pick up a virus or the stress of the fair will affect them negatively. Tucked tails and hunched backs are not a good sign.



I will admit that it is fun to share our knowledge about goats with the fairgoers. Some people are curious. Others are serious to-be owners. All seem to be amazed at the personality that goats have. I tell them it’s their personality that got us here in the first place. Be careful.

Stayed tuned. There are two more days until County Fair is over.