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.

Mason Dixon Fair 2014: The Storm

Tuesday night, while the goat shows were finishing up, a brief large storm system moved through the area.  Thunderstorms had been predicted for the day and evening (it's seems like the weathermen predict thunderstorms on a daily basis during the summer, just to be on the safe side).  People with smartphones who had been looking at the weather radars started warning those of us without smartphones that there was a system coming through.  It looked like a long hot dog, with yellows and reds.  They were predicting hail and winds up to 70 mph.

The storm starting to come in.  This picture does not do justice to the actual darkness of the sky.

Then the phone calls started coming in.  People close by who had already been hit were calling to warn us: this system was coming in fast and hard, with little warning.  A husband called his wife and told her not to come home, but to go to a friend's house; their roof had been damaged by hail.  Others were calling to warn us to make the tents and barns and animals secure NOW, because this thing was coming.  In the meantime, the shows were continuing, because the skies were still clear.

My in-laws had come to see Colleen show, and decided to head home based on the weather report.  My husband went to see them to their car.

Colleen was through with showing, so I started putting anything of ours that was loose and could blow around away (chairs, clothing, boots, etc.).  Suddenly the sky started darkening and the wind picked up.  Within 5 minutes, the wind was whipping the large tent around.  Then a pole must have snapped, because the tent started coming down on top of us.

The collapsed tent.

I told Colleen to run to the cow barn next to us (it was a solid built structure, not a large tent), while I helped make sure that everyone in the tent got out safely.  A few minutes later I made it over to the cow barn.  I could not find my child.  There may be a something worse than not knowing where your child is during a natural disaster, but I don't know what it is.  Those were the worst few moments of my life, and they were brief.  I started screaming her name, trying to find her.  The woman with me, who I had been working with, quickly put me at ease, telling me that she had seen Colleen earlier and told her daughter to take Colleen to their car.  She had recognized Colleen by her neon yellow shorts.  Because there were cows in the cow barn, and everyone was running into it, she was worried that the storm might spook the cows and cause injuries to people.  After a few minutes we ran out to their car, where Colleen and her daughter were both safe.  Colleen was a mess, worried about myself and Chad (we managed to reach Chad on his cell phone.  He was hiding out in the goat trailer).  I later reached his parents, who were also fine.  We watched the rest of the storm pass by in the safety of their car.

The collapsed tent from the outside.

As far as I know, there was only one person injured by the collapsing tent.  She is now recovering.  I am thankful that the damage was limited.  At our house, we only lost power for a few days.  From what I heard and saw, it could have been much worse.  Afterwards, there was a beautiful double rainbow.

Rainbow after the storm.  Colleen took this picture.

It was also interesting to see the reaction from the goats that we took to the fair.  Little Buddy, who had been quite happy at the fair getting attention from everyone, took the Chicken Little approach.  The next morning he had diarrhea and wouldn't eat.  Apparently he thought the world was going to end.  By the evening he was back to normal, trying to get everyone to pet him and wanting all the attention.  Charcoal, who wanted nothing to do with being at the fair and didn't eat much since we had gotten there, apparently figured that if that was the worst that was going to happen, now she's a survivor and she's going to live.  After that she certainly had an appetite.