I thought about trying to get a post in last week, but...midterms and all-nighters happened, so I decided to wait until this week so I would have some time to put something down that's a little longer and more heartfelt.
In case you didn't know, I spent this past weekend down in the bumbling city of Perry, GA. Sometimes it was hard to find my way amidst all the skyscrapers (*sarcasm*). My reason for going was due to two things: (1) the GA National Fair and (2) this certain Holstein named Sonya. Some of you reading this might know that Sonya is on of the heifers at the UGA Dairy that I have been working to halter break for this show since earlier this semester.
The Dairy Show Team loaded up and headed to Perry this past Thursday. I personally had never actually shown a dairy cow before, let alone ever been to the GA State Fair, so both of these things were completely new experiences for me. On the Wednesday before, we had already met to do some of the main body clipping of our heifers to save time. At the time, I really didn't understand, but looking back, that was a huge time saver for Friday.
On Thursday, we unloaded, got the heifers settled in, got our display up, and waited for the nightly fireworks and then the heifers to bed down for the night before we headed to the most fancy hotel I have ever stayed at - the Perry Ramada. Honestly, it wasn't bad, but that first night we did have some homeboys and half of the furniture from their room chillin' outside the room beside us. Precedent set haha. Oh, and by the way, Bob makes some beast BBQ.
We were at the barn feeding Friday morning at 7am. After feeding and watering the heifers, those of us with white heifers started bath time. The feet were the hardest part to clean, but an hour later, after three baths with shampoo and one bath with the whitening shampoo, I finally was happy. I came back to begin what (I didn't know at the time) would be one of the most daunting and challenging tasks I've undertaken in a while: finishing clipping my heifer. First of all, I'm slightly OCD, so when I couldn't get something looking perfect, I would get slightly annoyed. Second of all, I honestly had NO clue what I was doing. I knew what I wanted the finished product, so to speak, to be, but I had no real idea where to start or how to get there. Legs. Face. Topline. Tail. Belly. Sounds easy, right? Wrong.
Two or three hours later, I finally finished. I got some help in cleaning up my heifer's face and topline, but I was proud of what took me so long to complete. I would get so frustrated at times and honestly just wanted someone else to do it because I couldn't get it to look perfect, but in the end, I'm glad I did it.
The rest of the day was full of others doing the same thing for the heifers, me helping where needed, cow cuddles, and talking to the people who came by. We had Dominoes for dinner, and I was introduced to a new love (jalapeno and bacon cheesy bread). We waited for the nightly 11pm fireworks again and headed out. Laila and I stopped by Walmart to pick up items from our extensive grocery list - super glue, ice cream, and gushers. Priorities in life.
Saturday. 9am was show time, so after we got to the barn, we fed, spot washed the heifers, and quickly got to working on finishing touches for toplines and whatnot. And then it was time to change into white pants, shiny belts, and official looking shirts. Not gonna lie, I was pretty excited. We were being ranked strictly based off of conformation, so we didn't place in the top, but I was really happy with how she showed in the ring. I was able to keep her feet under her and her back straight the whole time, so I was pretty proud of myself. My madre and sister were even able to come see my first and last (maybe?) show! I got to go have lunch with them and walk around the fair a little.
For the rest of the afternoon, I hung out in the cow barn until we went to watch some of the draft horse show and then went to Applebee's for dinner. Half of the other cow people were there...I was looking around like "I know them, and them, and them..." It was a good change from fried stuff for a meal. We made it back for the fireworks, let the heifers bed down, and went back to the hotel for the night. We made the genius decision to watch an episode of Criminal Minds in our room before going to bed, but I definitely fell asleep at the most climatic moment of the show...oh, well.
Laila, Emily, and I didn't get to show on Sunday since they were the Junior shows, but we helped out with stuff, watched our teammates (and took so many pictures), and were able to start packing up our section while the others were showing. We still had time to interact a great deal with the public and answer a lot of questions.
Some of my favorite myths to debunk included things like cows are mean, cows will bite, cows will go out of their way to kick humans, cows just start making milk on their own, and the like. After everyone finished showing, we loaded up the trailer with our stuff first and then our heifers and made the drive back to the Classic City. After unloading at the dairy, we called it a night around 7:30pm.
The mornings were early, and the days were long, but the weekend was one of the most fun times I've had. It was a completely different experience for me. I had plenty of cow cuddling time, drank lots of free chocolate milk, and ate some nice and greasy fair food. Also, I LOVED being able to take what I've learned in the classroom for the past couple of years "to the streets," if you will and being able to share my passion with the public.
This was such a great experience; often times, people will comment on how much time of my semester that this has taken up, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! I took way to many pictures this weekend too, so if you're friends with me on Facebook, go check some of them out! I'll put a few on here for kicks and giggles.
Megan
