This was the first year having only one child participate in 4H and it is year 13 for me. You would think we would have it down and it would go smoothly and be simple. It came down to the last minute finishing up projects for Luke. In years past we used to do projects over the winter and sometimes in the spring. I mentioned 4H and asked him to take photos over the past year. I kept bugging him to get photos to me to print for fair, it never happened. This was a first in my 13 years, no photos entered in photography. Thankful to Grandma W. Luke was able to start a couple projects right after the 4th of July. It came down to the night before judging that Luke got it all put together. I really dislike last minute preparations. Luke tends to put his time and energy into the things that he feels are important for the fair, such as polishing the trailer and getting his new tires and rims on his truck. Hmmm? He didn't ride his horse near as much as we had hoped, in fact he didn't start riding his horse for the season until May. He has had a busy summer and 4H is not his priority. He went to stay a week with Jayden, went to 4H conference, spends a large amount of time mowing, washing trucks, and working in the shop. He has little time for things I ask him to do. With all that said, judging day went well. He had one display project on PTO safety. The judge liked it and held it back for state fair considerations, however he was going to give it a red ribbon until he made some minor changes. The 4H communications poster was a quick and simple project that Luke almost didn't even want to have it judged. He was not excited about it, however he didn't take the time to make it the way he really wanted to. It is nice that he has a couple boys his age actively involved too. One boy shows hogs, and one sheep. It is fun for them to hang out in the barns and watch each other show. We also hooked up and took the trailer for our stay which I will refer to as the camper because that is what we used it for all week. Thanks to Luke's expert driving, he backed into a tight space left for us. It took him one try and it was very tight.
In the wee hours on Wednesday a storm came through with lightning and I realized at 3:30 that Jake wasn't home yet. I had to drive up to the shop to tell him to come home. He works on his vehicles and rearranging the shop into the early hours. It rained heavily for hours and we got 5.5 inches!! We woke up to heavy ran as Luke and I rounded up stuff for the dog show. Once again, I reminded Luke multiple times for days ahead to make sure he had everything ready and he did not. He was scrambling last minute to get it all together. We got to the fairgrounds a little late. Fortunately the dog show had not started yet. Ricky Bobby did great for Luke. He won his sub-novice obedience class and the rally class. The numbers were down this year for dog show participants, however it took just as long as always until 2:00. Luke was the only boy that showed at the fair, that has to be a first ever. Luke was getting nervous worrying about everything else and wanted to scratch his last dog show class. I told him no, as he continued to try and convince me. I explained that this is what dog project is about, competing at the fair, all the meetings and all the time and practice is for this moment. You just cant quit because its taking too long, or your bored, or you have other things to do. He stuck it out to the end and ended up with his trophy in rally. Thanks to mom making him stay. Rally is over all ages of kids and levels of dogs, so it is even more of an honor to win. Grammer, Po, and Mawgee all came to watch & support Luke. After the show, it was back home until Mark took Luke back in with the horse trailer loaded and took Tex to fair that afternoon. This year was a new experience. For some reason after 13 years of fairs, they decided a vet needed to be at the gate to check all livestock and animals before entering the fair. What on earth?! Check in was 1-5 for all animals. Mark and Luke brought Tex back and all the gear. They got everything settled in and Luke stayed the night in the camper. I wasn't thrilled with him staying at the fairgrounds alone. He is trustworthy and I knew it would be fine for one evening. I just wanted one night at home this week.
Thursday was pretty uneventful at the fair, so I didn't go in until evening. Luke did chores, rode his horse, and hung out with his friends all during the day. In the evening, I drove in and watched the Youth rodeo. I couldn't help but think how awesome that would have been during Jayden's county fair years. She would have loved it and been good at it.. They also have an Iron Cowgirl event another night where the girls run barrels, goat tie, and rope. That would have be so cool when she was 4H age. Luke considered competing in the rodeo with Tex. He wanted to enter the roping and decided the night before. We told him that was a big no considering he has not roped live cattle in a year and hasn't been riding or practicing at all Luke and I stayed the night in the camper.
