Milk Maid
It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of July already! What’s harder to believe that county fairs are starting this week! Live music, rodeos, cotton candy, basically anything you can think of fried on a stick, 4-H and FFA animals, carnival rides and more will soon be making the rounds across the area.
It’s hard to believe that time is here, but I am very excited! We have a month to go until the Lyon County Fair and the kids have really ramped up their projects.
Now that I’ve been out of 4-H for a few years, judging other county fairs is something that I’ve really enjoyed.
I have already judged a county fair in Redwood Falls on Tuesday night and I have to judge in Canby for the Yellow Medicine County Fair on Thursday. On Tuesday night, I judged the 4-H Cloverbud projects.
Cloverbud projects are for the youth just starting out that completed kindergarten through second grade. What’s fun about judging the Cloverbuds is that their projects can cover a wide array of categories and all the kids receive the same awards.
Basically, Cloverbuds are just the “introduction to 4-H” category. In my opinion, they are the most fun. They don’t get too nervous and they really don’t care about what they say. I judged a little boy that brought two jars of soybeans and corn. I asked him if his family grew it themselves.
He said, “No.” Confused, I asked him where he got the corn and soybeans from. He replied, “Well we drove past my neighbor’s bins and Dad got out with the jars, went to the bins, and filled them up!”
Needless to say, his knowledge about his crop projects was lacking. One of my favorite parts about judging the Cloverbuds is to see their eyes light up when they talk about their favorite projects or things that they are into. Sometimes, they aren’t so excited.
You can tell the kids brought and made a project “just because Mom said so.” The young lady that left the biggest impact on my evening had projects she loved and some she didn’t.
When she sat down, I asked her what project she’d like to talk about first. She picked up a paint by number unicorn and said, “First of all, the Easter Bunny brought my this art project. He knows I like horses but doesn’t know I don’t like unicorns.”
“Unicorns are not real and I don’t believe in them. Mom said I had (rolling her eyes) to bring this project. So I paid my sister $5 to do it for me. I figured with the premium money, I’d break even.”
I tried to hide my laughter and quickly moved on to her next project. It was a painted letter “K” with lights on it. When I asked her to tell me about her project, this is what she said.
“This is my favorite non-animal project. My names starts with ‘K’ and none of my brothers and sisters names do. I wanted this to put on my door to my room.” “I wanted intruders to know they were walking into my room and they better watch out!”
Trying to hide my laughter again, I asked her, “You have an intruder problem?” “Yes. My brother likes to hide my toys. Typical brother.”
This sassy little lady was awarded ribbons for her projects and ran over to her parents and they looked a little embarrassed, but I enjoyed my visit with her. It was a great way to kick off county fair season!
I truly think the world would be a better place if everyone was as honest as all those Cloverbuds.