Evergreen State Fair
So yesterday, after three straight weeks of working, Mike & I buggered off to the Evergreen State Fair. We hit that sucker Hard.
First order of business was to get caffeinated and get Mike his elephant ear, then on to the poultry barn. I was disappointed there weren't any Russian Orloffs there I could compare to the Beckys. There was a polish black rooster that looked JUST like Stew. His crow was much less ear-splitting, however. The varieties of bantams was staggering. The furry-footed ones were squee-worthy, OMG they were so cute. The phoenix breeds were gorgeous, and all of them looked too small to be properly productive. I hope there's more entries next year, the guys at the counter said they had about a third of the entries they usually do.
Weird little pigeons, and some beautiful and very strange ducks. The Indian runner ducks looked like walking sticks, basically. Weird. The Cayuga ducks were a gorgeous black: Iridescent with purple and greens in the light. Wow. Weirdass pigeons, too.
BUNNIES! Not many, I was disappointed Mike didn't get to feel the awesomeness that is the rex.
On to the Clydesdale show, which turned out to be a bunch of 4-H students nancing them up with braids and little shinies. Magnificent beasts, all of them. They had a whole barn to themselves. I love draft horses, they're just so awesome. I bought a raffle ticket. I haven;t heard from anyone, so I assume I didn't win; phew. Gawd knows how I'd have dealt with winning a draft horse. She was beautiful, though; I hope she went to a good home.
Ah, the petting zoo, where Mike gets his annual overdose of histamines. This is actually a good thing, as future exposure seems to have much less of an affect on him. The petting zoo had calves, goats, chickens, piglets, sheep, ducks, and a miniature horse. The woman running it admonished us for spending more time in there than the kids. I immediately scooped up and snorgeled a chicken, who was totally indifferent. another one sat next to me while the goats took their turns getting scratches.
The ducks -which were the same breed as ours, and smaller- did NOT want to be petted. I eventually caught one so the kids could pet it. It struggled a lot less than ours do when caught. I warned them to stay out of splort range, though the beast behaved itself. I loved the calves. They were really sweet.
Then we hit the goat barn, had some great conversations with owners. Still don't know WTF Bambi is; thought she was an Oberhasli, but now that I've seen them, I don't think so. I got the feeling Mike had to make sure he petted every. single. goat.
On to the sheep; had a long talk with a lady breeding shetland-Gotland crosses. Tiny, sweet things. I helped out on a sheep farm when I was a kid, and they always struck me as REALLY STUPID, useless beasts, save for the wool. I'm starting to come around, but only with specific breeds: The big Lincolns perhaps, and the little brown guys she had. They reminded me of Beebee, the landlord's pomeranian; crowding in to get pets and that longing look in those dark eyes. Aww.
Piggies! There was a saw and her 4-day-old litter of cuteness. I grilled the pig guys on everything I could think of: Why not let them get full sized before slaughter, IS Kobe fixed (no), and what part is the bacon?
We hit the heritage museum, which is pretty cool. Lots of stuff we found on the 100-year-old farm I grew up on, and other things I'd seen at my counsin's log homestead in Montana(where there's no electricity). Just really old tools that still worked. What a nice feeling-that you'd only have to buy something once. The downside is nothing beck them seemed to weigh less than 50 lbs.
I swiped a pocketfull of corn from the grinder for the critters back home, and to bribe anything we found during the rest of our tour through the fair. The Alpacas, for starters. "WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THEM?"
"Corn."
"Oh, that's good."
Sorry, I'm warming up to sheep, but camelids (alpacas, llmas, camels, etc) are lame; I'm all about the wool, but at best they don't have a personality, and if they do, it's one of an angry, bitter drag queen.
On to the dairy barn. Dozens of local cows, udders full, and we can't have raw milk. Darigold has contracts with ALL of the local dairy farmers, and they're not allowed to sell to anyone BUT Darigold. I asked if maybe we could BORROW a cow for a couple hours? *sigh* I'd LOVE raw milk, but will happily settle for unhomogenized milk. I even sent Darigold a couple of letters BEGGING them to sell unhomogenized milk. Nothing. I did get to pet a lovely swiss dairy cow. If I was going to have dairy cows, the swiss are huge and beautiful with very mellow temperaments, total laid back stoners compared to the jumpy holsteins.
