Granddaughter Visit – State Fair 1

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Robin

A couple days after our Airbase Tour it was time for State Fair. We had worked with the lambs every day since Kirby got here nine days prior to the fair, but I didn’t get any photos then.–too busy. For the last couple of years Kirby has had a long enough visit to California to spend time working with the sheep and then going to the fair.

I gave Kirby her first lamb in 2019 and she showed at State Fair that year. There are photos in that blog post on my website, but the one below is one of my favorites.

This is Meridian Belle as a lamb in 2019. Kirby’s flock has grown to include Belle’s daughters, Beauty (2021), Rose (2022), Cindy (2023), and Jingle (2024) and their offspring. Beauty’s daughter is Belleza (2023) and Rose’s daughter is Lily (2024). There have been male offspring as well but I haven’t kept them. We may keep one of the rams this year. Kirby’s flock prefix is KJ Royalty.

The sheep arrive at the fair on Thursday of the third week.

I forgot to take a photo of the space before we unloaded sheep. First thing is getting sheep out of the trailer, vet check and then putting them in pens. We have a lot of other stuff to unload because of the display that I do. That will be another post.

Kirby enjoyed taking her sheep out to share with the public and so that they get calmer when being handled. This is KJ Royalty Jingle, Belle’s daughter.

We used to show dairy cattle at the State Fair and Katie (Kirby’s mom) was a little younger than Kirby is now. At that time people from the Livestock Office took visitors on barn tours. Katie would spend time at the end of the line-up of cattle and talk to people. I remember hearing one woman telling another “that little girl knows more than the tour guide”.

Kirby is also good at engaging visitors and answering questions.

Sometimes you need a break from it all…

…and then maybe a nap.

After a break it’s time to go back to engaging the public.

KJ Royalty Lily, Rose’s lamb.

The signs over Kirby’s yearling pen.

When friends were at the fair I was able to walk around with Kirby a bit. We spent a lot of time at the Cavalcade of Horses, where different horse performances happen every hour.

A display presented by the California pear industry.

State Fair – the other days

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Robin

In the last post I wrote about Day 4, but now I’ll back up and share photos of some of the other days at the fair.

Farm Club member, Siobhan, is one of Kirby’s favorite people. They wandered around the fair for awhile and came back with snacks. Siobhan’s hands aren’t always blue but she has been dyeing with indigo lately!

Naturally dyed yarns labeled and hanging in display at the fair.

My dye garden was the focus of the display this year. Each of the 4-skein groups of yarn (except for the hollyhock-dyed yarn) used the same white and gray yarns as on the left. It is fun to get so many different colors from the same dye pot.

The Touching Table is always popular with visitors.

Outline of sheep with spots and horns drawn in using a pencil.

Many people don’t take this home, and we get some interesting sheep patterns.

Girl blowing out birthday candles on muffins.

Saturday was Kirby’s ninth birthday. We had zucchini muffins for breakfast before going to the fair.

Girl washing horned ram that is tied in the wash stall at the fair.

Kirby helped wash sheep. We don’t wash the whole sheep but like to clean up the legs and scrub the horns to get the year’s accumulated dirt off them. We didn’t finish with the sheep…

Young children in a stroller being pushed by a girl with two women.

…because we were distracted by my sister-in-law and niece and her kids. They took all the kids on the rides in the little kid side of the fair.

Kirby was thrilled. I had told her I’d let her do this ride, but I changed my mind when I found that you had to buy at least $20 worth of tickets. This elephant ride was the one that she’d been watching from the barn since Thursday.

They all went on the carousel.

Back at the barn Lisa gave Kirby the long-necked bottle that she’d bought the day before. Kirby got a ride back to Dixon about 1 p.m. for a birthday party with cousins arranged by her other grandmother.

The Farm Club crew continued to entertain / educate fairgoers.

That night, Aunt Meryl, visiting for a few days from Boise, picked Kirby up from town and brought her to our place just after I got home. She brought her a Taylor Swift shirt, bracelets, and tattoos. This was a very busy day for this nine-year-old.

Summer Lambs & Other Fair-time Observations

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Robin

From a management standpoint having new lambs in July is not very smart. It’s like managing two separate flocks. On the other hand, it’s always fun to see new lambs. More importantly I like to support the efforts of UCD and the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in presenting the Livestock Nursery at the CA State Fair. It is a major attraction and helps to provide much-needed education to the public.

This year I took five pregnant ewes to the fair, and I visited the fair yesterday. Dona has twins. I bred some of the ewes to Faulkner, the BFL, as well as to a Jacob ram. It was more important to have lambs, any lambs, than to have purebred Jacob lambs. I decided that in breeding out of season using two rams would be safer than counting on just one and that by using Faulkner I’d be able to tell which ram sired the lambs. I think that I have one of each here. The lambs are quite different looking. Phyllis had a single ram and Clover had twins, all sired by Faulkner. Isadora was bred to a Jacob ram and has a nice single ram lamb. I had a phone call today that Foxglove has also lambed with a single ram. Here is a view of the nursery first thing in the morning. When I left at noon the place was packed.

I wandered around the fair for a little while before I left. I thought I’d check out a few of my favorite spots. I won’t get much time to do that once I get there with the other sheep at the end of next week. There is a memorial to September 11. In the background is a steel beam from one of the towers and in the foreground is a sphere on which is inscribed the names of all the victims of that horrendous tragedy. It floats and spins gently on a cushion of water. I breezed through the art show. This caught my eye. That is plastic bottles (400 of them) pouring out of a culvert. Here is a sculpture made of nails.

In the California Living exhibit I saw a crocheted bicycle…or I guess it is a bicycle with crochet touches. Lots of beautiful quilts.Solano County always prides itself on winning awards for the exhibit in the County Building. This year’s display was a bit different. It not only included the rich agricultural diversity of the county, but told the story of Travis Air Force Base. My last stop was The Forest, a relatively quiet and cool spot in the busy, sun-drenched fairgrounds. This time, with the AZ tragedy still fresh in my mind and my fire-fighter sons both working now, I took notice of this memorial.