Whirlwind Week

Samantha with Dolly Madison; Me with Betty Ford

Samantha and Dolly Madison

Samantha in second place with Dolly Madison

Samantha with Dolly Madison in Best of Breed

Samantha and Dolly

Hannah with Venezuela

Abby showing a Nubian

Abby and Moeeka

Abby with Kroquet, me with Octavia, Wes Brown with Orchid

Abby with Fluorine

Abby and Dunkin Doenuts

Abby with Abigail Adams, Kim Buddington with Ladybird

I had an amazing trip to the National 4-H Dairy Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. I couldn't pack my camera, so I have no pictures from the trip. It was a very interesting trip and while not much of what I saw can translate into goats, it did give me an opportunity to see large scale dairy farming in action.

After we landed in Hartford on Thursday, Sam picked me up and we headed home to load animals and children to head up to the Big E.

Hannah and Abigail were showing goats and Nathalie was showing her dog. All of them did very well in their in showmanship classes. Nathalie's Pippi did very well and was able to behave for most of the show. Pippi also flew through the agility course and Nat is excited to work with her in earnest for next year's agility competition.

Abby did well in her competitions but was having an off-day and didn't place in either of her competitions. She did learn that if she skips meals she doesn't feel well and it effects her ability to perform well.

Hannah placed second in her showmanship class and third in her fitting class. Her doe took Alpine Reserve Grand Champion.

Sunday was the ADGA open show. We were thrilled that with some strong competition our does still placed in the upper third of the classes for the most part. The judge's comments about the strengths of our goats showed that all of our does are demonstrating improvements over their dams. We are excited for the new kids we are expecting in February and definitely looking forward to the ADGA Nationals next July.