Then they had the beef and little cows. some Scottish highland hairballs, the breed seems to be getting bigger over here. Dexters...small, soft, good little cows, but they're expensive, and ..gah, goat poop is adorable compared to cow flops. Definitely not the first animal I'd get on my farm; but Oh the milk! I pine for good, raw, unhomogenized milk like I had as a kid from Stratton's dairy.
We blazed through the exhibit barns and the vendor barns, escaping with a new pair of slippers for Mike and some 'emergency tape'. I had words with the lady that sold us our sheets last year, as they don't fit the bed. They would've if the bed had been a rhombus shape or something. Grr.
Gyros for lunch! Yum! We hit the chicken tractor/WSU local farming class lady, I bought a raffle for a chicken tractor, I REALLY want to win that. Then Becky could stay next to us! There's a country living expo in January she told us about that sounds like tons of fun: Everything from cheese making to beekeeping, to year-round vegetable production... anyway, sounds awesome and a good way to meet the neighbors.
Stopped by the beekeeping tent to pick up some honey recipes. I can't wait until Jerry harvests that hive, I hope he shares..just a little.
Steelhead! The trout conservation booth had steelhead! Live in-the-water steelhead! They're not a myth! Anyway, neat.
Having determined we'd seen everything we could, we headed out, crossed the street, and for the first time visited the feed store where the Beckys came from, along with the Buttercups and the Polish Blacks. I gave them a what for about fuzzy britches and the other two bantams(?) that died on us despite our best efforts. He said he'd lose a bunch of them off the bat because they'd get weak from shipping.
Anyway, nice guys, and they have full grown chickens you can just buy there, AND baby chicks -NORMAL breeds of baby chicks!
All of the adults for sale were half the size of our smallest birds, even the buttercups. I guess bantams are all the rage right now, I can't figure out why, though. This miniaturization trend in breeding is really starting to get on my nerves. BUT if you want tiny chickens, or normal chickens to raise, there's the place, and they have them year-round from what I'm seeing, which is great.
We staggered back to the car, went home, and looked at our critters with new eyes and appreciation. We're doing pretty well taking care of these guys. NOW to have a successful garden. Is it even possible to have both?
First order of business was to get caffeinated and get Mike his elephant ear, then on to the poultry barn. I was disappointed there weren't any Russian Orloffs there I could compare to the Beckys. There was a polish black rooster that looked JUST like Stew. His crow was much less ear-splitting, however. The varieties of bantams was staggering. The furry-footed ones were squee-worthy, OMG they were so cute. The phoenix breeds were gorgeous, and all of them looked too small to be properly productive. I hope there's more entries next year, the guys at the counter said they had about a third of the entries they usually do.
Weird little pigeons, and some beautiful and very strange ducks. The Indian runner ducks looked like walking sticks, basically. Weird. The Cayuga ducks were a gorgeous black: Iridescent with purple and greens in the light. Wow. Weirdass pigeons, too.
BUNNIES! Not many, I was disappointed Mike didn't get to feel the awesomeness that is the rex.
On to the Clydesdale show, which turned out to be a bunch of 4-H students nancing them up with braids and little shinies. Magnificent beasts, all of them. They had a whole barn to themselves. I love draft horses, they're just so awesome. I bought a raffle ticket. I haven;t heard from anyone, so I assume I didn't win; phew. Gawd knows how I'd have dealt with winning a draft horse. She was beautiful, though; I hope she went to a good home.
Ah, the petting zoo, where Mike gets his annual overdose of histamines. This is actually a good thing, as future exposure seems to have much less of an affect on him. The petting zoo had calves, goats, chickens, piglets, sheep, ducks, and a miniature horse. The woman running it admonished us for spending more time in there than the kids. I immediately scooped up and snorgeled a chicken, who was totally indifferent. another one sat next to me while the goats took their turns getting scratches.
The ducks -which were the same breed as ours, and smaller- did NOT want to be petted. I eventually caught one so the kids could pet it. It struggled a lot less than ours do when caught. I warned them to stay out of splort range, though the beast behaved itself. I loved the calves. They were really sweet.
Then we hit the goat barn, had some great conversations with owners. Still don't know WTF Bambi is; thought she was an Oberhasli, but now that I've seen them, I don't think so. I got the feeling Mike had to make sure he petted every. single. goat.
