4H

If you read this post and this post, then you know that the boys have been raising feeder calves for 4H.  Well, today was the big day for these 2.  4H small Market show day.  Aren't they the cutest little farmers you ever did see?

Today was the day all of the time spent with their calves practicing was put on display for all to see!  Here are a few pictures of them with their calves over the last few months as they cared for them and learned all of the many things they needed to know for raising and showing their calves.

We learned about all sorts of things like, banding, dehorning, marketing, showmanship, clipping, trimming and yes, I say we because I was at like 98 percent of their meetings(because Ryan was working,no choice,) I too got quite the education!

At one of the clinics they had a bunch of calves for the kids to practice showing and the girls and Easton had a cow to 'hang on to' as well! I am sure there is much more of this is in our future!

Jayden and Spencer practicing 'setting up' their calves using their show sticks(who knew there was such a thing!)....

 Bath time!(once again, who knew? Oh I could go on and tell you about the blow drying, hair spraying, hair dying that goes on with these show cows, but this is getting long as it is, so I'll just stick to our cows...)

I love this picture because it shows the sweet smile on Jayden's face as he looks at Socks.  This kid LOVES his cows!  So much so, that he wants to be a beef farmer when he grows up, or actually now.  He asked for more cows for his birthday!

These boys have worked so hard between shoveling and hauling manure, stacking hay and straw,  to feeding and walking their cows and all without complaint.  This 4H project has been such a great experience for them.  (sometimes a pain for us with the meetings and expenses that we have yet to recoup...but totally worth it!)

I am not a huge fair fan, in fact I think I was at the fair once since we moved here. But, this week, we have made up for that, we have been at the fair every. single. day. and then some....

 There they are Socks and T-Bone.  They are tiny yet, they didn't make weight so we can not sell them at the auction as we had hoped, but we kinda figured that would happen, we had a late start due to some misinformation, but no biggie, they could potentially sell them in the barn on Saturday, however, neither of the boys want to sell them!

Jayden took 3rd place for showmanship in his division!  We were pretty happy with that for his first time ever.  Way to go Jayden!

 Spencer took 6th place out of 10 I believe, which was very good and we were so happy for that as well!  Great job Spencer!

They also both got A's on their project notebooks which detailed all of the costs and feed types and amounts, photos, marketing info, etc...lots of work!  So proud of you boys!!