Michael and I flew to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago to see my parents. I was talking to my mom about it and she said, "Why don't you come the weekend of the farm show"?
Wow, I'm glad we did!
First, I want to say, the whole weekend was wonderful. It is always great to spend time with my parents. I enjoy both of them so much. I wish I lived closer. It was also fun to see my sister, Sara, brothers Toby and Matt, sister-in-law Steph, Matt and Steph's three girls, Ruby, Coral and Opal, Sara's boyfriend Greg and my good friend Cathy, with her son Daniel. I was having so much fun eating good food (including Sara's chocolate birthday tower of delights that had a layer of brownie, layer of chocolate cheesecake, two layers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, all made by my dad), playing board games, touring the Herr's Potato chip factory, shopping and chatting that I didn't take any pictures, except at the farm show, so if it seems that is all I have to tell you about the weekend is farm stuff, it is because that is all the visuals I have to offer.
So, on to the 96th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show! Here's the blurb from their website - Pennsylvania is proud to host the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country, with nearly 6,000 animals, 10,000 competitive exhibits and 300 commercial exhibits.
I got ready before we left home by painting my toes in John Deere colors :)
Coincidentally, here is the first exhibit we stopped at. Michael and my dad were both excited for the day.
Next we, went to the cow barn. The noise was deafening! There were some moos, lots of talking, footsteps, public announcement system fuzziness, but that didn't explain it.
I couldn't figure it out for a minute. There was along line for the cow showers (cow wash?), but that wasn't all of it.
Oh, that was it! Hundreds of cows getting BLOWN DRY all at once! They had to look pretty for the judging in a couple of hours :)
Or maybe they were looking pretty to attract potential customers...
I am always impressed with the longhorns.
Then, it was on to the pigs, sheep and goats. If I told you it was much quieter in this barn, you can get an idea of how noisy cow beauty parlors can be.
This pig was really enjoying the scratching.
Here is the grand prize winner.
My dad wanted to get there early so that we could park close and not have to take the shuttle from the far parking lot. We were there by about 7:30 and, even though we were inside, it was chilly when we got there. The goats and sheared sheep were all wearing jackets. I thought this one had a sweet face. He (she?) was probably thinking my camera strap looked liked breakfast.
There were fun chickens and...
...fat rabbits.
We watched chicks hatching...
...and ducklings being oppressed.
There was a high school and middle school rodeo. I couldn't believe the twelve year old 7th graders riding full sized bulls! I was too tense wondering if they would die a gory death to take pictures. All I got were the rodeo princesses at the start. I miss riding a horse that I know well and can appreciate. If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as a rodeo princess.
It is a fuzzy picure, but look at all that glitter!
There were all kinds of competitions on display, including floral arrangements, mushroom dioramas...
...cookies, pies, cakes, honey...
...apples, vegetables, wine (we met the grape princess) maple syrup...
...and the famous butter sculpture!
Michael's favorite part of the whole shebang was the butterfly house. We each got a q tip dipped in gatorade to feed the butterflies.
There were lots of them, mostly monarchs, but also swallowtails, painted ladies and buckeyes.
Guess which chrysalis is about to hatch.
Sara, with some hitchhikers.
Michael went through the butterfly house with me, my dad and Sara and then again with his aunt, uncle and cousins. Matt and Steph and the girls came from the D.C. area and met us after we had been there a couple of hours. Michael was so happy to have cousins to hang out with. At one point, we were separated from them in the crowd and it was all I could do to keep him from running off helter skelter to find them. Maybe that is why I don't have any pictures of Michael with his cousins. I was too busy hanging on to his collar to hold my camera. So I stole some pictures from their blog...
Coral, Ruby and Michael
Opal
Coral
Michael and Ruby, who is being idolized.
Can you see how happy he was to be with his cousins?
Wow, I'm glad we did!
First, I want to say, the whole weekend was wonderful. It is always great to spend time with my parents. I enjoy both of them so much. I wish I lived closer. It was also fun to see my sister, Sara, brothers Toby and Matt, sister-in-law Steph, Matt and Steph's three girls, Ruby, Coral and Opal, Sara's boyfriend Greg and my good friend Cathy, with her son Daniel. I was having so much fun eating good food (including Sara's chocolate birthday tower of delights that had a layer of brownie, layer of chocolate cheesecake, two layers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, all made by my dad), playing board games, touring the Herr's Potato chip factory, shopping and chatting that I didn't take any pictures, except at the farm show, so if it seems that is all I have to tell you about the weekend is farm stuff, it is because that is all the visuals I have to offer.
So, on to the 96th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show! Here's the blurb from their website - Pennsylvania is proud to host the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country, with nearly 6,000 animals, 10,000 competitive exhibits and 300 commercial exhibits.
I got ready before we left home by painting my toes in John Deere colors :)
Coincidentally, here is the first exhibit we stopped at. Michael and my dad were both excited for the day.
Next we, went to the cow barn. The noise was deafening! There were some moos, lots of talking, footsteps, public announcement system fuzziness, but that didn't explain it.
I couldn't figure it out for a minute. There was along line for the cow showers (cow wash?), but that wasn't all of it.
Oh, that was it! Hundreds of cows getting BLOWN DRY all at once! They had to look pretty for the judging in a couple of hours :)
Or maybe they were looking pretty to attract potential customers...
I am always impressed with the longhorns.
Then, it was on to the pigs, sheep and goats. If I told you it was much quieter in this barn, you can get an idea of how noisy cow beauty parlors can be.This pig was really enjoying the scratching.
Here is the grand prize winner.
My dad wanted to get there early so that we could park close and not have to take the shuttle from the far parking lot. We were there by about 7:30 and, even though we were inside, it was chilly when we got there. The goats and sheared sheep were all wearing jackets. I thought this one had a sweet face. He (she?) was probably thinking my camera strap looked liked breakfast.
There were fun chickens and...
...fat rabbits.
We watched chicks hatching...
...and ducklings being oppressed.There was a high school and middle school rodeo. I couldn't believe the twelve year old 7th graders riding full sized bulls! I was too tense wondering if they would die a gory death to take pictures. All I got were the rodeo princesses at the start. I miss riding a horse that I know well and can appreciate. If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as a rodeo princess.
It is a fuzzy picure, but look at all that glitter!
There were all kinds of competitions on display, including floral arrangements, mushroom dioramas...
...cookies, pies, cakes, honey...
...apples, vegetables, wine (we met the grape princess) maple syrup...
...and the famous butter sculpture!
Michael's favorite part of the whole shebang was the butterfly house. We each got a q tip dipped in gatorade to feed the butterflies.
There were lots of them, mostly monarchs, but also swallowtails, painted ladies and buckeyes.
Guess which chrysalis is about to hatch.
Sara, with some hitchhikers.Michael went through the butterfly house with me, my dad and Sara and then again with his aunt, uncle and cousins. Matt and Steph and the girls came from the D.C. area and met us after we had been there a couple of hours. Michael was so happy to have cousins to hang out with. At one point, we were separated from them in the crowd and it was all I could do to keep him from running off helter skelter to find them. Maybe that is why I don't have any pictures of Michael with his cousins. I was too busy hanging on to his collar to hold my camera. So I stole some pictures from their blog...
Coral, Ruby and Michael
Opal
Coral
Michael and Ruby, who is being idolized.Can you see how happy he was to be with his cousins?
