The Boys and Their Lambs…

It’s always a busy time of the year when the kids pick out their fair lambs in April.  The next 4 1/2 months are busy spent training, walking, washing, shearing, their lambs.  This year they went to a 3 day camp in Bozeman to learn more about showmanship, lamb care, shearing with a jackpot on the last day.    IMG_9114 IMG_8894 IMG_8846 IMG_8834 IMG_8828 IMG_8824 IMG_8816-2 IMG_8743 IMG_3727

Kids walking their lambs…IMG_3676

Garrett shearing his own lamb…IMG_3655

Garrett helping some kids with showmanship…IMG_3732

Getting ready for fair…IMG_3731 IMG_3728

IMG_3730

Thank goodness for grandmas who will stop and feed the starving kids on her way home from work.  The first couple days of fair are extremely busy and we generally eat really late but grammy had pity on us and fed us.IMG_3736

Practicing with his lamb…IMG_3735

Then show day!

Waiting for his turn to show…IMG_3808

This year at fair they worked very hard and Garrett and Hayden ended up being in the final round for showmanshipIMG_3805 IMG_3790

Even, Teigen did very well in showmanship for his first year.IMG_3785 IMG_3782 IMG_3780 IMG_3777 IMG_3771

Waiting for the “market” portion of fair.IMG_3767 IMG_3764 IMG_3746 IMG_3742 IMG_3739

IMG_3829 IMG_3824

Hayden even won a purple ribbon in market placing in the top 8 out of 60 lambs for market.  🙂IMG_3820 IMG_3771 IMG_3764 IMG_3750 IMG_3741

Then comes the last day of fair, the last day of the project.  They have sold their lambs to local businesses and they have to load their lambs up on the trailer that is headed to the processor.  There are generally lots of tears and sadness but the kids understand where their food comes from and have a deeper appreciation because of it.  Something that is lacking in todays culture..

IMG_5122

Advertisement

A Little Evening Walk with the Sheep…

Victoria and Madeline walking their 4-H fair lambs every evening…

 

IMG_1920 IMG_1925

Most of the time they have a little shadow…

IMG_1927-Edit IMG_1935 IMG_1936

Up and down the big hill, it helps exercise the lambs and builds their muscles…it helps exercise the girls too!  ;0)

IMG_1941 IMG_1953

Then they practice setting them up…

IMG_1967 IMG_1968 IMG_1969 IMG_1973

And getting them to brace…IMG_1974

Hard to believe we have fair lambs already.   I don’t even want to think forward to fair which means fall is just right around the corner but I’m sure it will be here sooner than I am ready for it…

Sharing with:

Rurality Blog Hop #60

Fair winnings…

 

 

Our little Braaten bunch did pretty good at the fair yesterday….

BeFunky_IMG_2767.jpg

BeFunky_IMG_2729.jpg

BeFunky_IMG_2581.jpg

 

2013-08-13

 

Tori received Reserve Champion Showman in the Senior division and placed 4th out of about 35 lambs and received a purple top 10 ribbon in the market class!

BeFunky_IMG_2755.jpg

BeFunky_IMG_2466.jpg

2013-08-131

Garrett also received Reserve Champion Showman in the Junior division and placed 5th in Market and received a purple ribbon.

BeFunky_IMG_2567.jpg

BeFunky_IMG_2740.jpg

2013-08-132

 

Maddie placed 4th in the Junior division for Showmanship and her lamb placed 10th in Market getting her a purple ribbon!

BeFunky_IMG_2764.jpg

2013-08-133

BeFunky_IMG_2742.jpg

Hayden received Grand Champion Showman in the Junior Novice division which had two huge classes of lambs!  He did sooo well his first year showing.  His lamb was one short for making the cut to final round in market.

2013-08-134

Teigen even showed in the Peewee division where all the participants wins a ribbon!

2013-08-135

 

Our fiber and breedstock projects did an excellent job as well!  Dodge ram won overall Grand champion in the breedstock division and Blossom’s ewe lamb won Reserve Champion.  Our lambs received the majority of the rest of the ribbons too!  Edge ram won Overall Grand  Champion over all other fiber animals and in his own division.  Feebee won Grand Champion in the ewe division for fiber and we received the majority of the rest of the ribbons awarded!

