What did you win Lanny?
So glad you asked.
We, the girls and I, won the herdsmanship award at the Animals of the World barn for creativity in our display.
What did the other person win?
Oh, the other person, Kathy, won the herdsman ship award for cleanliness which she really is. Three other people won also one for public interaction, one for education, and one for over all.
Bet worked hard making our concept become a reality.
Along with these beautiful fall swags, she made a feather garland out of the turkey’s under feathers that are as soft as marabou.
It takes a lot of stuff to keep turkeys in and make the place look good.
We had a great idea of putting some of my evergreen trees on the inside of the turkey pen. I knew that any flowers or tender broad leafs would be pecked to death but who knew the turkeys would peck on the conifers.
Once the red posts were up and strapped to each corner and one on each side, Bet got to work on the netting. It keeps the turkeys in because, yes, Virginia they have wings and they fly.
With the netting up, the conifers and the cattail bucket in the pens, it was time to put the big birds in. Speaking of Big Bird, his feathers are all white turkey feathers dyed bright yellow.
Here they are, well at least the first three any way.
The final touches went up and I came up with an incredibly funny, funny poster. The theme of the Puyallup Fair was “Epic Fun.” The fair appreciates when we do things to express the theme. I racked my brain for some American Epics (turkeys are original from the Americas).
Well for some reason my brain was stuck on The Last of the Mohican’s, but when I finnaly remembered the author that clinched it. My poster is like a advertisement for a new book. It shows a book titled The Last of the Moturkeys, by James Feathermore Cooper. Ha Ha Ha it couldn’t get any funnier than that (with the theme and the turkeys what do you expect?)
But then when visitor after visitor had to be told, “No, they aren’t moturkeys. It was a play on words.” Some got it, some didn’t, oh well.
Our front table looked nice, Rebecca wrapped it up very nicely in our gold material and Bet’s swags. It was a nice place to sit and greet fair goers. It was however the scene of the unpleasantness I wrote of in Come On, You Didn’t Just Say That! but that was only a moment in time and we quickly recovered. It is hard sometimes dealing with the public, it is nearly impossible to just walk away. If my Christianity allowed me to be rude, the fair would certainly frown on it
The turkeys seemed to have enjoyed the fair, I think the cattails and the trees helped, and Bet played a radio in their barn for about two weeks before the fair. The were certainly ready for the chaos and noise of the fair, they listened to Rush Limbaugh, so nothing excited them after that.
So that was the fair. All five days of it, from about seven o’clock to ten p.m. and eleven p.m. on the weekends. I’m glad to be home but I already have plans for next year’s design and Drew, the barn manager, is having us bring our Valley Quail next year and hopefully we will have our Large Black Pigs. I’m excited for next year!
