New York State Fair

Last Wednesday Andrew and Kim headed out to the state fair with eight of the goats. I didn't go out until after classes on Friday and then commuted back and forth everyday through Monday when everybody came home. It was pretty entertaining but also tiring.
I think it was Thursday they did milk tests (how much milk each goat was producing in a 24 hour window, how much protein and butterfat was in the milk and some kind of cell count). Ivy gave the most milk out of all the Alpines and I think she had the biggest protein percentage too. She also had the largest percentage of butterfat out of ALL the goats that tested!
Friday was the Junior Doe show and Saturday was the other doe show. Sunday and Monday we all helped with Milk a Goat. People could come in and pay 50 cents to learn how to milk a goat.
Here are a few amusing tidbits from the fair.

A few of the farmer's kids were running around Friday night. One little boy was laying down on the bench and a little girl came running up to him saying that another little girl said she was going to kiss him so he should start running. It was pretty funny to watch him run around the stalls with her following him threatening to kiss him! He seemed so disgusted and she was obviously getting a kick out of the whole ordeal.

Julia, one of the other farmer's little girl, came in, paid 50 cents, and came right over to Andrew's goat and started milking. A little puzzled why Julia would come in and pay to milk a goat Andrew asked. Julia told him that she doesn't get to milk much anymore because her mommy got a machine and sometimes she just misses it.

I was helping a girl about 12 milk a goat. She had gotten a few squirts out and Sera started to cough. She kinda stopped and I told the girl that Sera was fine and she went back to milking. I don't even know if she got one more squirt out before Sera coughed again... but this time she farted too. The girl froze for a second and then looked up at me with a kinda shocked look and asked if she had just farted. When I said yes she jumped up and away from the goat. Her mom started laughing and said that she'd try milking. Her daughter was shocked that she would be willing to milk the goat after she farted but she ended up milking her again before they left.

A older lady came in to milk a goat. I started to explain how to milk when she told me "This is on my Bucket List". She milked a bit and told me a couple more times before she left that it was on her Bucket List. ...Kinda an interesting thing to want to do before you die.

A little boy came running in the barn and repeatedly asked "Mommy!!! Is that a billy goat?!?!" She said no and he asked Why?.

Saturday night after the show, the goat farmers had a little party. Someone had the bright idea of using all the trophies for more useful purposes during the party. They used one trophy as a platter (which is what it was) holding cheese and crackers, another one was used to hold ice and a bottle, another was a cup holder, another one held corks in it's handles, another was the bottle opener, another was an ice breaker, and another one was used to hold some duct tape and something else I think. It was pretty interesting

I had three little kids stop me when I was taking Ella out to the be loaded onto the truck. They asked me SO many questions. Here's just a few of the things they asked and said to me: Is it a boy? Can we have her? We lost our dog. We could call her Sparky and keep her in the house and she could be our dog. Can we have her? How much does one cost? Did I mention that they asked me if they could have her and take her home? Their mom asked them if they lived on a farm... they said yes, she said NO!

So those are a sampling of some of the stuff that happened at the fair this year.