THE HIGHLIGHTS (G's version)

Last week was the Rice County Fair and of course many exciting things happened! Here are Grace's Highlights, Marys are soon to follow:

Monday- Of course I had work, so I do not have a fair highlight

Tuesday- The LeSueur County had their fashion revue judging and I was very impressed their clothing project had over 35 kids bring in their projects for judging! Their fashion revue at night also had cupcakes so I was pretty excited about that!

Wednesday- I got up early to haul Ms. Pretty, and crabby pants ( I mean the heifer and not Mary) down to the open class /FFA show. It was an overall successful day! I also enjoyed Marys highlight of the day, but I will let her tell you about it....

Thursday- 4H Dairy show offered free milk and cheese to the public, watching Mary win showmanship and champion heifer was also very exciting!

I also got to show a goat for the FFA goat show! I really enjoy showing goats and wish I would have started my goat handler career earlier.

Friday- Open class beef show at night was exciting and people watching afterwards

Saturday- Auction, G & M Cattle Co. purchased their very first item from the auction, a purple mum which we gave to mom... there may have been alterior motives when it was purchased (getting our name displayed on the auction buyers board)

Sunday- Loading everything up and bringing the cattle home, this was the first time I have driven the cows home by myself, Dad had to pick Mom up when she droped the Mustang off to get detailed

Overall it was a very successful week at the fair

The fair is upon us!!! I still have yet to finish my general project, being kolaches that need to be done by 10 am tommorow morning, YIKES!! Calves, cows, and steers alike have all had their haircuts and are looking better than ever. They go down to the Rice County Fair in Faribault on Tuesday afternoon. Come visit us in the dairy barn if you get the chance. The week will continue with at least one show on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the auction on Saturday morning. After this extremely stressful week of waking up at 4:30 or 5:00 am we will be enjoying our rest and relaxation away from the farm for a week. After that I will travel to Arkansas with the 4-H exchange program. Well, I must finish this project before I am allowed to go to the races with my dad and sister.

Now that I have returned from Washington DC it is time to get back to the grindstone and get back to training those lovely animals that we call fair calves. This week consists of giving all fair calves and cows a special hair cut as well as training them to walk on a trailer to save further frustration the day we take them to the fair. Furthermore, it also leads to training a dairy steer that has yet to be tied up (and probably won't be until friday or saturday) and make sure it doesn't weigh to much. Other than that, many other preparations go into getting ready but are too numerous to remember until the first day of the fair. I'm off to go walk 'the beasts' as Grace would call them and make sure they are all looking their best for the fair that starts next Tuesday. Come visit us in the Dairy barn at the Rice County Fair next Tuesday night to Sunday afternoon.

FAIRS! FAIRS! FAIRS!

The Rice County Fair is fast approaching! There are less then 13 days until the cattle is getting loaded up and brought down to the fair. While Mary has been in DC Grace has spent several hours pulling the old girls around the yard.... in the pouring rain Mary had better be appreciative of it, however she will most likely reply with "It's pay back for the times I have walked hers!" Which is probably true but I am sure she didn't walk them in the rain. Walking heifers is quite the process, it goes a little like this...
- First you rope the beast... usually Mary runs it into a corner, at which point Grace throws a halter around its head and ties it to the fence quickly. (Repeat until all animals are caught)
- Then you let them stand there and pull until you have decided to find out if they have been tied up long enough.
- At this point one of several things can happen...
a.) They take off like a rock out of a sling shot and pull the rope out of your hand or you hold on and hope that you can stay on your feet, after all no one likes a rock burn haha
b.) They stand there and by stand there we mean don't move no matter how much persuasion is used.
c.) any combination of the other options
- After this method has been used several times either you have many bumps and bruises or rope burned hands or hopefully a well trained calf.
-When the calf is halter broke enough it is lead for hours, days, miles it feels like around the yard and several obstacle courses, like around the barn, through the trees in the wind break, around the lagoon, etc...

Overall it turns into a pretty exciting couple months before the fair, and that is only the heifer training parts, We have many exciting stories that will follow like the time Mary's heifer kicked her in the butt.... haha it makes me chuckle just thinking about it.

Look forward to more posts about funny calf walking stories and the life of G & M!

G & M Cattle Co.

Now that our mother got wind of this blog thing she has demanded that we change it from it won't be all that interesting to something more catchy... so here it goes...

This is the G & M Cattle Co. Blog! It is about the exciting life and times of the two youngest Liebenstein girls as they travel on the journey called life. It is guarenteed to have some funny stories, well at least we will think they are funny, and probably only funny to those who were there, and some serious conversations about the bigger things in life like our favorite fair food which we all know Mary's is pork burgers from the pork producers stand, and probably some not so exciting things like the story of how Grace fell off the bucket trying to clip a heifers head.

I'm sure when our Grandma finds out about this wonderful piece of literature she will be very proud... haha

We will just try to remember my fathers famous motto:
DON'T EMBARASS THE FAMILY!