Garden Harvest Begins

The rain has finally let up a bit.  Our zucchini, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, green beans and other veggies have been keeping us busy and well-fed.  The raspberries have also been coming in well.  My daughter and I made a very good raspberry-zucchini bread.  I tried a new recipe, courtesy of Fern Creek Farm.  The bread was delicious.  Sadly there are no pictures, because any loaves that didn't make to the freezer were eaten within 3 days.  They sure were tasty.

Zucchini and raspberries.

One of our zucchini plants.

A zucchini peeping out from among the leaves.

Our acorn squash have been taking over.  They have busted out of their fence and are moving into the goat pen.  Luckily for us, the goats don't find the plants tasty.

The acorn squash that have demolished the bunny fence.

Acorn squash, moving into the goat pen.

Chad has also been having some trouble with his tomato plants.  One in particular refuses to be contained, busting out of every kind of tie-up.  It has almost turned into a shrub it is so large.  I have put a picture of Chad next to the plant for some perspective.

Chad and his tomato shrub.

Mason Dixon Fair 2015

We survived another fair, although the weather was once again uncooperative.  This year we had lots and lots of rain, which led to some serious flooding in our animal pens, as well as super muddy conditions around the fairgrounds.  We had to move all our animals to one pen at one point because the other pen was so full of water.  They weren't particularly keen on that, but settled in better once there was lots of hay for everyone.

Monday was the breeding goat show.  Colleen's friend Alli came to help her show this year.  They both did well.  There was a hilarious moment, which I unfortunately did not capture on camera.  As the goats and handlers were lined up for the judge, Colleen and Alli were placed next to each other.  Copine, who was being showed by Alli, apparently felt that Colleen was giving too much attention to Butterscotch (her sister), and jumped up to put her front feet on Colleen's back in the middle of the show ring.

Alli (in blue) is showing Copine.  Colleen (in orange) is showing Butterscotch.

Butterscotch is not cooperating for Colleen.

The girls and goats are both paying attention to the judge.

The girls, goats, and their ribbons.

Butterscotch and Copine snuggling after their showing is finished.

Tuesday Colleen showed the angora goats; Alli again came to help.  This time the goats were pretty well behaved (Sassafrass sat down in the middle of the ring at one point, but it was really hot out).  However, while the show was going on, a pig escaped and was running around outside the ring.  Overall, the goats were relatively chill about it.

That pig in the background is NOT supposed to be there. Sassafrass is not too pleased about it and is trying to get away from it.

Colleen with Sassafrass; Alli with Nikki.

Alli with Nikki.

Colleen and Leah.

Sassafrass claiming the water bucket.

A few other interesting moments:

The cow barn was located behind our tent.  At one point, I turned around to see a cow helping herself to one of the water spigots.  I thought someone had left it on, and was commenting on it with someone.  One of the cow 4Hers walked by and told me that the cow had learned to turn the water on whenever she wanted a drink and help herself.  I did not realize cows could be that smart.  Here's a photo of the cow getting a drink:

Wednesday, the last night we were there, they held the tractor pulls; at least until the thunderstorms of mud and doom rolled in.  Colleen loves tractor pulls for some reason, so she and Chad went to watch them.  They tried to continue them once the rain started, and all the fans ran to the barns and tents to watch.  After awhile the mud got too bad and they had to stop.  Also, they eventually used some of the tractors to help pull cars and trucks out of the mud when they got stuck as people were trying to leave.

Chad and Colleen enjoying the tractor pulls while staying dry.