IMG_2770

Wonderful Day!!

Linking up with friends at:

 

  Homestead Barn Hop,The Backyard Farming Connection,

   Our World TuesdayTuesdays with a Twist

 

Rurality Blog Hop #20

  Little by Little

   Thursday Favorite Things

Peaceful Summer Evening…

The flock peacefully grazing as a storm moves in this evening….

P8050797 P8050800 P8050803 P8050804

The kids (on the right side of the pic. below) coming back from their nightly walk with their fair lambs….

P8050808

Practicing with their fair animals…

P8050809

Linking up with friends at:

 

  Homestead Barn Hop,The Backyard Farming Connection,

   Our World TuesdayTuesdays with a Twist

 

Rurality Blog Hop #20

The Chicken Chick

Shooting Sports Invitationals

On Saturday, Sawyer, Victoria, Madeline and Garrett participated in the Flathead Shooting Sports Invitationals.  The kids did wonderful!

Sawyer shooting Olympic Recurve…

The boys started things out in archery, Sawyer shooting olympic recurve and Garrett shooting barebow.  This was Sawyer’s first year shooting in this discipline and Garrett’s second.

Garrett received a silver medal in his age group and Sawyer placed 6th in his.

Garrett in barebow

Then the boys went on to shoot in air pistol…

Setting up targets

Shooting

Garrett won an amazing “Over-All” trophy for his age group with a score of 313 out of 400.  His first year shooting air pistol and his first competition!

Garrett receiving his trophy!

Sawyer received a bronze medal in his age division!

Sawyer receiving his medal

We had to do a little entertaining with Em…

Em watching dad's Iphone...

Then it was on to archery again with the girls shooting barebow and Sawyer shooting primitive.

Tori shooting barebow

One of Maddie's targets...

Sawyer shooting in barebow...

The day did have a few hiccups though, Maddie’s bow broke 2 days before the competition and she had to use a bow that she had never shot with.  So she didn’t shoot real well and ended up not placing.  Sawyer pinched his shooting finger in his bow the day before while stringing it and split the finger wide open.  It made for a bit of frustration on his part dealing with a hurt finger.

The kids did very well though, even Emma…

Emmalynn hanging out with momma.

Tori ended up placing 2nd and receiving a silver medal in her age bracket, only loosing 1st place by 2 points!

Tori receiving her medal

Sawyer ended up placing first and received a gold medal in primitive.

Sawyer with his shooting buddies that he went to Nationals with.

Garrett and his winnings...

Tori with her medal

Maddie showing off her form... 🙂

Emmalynn taking a bit of a nap...

They still have the Club Match and State is right around the corner!

Father’s Day

We had a busy Father’s Day spending the morning in Fellowship and listening to a wonderful sermon followed by a very quick lunch, packing, getting Grammy and heading to the airport.  It was there I realized I hadn’t yet taken a Father’s Day picture…

Father's Day

We then said our good-byes to Sawyer and Grammy as they headed off to San Antonio (where Sawyer is competing in a national 4-H Air Pistol tournament)…

Sawyer and Grammy ~ Sawyer anxious for his first plane ride 🙂

We thought it might be funny to get in line with all 8 kids, a couple crying, fighting and what ever else kids do~ just to see the reactions of everyone else  headed out on the same plane.   lol

Most of our kids at the airport.

We then headed home and had a nice supper (and wonderful dessert~Thanks Abigail!)  with Papa Ed, and Uncle Jason and Aunt Abigail.  Yowzer!  Mark was able to sneak in a 20 minute nap while rocking Emma though 😉

Even though it was so hectic I hope the father of my children had a wonderful day.  I can’t believe that before the foundations of the very Earth that God would have thought to put our crazy lives together and give us so many wonderful, beautiful children.  Happy Father’s Day. ❤ LYFE

Shooting Sports Awards…

Victoria and Sawyer's shooting sports awards.

The front side of the medals

The back of Sawyer's air pistol medal...

The back of Sawyer's primitive bow medal...

The back of Tori's barebow medal...

Sawyer's "Overall Champion" award for smallbore pistol.