Sunday, August 28, 2022

First taste of Fair

Last night I went with Rick on his evening State Fair check-in. Walking through all the animal areas, a few things caught my fancy. There were some COVID-cautious small ruminants; a very sleepy sheep; a couple cute camelids; and a pile o' piglets:







After Rick had completed his rounds, we both got raspberry milkshakes at the Dairy Barn and wandered around the rest of the fairgrounds to see what we could see. It was late, so the Creative Living building (my favorite) was already closed, but I'll get to see that tomorrow when I'm demonstrating in the spinning circle. Some fire dancers gathered quite a crowd; watching fire flicker seems universally mesmerizing:


Today there were a couple more 'first tastes.' Our hay guy called, so we picked up the 50 bales he had for us. Gorgeous green second cutting for the sheep (first photo); no more mature seedheads in their neck wool! Obviously this is only a start on what we need for the coming year, but we are glad to have it – and so are the sheep. As soon as we feed up the rest of last year's first cutting (second photo) to the horses, we'll be moving in at least eight tons of this year's crop for them, and looking for more sheep hay.


And I got my first taste out of my new sheep mug. It was on sale because the glaze was heavy and obscured the design, but I still love it:


Finally, a huge thank-you to all who commented or emailed after my last post! It is so nice to know there are real people behind all those visits Blogger records; I hope you'll keep saying "Hi" – at least once in awhile!

That's it for now from . . .

8 comments:

thecrazysheeplady said...

Is that a Flat Creek mug? :-D

Michelle said...

Yes, it is, and it coordinates with the two I bought when I visited you! Shipping was obscene (more than 3x the cost of the mug!), but that's how it is these days.

Donna Schoonover said...

I love the animal photos from the fair, but I especially love the hay! Congratulations on getting a least a portion of your hay secured.

Mama Pea said...

I haven't heard what the square bales of hay are going for around here this year, but know other parts of the country are paying premium rates . . . up to $10 a bale! Hoping your hay is more reasonable. I know the wacky weather has a lot to do with it along with skyrocketing prices for everything these days from fuel to repair parts for the machinery. Ugh. We're all feeling it in one way or another. :o(

Tim B. Inman said...

Consider this a note from your previous post asking for notes. Somehow, your blog postings were not being sent to my email account like they had been previously. Rats!

So, I'll just have to make it a point to check in 'by hand.' I hate to miss out! Cheers from Oakdale Farm

Michelle said...

We are very thankful, Donna.

Well, Mama Pea, this "green gold" DID cost us $10/bale! The feed stores are charging $15/bale or more for comparable quality, so I tried not to wince – at least in front of the producer.

Thanks for the note, Tim. Another blog reader said she can't find a way to subscribe to my blog via email, either, and I don't know how to fix that. I follow others' blogs using Blogger's "Reading List" function.

A :-) said...

Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me know of your new posts any longer, so I'm just catching up now. How fun to go to your state fair. It's been probably close to 50 years since I've been to the Illinois State Fair. It's down in Springfield, and my county doesn't have a county fair. I know dogs can get COVID - sheep, too? Wow!

Michelle said...

Actually, A, I don't think those masks were to prevent COVID, but that's what comes to mind in this day and age!