Brazoria County Fair 2009

Boy I have not been on here in forever. We just finished a whirlwind ten days at the Fair. The first three days involved rain, quite a lot of it at times. The next four days involved a lot of heat and 150% humidity. Luckily the last three days had a cooler temp for us. Jen did a great job showing all four times she showed. With her red heifer she was at the bottom of the class in both shows. She helped some other kids from school show some angus heifers for a best of three head class an they got second place. It was pretty good. The last time she showed was her showmanship class. She did good for her first time in a showmanship class. She is not sick of showing yet and informed me she was ready to go to a few more shows. She saw a few kids wearing TJLA jackets around the Fair and says she wants one. We shall see.... Oh, and she has requested to show a goat at the fair next year as well. I hear they are not too much work. We will work on that as well. We have been so lucky with this red heifer. I could not have found a better heifer to be the first calf to show. She is calm and does not get too excited. Jen has had a chance to learn a lot while showing her. Now we are starting to try to figure out about getting her bred.

TJBA State Show

Well I never thought I would say these words... I am glad to be back to work! We just spent four days in Bryan at the Texas Junior Brahman State Show. We had a good time and met quite a few new people. It was however pretty hot up there all weekend. When I was in my truck the thermometer said it was 105 Sunday. The barn where the show was at was a pretty nice facility (Brazos County Expo Center). The people running the place did an awesome job of keeping coolers with water and lemonade all over the place. The guy that managed the place even went above and beyond his job and got in touch with The A&M Vet Clinic when we needed a vet to check out the heifer Saturday night. She hurt her leg at some point, no idea when or how. She seems to be doing better already. The Vet that came out was super nice and was great with Jenna and the heifer both. He did a lot to settle Jenna's feelings down and just basically just set her nerves at ease. We did not place as high as we would have liked to yesterday but all in all it was a good day and Jenna did great work. As always she made her Daddy proud. I also noticed that when it is a day she is showing that my nervous level is through the roof. She on the other hand seems to be cool as a cucumber. She may not be but she looks to be doing ok. I couldn't eat a thing all day before she showed. By the way, the show started at 8:00am and we showed a little after 4:00. She is getting so grown up so fast.

Heifer update

Well I was beginning to think the heifer was not going to be ready in the slightest bit for the shows at the end of June. Two days ago she finally let me lead her around some. She is in no way done, but it was a big step forward. I still keep out of range of those back legs. They are brutal! She is also not real fond of bathing. I have been rinsing her down a few times and it is getting better as well. I will make an effort to clean her up this weekend and get a couple of pictures of her to put on here. Summer vacation for Jenna (and me) is right around the corner. WOOHOO!

Almost perfect!

Just wanted to say that the weather has been as close to perfect as possible! Sun shining, around 80 degrees, no humidity, and most of all, NO RAIN for a few days!

Halter Breaking Update.

Well, about six day into breaking and making more progress than expected. After the machine gun kicking I got this past weekend I figured it was going to be a very drawn out process. I had her tied to the fence for an hour tonight. She even let me brush her for a while tonight. She seems to be relaxing a bit. Thank goodness!

Halter Breaking... or something along those lines.

Well I know that is a pretty fancy looking leg there, but I digress. This is the aftermath of the first day putting the halter on the heifer and tieing her up for a little while. I made the bad decision to get about six inches closer than I should have. It was like a machine gun going off with the rapid fire that was coming at my shin. I guess we live and learn. Even though this is a lesson I learned a long time ago, refresher... I will not lose this battle of the wills! She is hard headed but she shall soon see I am too!

New Family Member

Well we had an addition to the family this weekend of a sorts. Jenna got her new Gray Brahman heifer dropped of Saturday morning. She is still pretty scared so far. It was a very traumatic day for her. Taken off of her mother, off of the ranch, and worst yet through the traffic of Houston. That would be enough to scare anybody at times. We are keeping the two heifers up together for a few days to help Addison, (the new heifer) to get accustomed to her new surroundings. We will be busy with her the next two months. The TJBA State show is at the end of june and we plan on showing her there. Wish us luck with this little adventure.

JAWS!

Well we and by "we" I mean Jenna is a week and a half into her new braces. She was so pumped up and excited about getting them on. That wore off about two hours after they finished putting them on and the Tylenol wore off. Now mind you this is the first kid I have ever known of that actually "likes" going to the dentist. It was pretty touch and go for the first few days, but they stopped hurting about four days into it. It has actually been nine days so far but you can already tell the difference in her teeth. When she showed her pawpaw that they had already moved her front teeth, his quote was "no wonder she was hurting for the first four days!" After she had her braces put on that day she had the pleasure of watching her daddy/cry baby get some work done on his teeth. I think there probably still my finger nail prints in the arms of the dental chair. It was pathetic, but in my defense he did hit a nerve. I actually grabbed and jerked his hand away from my face. He decided to re deaden me at that point. Thanks. So the chompers here are all getting closer to good.

How we roll!

