I hope everyone is well, and I apologize for being away from my routine for so long. As many in the dairy goat world know ADGA nationals is complete and we are finally coming down to a semblance of normal life after enjoying a full week full of goats, friends, showing, sweat and everything in between. It was a wonderful week where we were able to connect with friends that we had not seen in a year, along with making new friends! We are already looking forward to 2024 Nationals wherever that may be east central....... We plan to attend!!
Our week started off by my alarm going off at 3 AM to finish packing, load the goats and get on the road by 4 AM. We wanted to ensure that we got to Harrisburg before the heat of the day set in, as it was supposed to be in the mid 90s for check in day. The drive up went off without a hitch and we were able to unload the goats and get settled in relatively quick.
The crux came in finding a place to park our camper. We brought our dog, so even though we had gotten a hotel room for the first three nights ( our camper water supply would not last a whole week) we needed to be plugged in so our dog had a place to stay for the day. I wanted to be close to the facility and this was a major mistake! We found one spot with an open electric plug unhooked and began setting up. We soon realized the error in this as the AC in our camper ramped up..... And down and up and down without getting cold...... This wasn't going to work... So begrudgingly we hooked the camper back up and moved it to a pole as far away from other campers as possible and began our set up process once more..... Thankfully this area was not an issue and we remained there the rest of the week.
Then we went to set up Rob's booth for the Gray Goat!! All went smoothly with the exception of the table being 8 ft and us having a 6 ft table cover ..... So we stretched it and made it work!!!
The next challenge became our poor goats. For anyone that did not attend the goats were housed in three main areas, the main hall, the north hall and the west hall. None of which were temperature controlled..... This was much to my chagrin as last year in KY we packed fans and the facility was almost too cold! To top it off we are very familiar with the PA farm show complex as we show there every January..... It has heat in every are, so I assumed it would have AC in each of the rooms.... Boy was I wrong.... The main hall where our girls were was sweltering hot and all I had brought were two measley box fans.... We promptly set these up and the first thing on my agenda on day 2 was to go to the closest Tractor Supply to buy more fans... Which I promptly did and my girls could not have been happier or more thankful that I did.
Another conundrum I had to answer was finding cold water...... Half of the spigots in the main hall produced hot water........ Not what our goats needed on 90 plus degree days.... Thankfully our goat neighbors were able to direct us to a cold spigot....
The beginning of the week went well! We sold out of Fudge and Memphis BBQ sauce and our Gray Goat products were doing very well in the vendor area, which we were very thankful for.
As the week progressed I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as my best milker Stella was consistently low on milk for each of her three daily milkings.... She wasn't sick and she was eating, the only thing I can think of was the heat stress. This meant as show day rolled around my best doe did not udder up the way she should have. This was sad and frustrating, however, its part of showing goats!
To top off our poor show day luck, my 5 year old Momma developed hives all over her skin. The only thing I can think of is she had an allergic reaction to the soap I used to wash them, which is curious because I have used this soap on her before. But needless to say this yeiled two of my three milkers not being at their prime for show day.... You should see poor Zoey now my 5 year old, she is peeling all over, I have been rubbing her down with lotion and using a curry on her every day to loosen the dead skin.... She will not have that same livestock shampoo utilized again...
This meant we did not make the cut in any of the age classes for Sr's or Jr's. But I am still proud of my girls, getting placed in the top 10 for all of the group classes I entered them in.
We finished the week with a wonderful cheese event and the colorama sale. In this event they highlighted Rob's Gray Goat Mustard BBQ with the soft pretzels and we even bid on a few of the auction kids! It ended that our friends at Chubbe Acres Farm were also bidding on the first Nigerian kid and we did not want to bid against her, so we came to an agreement that we could buy her first doe kid!! Already planning for our 2024 breeding season!!!
We left after the colorama sale and got home around 1 AM. Leaving us the weekend to clean up and recover. Overall, it was a wonderful national show and we created a lifetime of memories!!! If you attended the show let us know what your favorite memories were!! Take care and Happy Goating!!!
