2012 Butler Farm Show

It's Farm Show week around here and that means we're in the midst of end of summer crazy.

Only three weeks until school starts.

Insert very sad face here.

We're living it up at the Farm Show this week.
(Our goat display at the Goat Tent)

We've got our pop up camper there this year.  Not nearly as nice as the digs we had last year thanks to our generous friends, Courtney and Fred, but still much better than camping out in a tent.


These photos are from our camping trip to NY last week, but you get the gist.  Our camper is really not all that bad - a few minor issues here and there in terms of worn canvas (the camper is almost 20 years old) but we have air conditioning, beds and we're not in a tent.

 This is the view from the "master bedroom" looking into the kids "room" and kitchen.  We hae a sink in our camper, but we don't hook it up.  We're thinking of ways we can reconfigure the counter to fit more and eliminate the sink.  It would be nice, but we have hook ups to have an outdoor sink/shower so we're looking into fixing that up.  That way I don't have to worry about someone (Whit)  accidentally running water and splashing it everywhere.  The kids room is a queen size bed and all three big kids fit on it just fine.  The couch to the left pulls out and turns into a single bed, which Walker prefers to sleep on, but with Whitaker, it's easier to ban the big kids to their own room and isolate Whit in the dinette.

 Here's Whittie's bed.  We have a removeable table, so we pull it out, put the back bench cushions in the leg hole and make Whit a little bed on the floor.  This works best if we block him in with stuff on the bench tops so he can't climb out and if we block the foot of the bed with a cooler or bin.  Poor guy just has to be contained!  But he loves his bed and he gets very upset when one of the other kids tries to lie on his bed.

Here's the master bedroom.  Can you believe that to the right, there used to be a shower?  I have no idea how it worked as previous owners tore it out.  If we decide to keep the camper, we're going to figure out a way to make a cabinet to store more stuff.

For the deal we got on the trailer, it was a perfect buy for us.  It's not new or fancy, but it works for our family and I don't have to worry about my kids breaking something in the "new" camper.  Sure, the upholstery and curtains are a little outdated, but for us it's perfect.

Which brings us to the Farm Show.

Maggie won Grand Champion with this goat.

Walker won Grand Champion for his goat Carmella.

Willie didn't pay enough attention to showing to really do anything in the show arena, however, he did a great job at the pedal tractor pulls and the bike races.

He won first place in the pedal tractor pull.  With all of these videos, please excuse my cheering and coughing.

Maggie put forth her best effort but didn't quite make it.

Walker did his best too, but another kid almost made 30 feet!

Erik even entered Whitaker in the contest for the "under 3" category.  I think Whittie was the only child under three competing!

Today at the bike races, Willie was only required to pedal from the starting line to the first "jump."  He not only did that, but pedaled right over the jump and around the rest of the track.  Almost before any of the other contestants reached the jump.

Maggie tried really hard too but as you can see in the video, she got a little wobbly after the first turn and went from the top 3 to 4th place.  I'm so proud of her for holding on and keeping her balance and finishing the race.

Finally, poor Walker was doing so great, but as he made the turn for the second lap, another kid came up from behind him and they collided.  Walker slid across the track but his dad helped him and we all cheered him on to keep going.  The embarasment of the crash made him  more cautious and I think he had just enough of his mom in him that the embarrassment hurt him more than the wounds.  I was so proud of him for getting back up and finishing the race.  When it was all over, Willie (who totally knew he won his race) told Walker he would give Walker his gold medal since he was so brave.

For some reason, I cannot get Walker's video to upload right now but I am so proud of what a good sport he was today.  I'm proud of my kids for lots of things, but watching them be so brave and do things I don't think I would have been brave enough to do when I was their age makes me so happy.

Check back later to see if I manage to get Walker's video posted.