It's FAIR Time!

We finished taking the sheep to The Fair this evening. It's always a big deal, and always takes much longer than expected. This year we were paranoid because the lambs seem to be passing around some kind of snotty nose. One or two at a time seem to have it; when one gets cleared up, another starts in. They don't act sick at all, still eating and socializing, relaxing and cudding. This time, one of the fair sheep was snotty at check in. He got rejected along with one of his buddies who looked like he might be getting a snotty nose, too. Dang. The vet recommended we take them home, let them relax, take their temperatures the next day (today) and see if we wanted to try again.

So we did.

We temp'ed 6 or 7 of the lambs and they were all within the normal range. We left snot-nose home anyhow. His buddy and the "substitute" came and passed vet check this time. All the sheep were okayed, all the fleeces got checked in, all the sheep paperwork was updated, including the substitue for snot-nose. By the time we left, all 20 of our sheep were settling down for the night, fighting over the hay, or quietly chewing cud.

The Puyallup Fair has a very large sheep show. It is one of the largest in the country. There are over 700 sheep entered, and this year The Puyallup is hosting the National Cotswold show. There are 2 barns filled with sheep, another portion of the cow barn has sheep in it and there is one more - a show arena is used for the overflow. Guess where we are this year??? Yup, in the overflow arena. It seems like we've been banished! Our admiring public will have a hard time finding us!!! If you're at The Fair, just look between the Cow Barn and the Sheep Barn, behind the Wilcox farms milking parlor. We're there!

Tomorrow will be very busy. Early in the day we offered to help show Navajo Churros and Border Leicesters. Later we show the Gotland/Finn lambs and the 2 Finn ewes, followed closely by the Shetland classes.

Yee Haaaw!
- Franna