The Beginning of Show Season

A few weeks ago Lynden hosted the Washington state Holstein show. Hale and Rocklyn had a chance to show for the very first time in the pee-wee division.


They both had an "assistant".



Or maybe I should call them "coaches" since they helped train the kids on how to lead their animal in the ring. "Hold her right up by the head. Keep the head up!"



The kids were really excited and didn't seem anxious to go out into the ring.





They looked like naturals.



Here comes the judge. Landon hoped Hale would remember the name of his calf!



"Robin Hood Shottle Mandy"
Phew! He remembered!



Hale must have been feeling pretty confident because his form got a little sloppy.



And then even sloppier.



Rocklyn was looking pretty relaxed too.



They remained pretty composed despite the stiff competition.



Look at this huge class!



Maybe it was because they were related to over half the class.

No really, look:



Everyone won in this division. The kids RAN to tell Grandma the best part: "WE GET CANDY!!!"

Cousins: your first friends

Hale and Zetta are very lucky to have cousins living close by. These pictures are from a beautiful evening we spent with some of them.

Canyon is as sweet as she is cute.



She's also more active than any baby I've encountered since Hale.



Once Zetta decides to try something besides sitting on a blanket (it's coming soon, I can tell) she and Canyon are going to have a blast together.







This is Cordell. He's our pony-cousin on Landon's mom's side.



This family has 8 kids, so you can imagine that pony-riding is only one of many fun things going on in this yard.



Now the pony handler hops on to show Hale how to REALLY ride this thing.



Cordell takes off for the fence and hits the breaks with inches to spare. One rider is thrown and the other...well, can you see him? {he is dangling over the front...see his foot in the air?}



The kids thought it was pretty hilarious!

Raspberries!

Grandma Pat came to visit last week (yay!) and we got out to the raspberry field to take some pictures of the harvest.

Since I know some of my friends and relatives are not familiar with how it works, I took some pictures of the picker to briefly explain.



1. The vibrating beaters gently shake the bushes.
2. Ripe raspberries fall and are caught by the shields by the bottom of the bush.



3. Raspberries slide down the shields into cups. These cups act like a mini Ferris wheel transporting the berries up onto a conveyor belt.

4. Berries run along the conveyor belt and underneath a blower which blows away any leaves but allows berries to pass along to the sorters.

5. A sorter (or two) watch the conveyor and pull out green or moldy berries and anything else that doesn't belong. Berries drop off of the conveyor into a flat (or barrel as seen here).

As I mentioned in the last post, our kids love to ride on the picker.

Here's Zetta watching the conveyor belt.







Hale loves to sort almost more than he loves to drive. He definitely has unique methods but he seems to do some good.




See! He's flinging an unripe berry!



And now he's searching for a good one for Zetta to try.



Here you go Zetta.



Is it good?



We'll take that as a yes.



Zetta drives.



Then Hale.



When we're done with the row we've got some great looking berries!



And sticky hands!