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Showing posts with label sonoma-marin fair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sonoma-marin fair. Show all posts

June 29, 2016

Jinx's Story....Only at the Fair.

We just came off of a week at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, held in Petaluma, Ca.  This is one of our family's favorite small town fairs where many kids have the chance to show their animals that they have been raising and caring for all year long.  Many many memories are made at our county fairs every year, nationwide. 

This little Jersey heifer, Ginny, was given to Paige by a family friend, Regina. We are proud to say Ginny is the very first Jersey that has ever lived on the Grossi Dairy over the past 70 years it's been in existance!  Paige has always had an affinity to Jerseys because of their sweet faces and their light coloring....their looks  remind her of baby deer.  Ginny did Paige well at the Sonoma-Marin Fair....she helped Paige achieve a 1st place ribbon in the Showmanship Class.  





Bryce also has a super sweet Holstein cow named Jinx.  She's three years old, is pregnant with her second calf and he entered her as a 'dry cow' at the fair.  Dry cow simply means she is not milking at the time because she is preparing to give birth and is enjoying a couple of months off from milking.




In my eyes, Jinx is just a big lap cow.  Similar to a dog but much, MUCH larger.  Instead of her sitting on our laps, we sit in hers.  Sweetest bovine creature EVER.





She loves scratches behind her ears and under her chin and loves to give late night, very wet kisses in the barn.




Sweet Jinx surprised us all on the last morning of the fair.  Our nephew, Cameron, had set his early morning alarm for 4 a.m. to milk his cow, Lucy, when he discovered a little bitty head protruding out of Jinx at that same time.  After waking us all up with this discovery, Dominic helped Jinx finish her labor by pulling the calf  the rest of the way out and Jamie was born at 4:15 a.m and approximately 10 days early.


A sweet little heifer, that looks alot like her mama and with the same sweet disposition was here to share the last day of the fair with us and ALL who came by to visit.  People were amazed that she was just hours old....maybe the youngest calf people had ever laid they're eyes on, in real life.

Just a couple of hours after Jamie was born and after being licked clean by her mama, Jamie stood on all four hooves.



It's amazing to me the natural instincts that happen immediately with a newly born calf.  She found her mama and nursed.





Jinx is the ever loving, caring mama.   With the comfort of her 'human family' never leaving her and her baby's side, Jinx seemed happy to share her newborn baby with the public.




One proud mama and a memory that our family and many other families will never forget at the Sonoma-Marin Fair this year.





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July 7, 2015

Cows, Heifers and more Cows ~ Only at the Fair


I am just NOW recovering from Fair Time.  Whew.  After a long, hot five days living out of a camp trailer at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, it takes a 40-something year old just a little while to scrape the dirt off, rest and feel 'back to normal'...whatever that is.



From the time school is out, the first part of June, everyone's scrambling, every day to prepare for the fair.  I wouldn't have it any other way though......the kids LOVE it, it's a ton of work and the memories will be forever.







This year things were a little different.  The state of Californina is in the middle of a drought and the Sonoma-Marin Fair was mandated by the state to cut back 25% of its water usuage.  What that meant for the livestock division of the fair was a "Natural Show" which included a "No Wash" policy for the animals.  The kids were allowed to use the hose and nozzle for spot washes along with buckets and sponges and they could also obtain written permission for a full wash to their animals, if needed.

The livestock exhibitors, aged eight to 19, put their big boy/girl pants on, pulled up their boots and went with it.  All of the fair exhibitors followed the rules, cleaned their animals when necessary, conserved water as much as they could and all with minimal complaints from these same kids.





Show day comes early, getting up at 6 a.m. to get their animals ready to show.  Paige was allowed to show a large animal, her heifer, Nina, for the first time this year as an eight year old Special Junior. She and her cousin, Leila, were all smiles ring-side.  So much fun to watch them having fun and enjoying themselves with their heifers.







Now, this is the difference between our two kids.....Bryce is all serious and calm before his turn in the show ring.  Here he is ready with his heifer, Frankie.






We did have a little time for some carnival fun which was very much appreciated by the kiddos.






