Beauty and the Sheep

I know we don't live near mountains, or the ocean, or even near a lake, but I find it very beautiful here.  There is something so soothing about an uninterrupted, rolling landscape blanketed with corn.  It comforts me somehow.  It simply feels like home.

We are ready to launch into County Fair.  It officially starts tomorrow.  It is a whirlwind of pigs, sheep, rabbits, goats, cattle, horses, kids, hamburgers, pie, people wearing ball caps and wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, a food stand that sells goat burgers and lamb burgers, and finally, end of July midwestern heat.

It's a highlight of the year for Farmer Boy and the kids.  They love it.  I love it for a while and then I love to come home to my empty air conditioned house and wait for them to return every night, sweaty and tired.

Tonight we have to take Kelli's sheep into the fair.  They will find their way to a pen in the barn especially designated for sheep.  They'll hang out and get to know other sheep. They'll baa.  They'll put their feet up on the pen and take a look around their new surroundings.  They'll sleep.   They'll have a fan on them keeping them cool.  They'll get shampooed and all prettied up by Kelli and Farmer Boy before their big show.

Last night they had to have a hair cut.  I fixed home-made pizza for supper, watched it get snarfed down and then sat on the porch with my ice cream cone, waved to Farmer Boy and the kids as they drove the pick-up and livestock trailer out the driveway on their way to the sheep beauty parlor.

Every summer our niece Olivia comes and stays with us the week of the fair.  She doesn't live on a farm and she actually loves to do chores.  She actually loves anything to do with the farm.  The kids don't quite understand her.  They don't really love their chores but they love when Olivia comes because she'll happily do their chores for them.  Before she arrived this week, the kids were given the task of scooping out the chicken coop.  They hemmed, hawed, complained until finally a light bulb went off in their minds.  It sounded like this, "Hey, let's wait until Thursday 'cause then Livvy will be here and she can do it." So that's exactly what they did.

I don't think she minded.  Here she is tending to the sheep, loving the farm life.  Aren't the sheep so pretty?  They're sheared and ready to go.  We'll see how they do at their big show.  Kelli tells me they are harder to work with then any other sheep she has had.  They're onrey.  They baa a lot. They don't stand the way she wants them to stand so that the judges will be impressed.  They sniff me and try to chew on my clothes when I go into the barn.  They're kinda cute.

I'll keep you posted on their big show.  I'm hoping they'll behave so Kelli will win a ribbon.

Have a great weekend.