More about the Tulsa State Fair

I just can't seem to cover all of the Tulsa State Fair.
Unless you've been part of it, you don't know what the dairy schedule is like.

We are there for five days but only get 2-3 hours out IN the fair.  The rest of the time we are in the barn.

On Monday we start prepping by measuring out feed and gathering all of our personal supplies we will need for the Tulsa State Fair trip.  We get everything stacked by the barn door on Windy Hill where my heifers live.  That way when we load up on Wednesday, we can just load up really fast.

On Tuesday, we clip our own heifers' heads, legs, and feet.  This will cut down on the amount of time it will take to do clipping at the show.  We still have to body clip them all AND when the cows come on Thursday after their first milking, we have to TOTALLY clip each one of them, including udders.

On Wednesday, we load up our luggage and leave at 2:00 and load up all the heifers and arrange them according to size.  Once we are unloaded and set up and decorated and we have the animals washed, we have schedules for clipping animals, milking cows, feeding, and haying.  There are also neverending chores of scooping manure out of the straw beds, fluffing the straw, checking for water leaks, and sweeping the aisles.

On Thursday, we work some more.

Every day begins with early alarms ranging anywhere from 4:30 to 5:45 depending on the first chore of the morning and the day's events.  We eat, we go to the barn, we spot wash, we clean beds, and do the whole thing over and over again.

On Friday morning, we show against adults/professional dairy people/all ages in Open class.

On Saturday morning we dairy judge.
Saturday evening we have the Purdiest Cow Contest, and we have Showmanship.

On Sunday morning, we have to have all of our luggage packed and in the truck before we go to the barn.  We won't be going back to the hotel.  That morning we show in the Junior Show.  There are still mostly professional dairy family kids, but there are fewer animals.  I feel a great sense of accomplishment being able to hang in there with people who have A LOT more knowledge and A LOT more resources than I do.

Finally, that afternoon, the last award is handed out to the Supreme Dairy Female and the show is over.

Most people are breaking neck to get out of there and get home.  We are a little different.  We pack up a bunch of little stuff and haul it and stack it at the end of the aisle.  Then we jump in the trucks and head to a restaurant to get a good meal before we go back to the barn and load it all back up again for the long trip home.  We take our time eating.  Because we do, we are normally THE LAST group left in the barn.  We aren't in anyone's way, and no one is in our's.  We load out as fast as we can.

My MawMaw watched us unload at the local ag barn after Tulsa this last year, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.  She tried to take pictures of me, but we were all moving so fast, that as soon as she was ready to snap a picture, someone else was already moved in behind me to grab the next item to unload!  She just watched wide-eyed.

Just to show you how crazy the schedule is, we got home and were looking through my placings and looking at pictures, and realized that I HAVE NO POSED PHOTOS WITH MY ANIMALS!!!
EVEN WHEN POSEY GOT RESERVE CHAMPION AYRSHIRE!!!
I don't mean that I just didn't go stand in front of the blue backdrop to get a pretty picture taken, I mean I never set my animals up and stood there holding a ribbon NOT ONE TIME!!!  We are just sick to our stomachs every time we think about it.  This was Posey's first show as a cow.  She looked SO pretty, and all I have are a few snapshots, most of which are too far away or blurry.  Ugh.  I can't stand to think about it.