Concerts every night had Paige rockin with pleasure....Beach Boys, Rodney Atkins and Tanya Tucker.






The Sonoma-Marin Fair hosts the World's Ugliest Dog Contest every year as well and here is this year's winner....Quasi Modo.






Before we knew it, we were all celebrating the last night of the fair and were awarded with this gorgeous sunset view from our trailer and above the dairy barns.





By Sunday afternoon, we had packed up the camp trailer, most of the tack for the animals and waited for the animal release time at 4:30 p.m.





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June 25, 2013

County Fair Recap

Have you been wondering where I've been the past week? {or maybe you haven't noticed!} I haven't been blogging due to living out of a trailer at our local Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma this past week.  I'm back now and here's the fair re-cap..

This year, Bryce was old enough to show a large animal so he entered his sweet little Holstein calf, Jinx.  Fair time is so much fun....caring for large animals at the fair, most people camp out in trailers so they're close to their animals for the purpose of cleaning stalls, caring for them and milking them twice a day if they enter a milking cow.  It almost feels like a different world with the kids all running around, busy with their animals, to and from the trailers, like one big happy fair family that sleeps, drinks and eats fair for five days.

During the middle of the week, Paige and I were also in a good friend's wedding.  Needless to say it was quite challenging going from the dusty fair to a flower girl and bridesmaid dress.  I had my doubts on Friday night while cleaning Paige off before rehearsal dinner, but by wedding day, Saturday, she was in much better spirits....thankfully.  My goal was to wash every spec of dried manure off of her body {and mine}, hair and makeup...all while keeping this 6 year old with attitude, happy.

It worked, for about six hours where she then began negotiating her way back to the fair.  Daddy brought her back and all was well in Paige's world once again.



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June 21, 2012

TT w/Linky: Sonoma-Marin Fair Day One & Giveaway

Fair time =  Long, exciting and extremely fun days.  Yesterday was our first day, out of five and already the kids began to ask about riding the carnival rides.  For us, carnival rides will not happen until the end of the week {unless, of course, a willing adult other than myself wants to escort the kids over before then}but for us, it's mainly about the show animals.  Caring for them, hanging out at the RV - livestock lot...almost like camping out for a week.

Yesterday we found furry creatures other than the cows we're more accustomed to hanging around.  

This is about as close anyone can get to a Fallow Deer, I'm sure.



















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June 26, 2011

Candid Shots at the County Fair

Some of my favorite shots at the county fair, in no particular order are;

I love that Dairy Princess, Amanda Moretti can shovel out a stall, while holding her princess composure.













Free ice cream, we were at this booth every day.













Bryce hanging with his cousin, Cameron.













Nice udders on these Holsteins.












Judging in the show ring.













The kids loving the carnival rides.

By the end of the day, all we felt like doing was hanging around.



















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June 24, 2011

A Day at the Fair

My nephew, Gavin is showing Emma {aka lap calf} at the fair this year.  She stays for five days and as you can see, she totally acclimated to her new sleeping arrangements.  Paige named Emma when she was a few weeks old and feels it's part of her responsibility to check on her a few times a day while at the fair....and even take a little rest with her.













After checking on Emma, we were in search of some food.  I was on a quest to find some healthy carnival food.  Spending five days at the fair, I really wanted to keep my food intake as healthy/low fat as possible.













Roasted veggie/panini sandwich was the ticket for me yesterday.  Bryce requested a hamburger and Paige had some turkey and watermelon.













Clover Stornetta has an ice cream booth located near the livestock exhibits and they hand out FREE ice cream cones every day from 1-4 p.m.

They now know us on a first name basis.













We only reserve a small amount of time for the carnival rides.  For us, the fair is more about the livestock exhibits and 4-H exhibits so we try to stick to that portion of the fair every day.

We did, however venture in to the carnival portion, to ride just a few rides last night.

Bryce rode on his first Ferris wheel....













And Dominic took Paige on a few rides.......

What's your favorite 'fair food'?  Mine is a corn dog but haven't had one yet.

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Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, I love to hear from you!. Have a fantastic day!

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