Friday morning I met Ali and took Bridget to the fair. I thought it might be fun for her to hang out at the fair with me. I think she enjoyed it, but probably would have enjoyed it more hanging with her age friends at the fair. In the morning the only thing going on was the cattle show. We watched most of it. It is different not having a niece showing. We spent years watching them all show their cattle. 
At 5:30 the horse games events started. The granparents and Dad came to watch. Luke ran a great pole pattern with Tex. It started out fast and I don't know how he didn't knock over any poles. He got Tex under control and slowed up a bit and weaved his way perfectly back through and then ran hard home. He won the class!! That alone was very exciting for him and us. He ran it in 30 seconds. That is not a smoking fast run, but a really great Tex run. It was clean and it won the class. Luke has a big group in the senior division with 12 kids in his group. He had some tough competition. He ran a great barrel run too, earning a second place. On and on the games went and it was pretty wide open, not one person was dominating. Typically there is one horse that wins all the fast classes. This was the first time in like 20 years that they did not give trophies and tried some new things. Tack was given for awards and to our surprise this year they gave a high point for game events and a high point for show day according to age division. We didn't know where Luke stood, but weren't expecting any high point. We were all thrilled with his pole win and good runs. This is the first year that Luke rode confident, in control, and fast. We saw so much improvement. He won a very nice leather tye down. Ali came after work with Titus and watched for awhile. He didn't have shoes so he strolled around in the dirt and grass in his socks. He was busy wanting to toddle around and kept Ali chasing him. He was a handful and Mark and I did a lot of chasing him around too. He hasn't been taught how to stay by mama. In the evening Luke went to some truck event and I gave him a curfew. He is going to be much harder than Jayden and Jacob. He is always trying to renegotiate the curfew time and is really good about asking for a little longer when the time comes. He gets mad and tells me I am too strict all the time. There is a lot of trouble he could get into. In fact a couple of 4H boys Luke knows destroyed the expensive sound system. They were messing around and know everyone heard about it and it was a bad deal! Luke wasn't far when it happened and could have gotten caught up in it. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong crowd will get you into trouble even if you did nothing. Lessons I am trying to instill.
Saturday morning was horse "show" day starting at 10AM. Luke did everything this year which is so nice for me. I get to sit back and watch. He fed, cleaned the stall, bathed his horse, saddled, warmed his horse up, and did it all. I didn't even stress a bit. I went in with a carefree attitude, we were not going for any high point award and it was just good to see Luke compete. Most years are intense and the kids try so hard to bring home the high point award and it is stressful on everyone. Tex looked beautiful in Halter class. Our ranch horse can usually compete with the show halter horses because he is so pretty and has good conformation. He was one of 5 that received a purple in the class. Luke got blue ribbons in most of his classes, a red in western pleasure because Tex wanted to go so fast and launch and toss his head every time he was to lope. He competed in Halter, Showmanship, Horsemanship, Western Pleasure, Walk/Trot, Ranch Pleasure, and Ranch riding. At the end of the day the kids lined up for awards. This year the kids all had a bucket and each time they got a class ribbon, it went into the bucket. This was great, and saved a lot of time not having to present awards after each class. They started the award presentation 15 minutes before the scheduled time. That was very frustrating and I missed it. When I walked in "on time" I was looking for Luke, and there he was holding a buckle!! What?! He was grinning at me and I was all smiles and so excited for him. He won the high point games in the senior division. We weren't keeping track and had no idea. It was a great finish to the fair. After the horse show, everyone is super tired, hot, and very dirty. At that time, the fair has a big sweet corn feed. We stood in line and had our sweet corn and our local club serves homeade ice cream.
Sunday the horse project kids that wanted to could spend time on horses working cattle. Luke was very involved and really enjoyed riding Tex and moving cattle. In the evening the kids have the parade of champions dinner that they all dress up for. Afterward, they present the kids with the parade of champion certificates and then the last and final is release of projects and horses. Mark cleaned the stall during the events and we were on the road heading home around 7. another year, another fair. County fair is full of memories, awards, friendships, and life skills. 4H is a great program for kids and i am thankful my kids have had the opportunity to be part of it.
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