Ledyard Fair

For the first time in three years, the Ledyard fair had wonderful weather! Not a drop of rain to be found. In the barns we were so thankful as we sat and reminisced about previous years' rains and hurricanes. At least now we can laugh about it all!

We had 45 goats in the barn this year and eleven exhibitors. Several kids from the cow barn participated in the goat showmanship competition and four of the Smith girls competed in the Beef and Dairy showmanship competitions.

One of the boys in the cow barn (Justin) had a mini competition going with Abby. On Saturday, she placed over him in both the Beef and the Dairy competitions. He competed against her in the goat showmanship, but she placed over him there too. On Sunday both of them participated in the Livestock Competition. This event involved showing Beef, Dairy, Goat, and Sheep, one right after the other, to see who was the best overall livestock showman in the barn. Abby placed second to Justin by ONE POINT! It was nice to see a friendly competition and they had fun egging each other on throughout the weekend.

We had our first Ledyard Fair Goat Obstacle course Friday evening, which drew quite a crowd and one reporter from the New London Day. He spoke to Rachel and since she always says something cute/funny, the reporter got his quote and ran with it. I don't know how long the article will be available, but she basically told the guy all about our sending the goats named for dead presidents to the auction.

Sunday afternoon we had our first Ledyard Fair Costume class. Abby put the lion costume Nathalie had made for Pippi onto her baby goat, Abigail Adams. Hannah borrowed a small pony saddle from the petting zoo to put on Venezuela, and Rachel threw a backpack onto Betty Ford to be a school kid. Samantha came to me just a few minutes before the show, begging for me to help her make a costume. Out of time and not wanting her tearing through the camper looking for something, I thought quickly, and her goat, Dolly Madison, went dressed in The Emperor's New Clothes!

It was a busy weekend, and for the first time in a very long time, we overslept this morning! Only the big E is left for this year's fairs. It has been a great fair season and I have very much enjoyed all the time we got to spend together as a family.