Hello blog (and those who read it)! Long time, no words, which is sad because I’ve had SO MANY words to say since I last wrote. The problem is, many of them have not been appropriate, thus my blog has been silent.

#profanityisgoodforyourmentalhealth

Anyway, over the last three weeks, we’ve done our “normal” thing.of showing cattle. We had two shows at our county fair, a third which was a state show, and finally the Iowa State Fair “Speical Edition”.

#whatwerewethinking

Now, these shows followed all the guidelines of social distancing (keep a cow apart), hand washing (please wash your hands), along with several other things to keep us safe.

#oknotreally

Honestly, the only difference for many of these shows was how we were stared at as we walked through the barns with out masks on. We stalled near doors, so we sat outside or in the breeze a lot, but as we walked through enclosed places, the mask went on. And why not? I need to lead by example if my students are going to wear masks. The county was void of masks (we don’t believe in Covid up here), and the other fairs were not much different. We live in a bubble here, and I hope it doesn’t pop in an ugly fasion.

My daughter did as well as could be expected. She won her class in a couple of shows and finished top 5 in the state show, which was a good feeling. We don’t have the money to buy real expensive animals, but we get lucky from time to time and that feels nice.

I’m pretty sure I wrote last yeat that it was her final run. I won’t say that this year because I don’t know. She’s tranfered to Iowa State and is moving into animal science. I could see her showing one more time as she’ll have a year of “eligibilty” left as an FFA member. One of our show family talked to her brief about possibly buying an animal, but that conversation is happening too soon.

Me? I’d love to see her show one more time. She loves it, loves the competition, but most of all, loves the Brown Swiss. I keep telling her, when I win the lottery, I’m buying up the land around me an creating a dairy like no other, full of Brown Swiss.

She smiles wisfully, knowing it won’t happen, but sharing my dream. And why not? A farm filled with the most amazing dairy animals is a dream come true.

Even if it is only a dream.

Faith and Princess, together again.