Well I have told a few people this story and it got some pretty good laughs and it just cracked me up at the time. I was sitting in the living room a few weeks ago and Jenna was at my Uncles house playing with her cousins. I was watching TV and keeping an eye out the front window for her when all of the sudden she comes flying in the driveway faster than I have ever seen that kid ride her bike. My first thought she was being chased by dogs or some hooligans. I saw neither follow her in. So I wait a few minutes and she comes strolling in the house like nothing has happened. I said what was that all about. Her response was like I was crazy and what was I talking about. I said well you came in the driveway rolling hott! She looked me in the face and grinned and said "Daddy thats just how I roll"! I could not keep a straight face and laughed at her. She has the best sense of humor I have seen in a kid and very quick witted.

She also brought me home some more good news from school. They have these stupid TAKS test's that the teachers train the kids all year long to be prepared for. They have all the kids so stressed out you would think it was life or death depending on how you score. She has always scored "commended on these tests which just is a fancy way to say that they scored higher than the average test scores. Well she was all tweaked up the night before this test and I told her to relax but I think it is being told to them that if they fail they do get to move to the next grade. I can understand a little concern with that. Well we got the score back for the reading and comprehension part and she only missed one question. I think the average score on this is around 1750 or something and her score was above 2500. This kid is so stinking smart it wears me out.

HLSR 2009

Well we just finished a whirlwind four (very long

days) of heifer showing in Houston. Jen had a blast and seems to improve with leaps and bounds at every show. She did an amazing job with the heifer in the ring, but was disappointed that she did not place first. She placed second, which I was very happy with. I try to tell her she has only shown a heifer in four total shows. We have decided to hit a few of the TCCA shows during the rest of the school year and during the summer. She also will be participating in two big Junior Brahman shows in the end of June and the first of July. Those will both be in Bryan Tx. She and I were talked into entering her into the Princess competition during those shows. I was concerned she would not be the slightest bit enterested in that but she seems very excited and is wanting to get prepared for it. That kid amazes me every day. Now back to HLSR and off my little bunny trail. I have had several comments about the picture above from different people. ie... why do you look so happy, nice smile I have there and others along those lines. I have the same response to all. I blame it on the photographer. He seemed agitated to be taking our picture and like we were putting him out. Now mind you there was a Division Champion ahead of us that he probably took 15 or 20 pictures and was jumping through hoops to help those people. I guess a little girl's first time at Houston with a lowly second place did not warrant his full help and attention. But all in all the picture turned out decent I guess.

San Antonio

Well we made a quick trip to San Antonio for livestock judging Sunday. It was almost a long day. To start off the Ag Teacher said we were leaving the school at 3:00. In no way do I mean the afternoon 3:00. I told him I didnt think my alarm clock worked that early. My first misstake was sleeping late Saturday morning, which was caused by my staying out late Friday night. So I guess that was really the first problem. I got all of Jenna's stuff ready Saturday night. (You would think she was moving across country). Well midnight Saturday rolls around and I am still wide eyed. So at this point I have two choices go to sleep and chance missing the alarm or stay awake and finish some laundry. I knocked out the last two loads and got them folded and put away. I finally got cleaned up and got Jen up and to the truck and made it on the road. Well as soon as I turn off our road on to the highway I see a Brazoria County Sheriff parked in a parking lot. Well I saw him and kept a close eye on my speed. No sooner than I pass him he whips the car around and decides to follow me for a while. Right then and there how can that not make you nervous driving? Well a mile down the road he turns OFF his head lights, more fear and then turns them back on. Next thing you know on go the flashing lights. I pulled into a gas station and he comes up to check things out, and he said I had a "burned out license plate light". Did I mention it was about 2:45 in the morning. I am sure it was all about the plate. He said since I had my daughter and we needed to get to the school by 3:00 that he would go ahead and let me go. Convenient.... Well we finally get in the bus and on the road and my whole plan is to get some sleep on the ride up there. No such luck! So we rolled into the Judging at about 8:00 after two stops on the road, one of those being Whataburger. I was thinking the judging would be over by 10:00 or 11:00. Wrong again sir! I think we pulled out right after noon. So at this point I am past the 24 hour mark of sleeplessness. I was in zombie mode and even nodded off for all of 30 seconds on the fender of a trailer when Jenna comes running up and slaps me in the chest successfully scareing me back awake. Finally back to the bus to head home. As soon as I stretched out I hear that we are stopping in ten minutes to eat some lunch. Once again no sleep for the weary. After lunch at Taco Cabana, I got in a whole hour sleep on the way home. When I finally got home got the heifer fed and by now Jenna is hungry again. That kid never stops eating! I think I finally crashed at 9:00 pm. That is the longest I have ever been sleep deprived. I told Jenna next year we will be heading up there a day early to get a motel room!

Another Ft Worth picture

Well when we were at the show I went ahead and purchased one of the professional pictures that they were taking and selling. The deal is they make you purchase a package, and enter your credit card info before they will even take your pics. So it was a gamble from the get go. Well it paid off in my opinion. I was there helping get the heifer set up just right and she told me that she did not want me in the picture. She is getting too grown up for my liking.

Jen's new hat.

Jenna had a birthday party to go to Saturday night and she found a new hat to wear. This kid is growing up too fast for me.

Jenna Brazoria Cty Fair 2008

These were from last October, I just figured I would go ahead and add them as well. She did a very good job at the fair and had a good time.

Jenna at Ft Worth

Well we just got back from a long weekend in Ft Worth. She had her first experience at a "real" stock show. I asked her on the way home what her thoughts were. She told me it was fun and she cant wait till next year to do it again. I may have created a monster.