Over the weekend Gracie showed her lambs in the Summit County Fair. We borrowed my parents trailer and spent the weekend and had a really good time! This was our first year raising lambs and it turned out to be quite a family project. We started around the first of June and built a small pen behind our house. Everyone was really excited to pitch in. Then we brought the sheep home and the real work started. The girls had to help feed and water them everyday and they had to be walked every night when Greg got home from work.

Saying hello to Daisy and Daffodil.


Some times the whole family walked with them and the neighbors even joined in.

It was a lot of work getting the lambs ready to show. They had to be washed, then sheared, then washed again. It's a good thing we have good friends and family who were so willing to help us out when we had to move them and shear them or just share good advice. I don't think we could have done it on our own.


I think it turned out to be a really good experience for the whole family. Gracie did a really good job for her first year too. She got 3rd place in showmanship and I wasn't really even sure she knew what she was doing out there. I guess I was wrong. Her cousins were a really big help. She had 5 cousins showing lambs and one show a pig at the fair this year. It was great to have them tell her what she needed to do. It made it extra fun to camp at the fair grounds too. We all had a really good time and the kids played together so good. It was nice not to have to entertain them or worry about them the whole time.


This was her during the sale. We told her before she went out that the prettier she smiled the more money she would get and boy did she have a big cheesy smile the whole time. I'm so proud of Gracie. She did a really great job and I think she enjoyed doing it. She was pretty broken hearted at the end and it was really hard for her to let her lambs go but she knows that the money she earned will go toward paying for college someday.
Although it was a lot of work, especially for daddy, I think it was a really good experience for the whole family. We're definitely going to do it again next year and hopefully get all the girls to do it in the future. I just wish I liked lamb chops!