Fair time runs deep and is part of our life and family...

The fair was our summer vacation and family time for all these many years... Now this year Ruth's kids are getting their feet wet with Simon in the beginning level - Cloverbuds.  He entered one of his lego tractors, and tonight he will be showing a pig for the first time!  John just left to catch the first part of the beef show before he goes in to sell insurance at Northwestern Mutual.  How he loves his time at the fair, and made sure that he is home these days.

Here he is with his beloved Bertha... he shed tears this last year, when she came to the end of her days.  She was found to be "open" - without calf, so she in all her age and glory went on the trailer for the last time and headed to the sales barn.  She has a long legacy of daughters in the herd, and a legend name among our 4H family.  This was taken at the State Fair a few years ago... she was there with her calf and took a purple ribbon.  She was a dream to show, and handle, and John misses her truly!

Two years ago on our anniversary, we brought John home from Rochester... he had just had a brain biopsy through the back of his brain, leaving him with left sided ataxia and unable to walk on his own due to the inability to control his left side.  We were terrified as we expected the chemo he had just after discovering that he truly had a very rare type of brain cancer... would make him sick and terribly weak!  We did not know if we were foolish to think that we could handle him at home, or should have put him in intense rehab to try to regain what he had lost.  The day after he came home.. the fair started and John, with the help of his dad went into the beef show!

  How much he yearned for the normalcy and comfort of the life he knew so well... a time to escape the horror and devastation of the near death experience he had just had, and the anxiety at what lay ahead for him as he fought the beast - cancer!  How we wanted to deny that we had just had the worst news a parent could ever imagine getting - Our son had cancer and in the worst spot we could ever invision, in our worst nightmare - In his brain!!   The first morning home.. he had fallen out of the shower and just barely missed hitting his head... I was shaking inside... feeling like we had made a horrible mistake to bring him home in this condition!  But looking back at him sitting at the beef show, and feeling the joy of family and showing and all that was part of those many years - for John it has been part of our summers always, as his sisters were showing since he was a baby in arms... this was the medicine he needed to gain that hope and confidence in the Lord's healing touch, combined with all the prayers that gave him Peace and Trust to make it through! 

I often would think of John as David in the face of Goliath - cancer!  He would calmly pick up the exact smooth stone and put it in his slingshot and KILL the giant!  So much bravery and peace in the face of such monstrous proprotions of death staring him in the eyes!  Such a David! 

Now with 1 1/2 years without any sign of the cancer - This was the best medicine and continues to call John to be here for the fair!  Hard to believe all our years with 4H have ended, but now the grandkids are starting to show.  Mary was out in the pasture petting her Snowball the other day, and asked her to "have a pretty baby calf, so that I can show it at the fair next year."  We could have quite a lover of showing cattle in that girl!

Ruthie with her Carmel after showing her and her calf at the fair many years back.  Carmel also has many daughters and granddaughters in the herd!

Winnie as a calf back in 1990... We had just gotten back from a trip to see Lake Michigan, where I grew up on the lake... for the first time.  Now Ruthie's kids go there every summer, and love the sugar sand and clear water of the inland sea - Lake Michigan!

Had to throw in a few fair projects - photography - some are keepsakes that are always dispalyed in my home!  I think that you can see why!

All involved - some loved it more than others!  It represented our summer family time, with all of the ups and downs that it usually means.  Pat was just saying that he misses the fair fun and excitement of showing, but not the weeks of hard work leading up to the fair.  With cattle there is alot of work and time spent with them washing, walking and feeding!

Family time sitting in the beef barn after the show!

Team work - push me pull me - helping John with a stuborn calf!

Combine our deep interest in Photography, and many projects in that area with tame and cute calves and kids... and the photos are many and special to me... especially today with the beef show going on and all the memories of the way that it formed our family!  John just said that he gives 4H and Catholic School all the credit for his ability in front of people, and the wonderful solid basis that he has to his life and love for family!  I am eternally grateful for how these two things, along with our parenting, brought forth such wonderful adults now! 

Can't beat that quizical look from behind the tree with the cute brindle face!

Nancy with her Twinkle with the midway behind her...

Another wonderful mother from the herd - Star... she was so tame that she could give Nancy a hard time, and her face shows that she probably had to struggle with to get her to pose for the picture!

Beautiful Maria in black and white - given her choice she would not have shown, but it was a family thing and later, when she came out of the monastery and had been given her life back unexpectedly... she stood in the middle of the cattle yard, while we were sorting to preg check and exclaimed; "We have such a wonderful life on the farm!"  And being here for the winter with us and calving... she now loves her farm roots, and sharing it with her kids! 

Therese went from crying in fear of even small calves the year before -to thinking that they were pretty wonderful this year!

And Therese was a willing pupil - Mary taught her how fun and interesting the bigger ones could be too!  Jesus, thank you for all the warm and family filled times that we have had thanks to 4H and our beef animals, and Pat's willingness to encourage, and allow the kids to take lots of time out of his summers to get them ready to walk into the ring!  We did not win the show, but we got blue ribbons and were respectable, and we learned to work together, and enjoy our best family time of the summer!  It was hard for Nancy to not be here today to see her little Godson, Simon, show his pig, but hopefully her city kids will still be able to have some 4H here on the farm and also in the City!  Bless all the things that families do together, and get them over the rough patches that are a part and parcel of the whole thing.  Jesus, we trust in you and thank you!  Amen, Hosanna, and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb - at the Cathlolic foodstand in 1984

"How great is your name, O Lord our God,

through all the earth!

Your majesty is praised above the heavens;

on the lips of children and of babes

you have found praise to foil your enemy,

to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,

the moon and the stars which you arranged,

what is man that you should keep him in mind,

 mortal man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god;

with glory and honor you crowned him,

gave him power over the works of your hand,

put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle,

yes, even the savage beasts,

birds of the air, and fish

that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, O Lord our God,

through all the earth!"

Psalm 8

St John Mary Vianney, pray for us on this your feast day, and show us the way to Humility!  Amen

Some photgraphy projects that were in my scanned pictures - this is what I did with the kids for projects and they did well!