On to the sheep; had a long talk with a lady breeding shetland-Gotland crosses. Tiny, sweet things. I helped out on a sheep farm when I was a kid, and they always struck me as REALLY STUPID, useless beasts, save for the wool. I'm starting to come around, but only with specific breeds: The big Lincolns perhaps, and the little brown guys she had. They reminded me of Beebee, the landlord's pomeranian; crowding in to get pets and that longing look in those dark eyes. Aww.
Piggies! There was a saw and her 4-day-old litter of cuteness. I grilled the pig guys on everything I could think of: Why not let them get full sized before slaughter, IS Kobe fixed (no), and what part is the bacon?
We hit the heritage museum, which is pretty cool. Lots of stuff we found on the 100-year-old farm I grew up on, and other things I'd seen at my counsin's log homestead in Montana(where there's no electricity). Just really old tools that still worked. What a nice feeling-that you'd only have to buy something once. The downside is nothing beck them seemed to weigh less than 50 lbs.
I swiped a pocketfull of corn from the grinder for the critters back home, and to bribe anything we found during the rest of our tour through the fair. The Alpacas, for starters. "WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THEM?"
"Corn."
"Oh, that's good."
Sorry, I'm warming up to sheep, but camelids (alpacas, llmas, camels, etc) are lame; I'm all about the wool, but at best they don't have a personality, and if they do, it's one of an angry, bitter drag queen.
On to the dairy barn. Dozens of local cows, udders full, and we can't have raw milk. Darigold has contracts with ALL of the local dairy farmers, and they're not allowed to sell to anyone BUT Darigold. I asked if maybe we could BORROW a cow for a couple hours? *sigh* I'd LOVE raw milk, but will happily settle for unhomogenized milk. I even sent Darigold a couple of letters BEGGING them to sell unhomogenized milk. Nothing. I did get to pet a lovely swiss dairy cow. If I was going to have dairy cows, the swiss are huge and beautiful with very mellow temperaments, total laid back stoners compared to the jumpy holsteins.
Then they had the beef and little cows. some Scottish highland hairballs, the breed seems to be getting bigger over here. Dexters...small, soft, good little cows, but they're expensive, and ..gah, goat poop is adorable compared to cow flops. Definitely not the first animal I'd get on my farm; but Oh the milk! I pine for good, raw, unhomogenized milk like I had as a kid from Stratton's dairy.
We blazed through the exhibit barns and the vendor barns, escaping with a new pair of slippers for Mike and some 'emergency tape'. I had words with the lady that sold us our sheets last year, as they don't fit the bed. They would've if the bed had been a rhombus shape or something. Grr.
Gyros for lunch! Yum! We hit the chicken tractor/WSU local farming class lady, I bought a raffle for a chicken tractor, I REALLY want to win that. Then Becky could stay next to us! There's a country living expo in January she told us about that sounds like tons of fun: Everything from cheese making to beekeeping, to year-round vegetable production... anyway, sounds awesome and a good way to meet the neighbors.
Stopped by the beekeeping tent to pick up some honey recipes. I can't wait until Jerry harvests that hive, I hope he shares..just a little.
Steelhead! The trout conservation booth had steelhead! Live in-the-water steelhead! They're not a myth! Anyway, neat.
Having determined we'd seen everything we could, we headed out, crossed the street, and for the first time visited the feed store where the Beckys came from, along with the Buttercups and the Polish Blacks. I gave them a what for about fuzzy britches and the other two bantams(?) that died on us despite our best efforts. He said he'd lose a bunch of them off the bat because they'd get weak from shipping.
Anyway, nice guys, and they have full grown chickens you can just buy there, AND baby chicks -NORMAL breeds of baby chicks!
All of the adults for sale were half the size of our smallest birds, even the buttercups. I guess bantams are all the rage right now, I can't figure out why, though. This miniaturization trend in breeding is really starting to get on my nerves. BUT if you want tiny chickens, or normal chickens to raise, there's the place, and they have them year-round from what I'm seeing, which is great.
We staggered back to the car, went home, and looked at our critters with new eyes and appreciation. We're doing pretty well taking care of these guys. NOW to have a successful garden. Is it even possible to have both?