birdieopolis

poopedafter spending a solid week at the county fair (as assistant superintendant of 4-h needle arts + "adventures in family living") with my 4-h daughter i am ready to take a long nap! i love walking around the various animal barns, between competitions, especially the chicken and llama barns. too bad we have dopey covenants where we live because i would love to have chickens and alpacas. one thing that i found out at the fair that never would have occurred to me before was that sheep and goat farmers protect their herds with llamas. what? yep, it's true. the llamas are such curious animals that if a coyote is on the prowl the llama will run up to it to check it out and since it is so big it scares the coyote away. one llama at the fair was wining in its stall constantly and i wondered why. the owner told me that it missed its herd at home. they are very social animals.
the delightful variety of gorgeous chickens at the fair always fascinates me. i love them all.... the huge ones and the itty bitty guys. i always dreamed of having a farm when i was little. will it ever happen? some day i have to have some chickens.
it was tough to keep my garden alive while i was at the fair all week. we were there some 12 hour days in the midst of high temperatures so it was a stretch to have any time to water, and boy did the garden need it in that heat. the heat was tough on the bunnies at fair. our guy was pretty beat and i think glad to finally come home. he did enjoy all the exciting smells of does around him. he always manages to start his molt right before fair time so he looks his worst when he is supposed to look his best. this year he looked like a poodle with his molt circling around his back end like a skirt. it was pretty funny looking.
state fair is around the corner and the whole thing is repeated on an even bigger scale. yikes.... maybe at the end of september i will catch up on some sleep.