Young Farmers

rocking the A&P Show,

as per usual.

It's pretty fearce competition at the old A&P Shows

among the Young Farmers

when there is Regional Competitions up for grabs.

Reuben being very serious about the sheep judging.

He won so it was worth it.

I like that the boys dressed appropriately for the judging.

There are rules about this.
Stock judging is very serious stuff.

This girl was there for the breed showing.

She's way too good to be thrown into the stock judging.

The showing people are very into winning

mostly because it helps their stud business.

The more red ribbions they win the better it looks for the quality of their stock.

I bet this is the only thing this farmer scrubs down.

She sat in her poop.

That's what cows do really.

She gave him a kick for his troubles.

Some people paint their animals up,

this usually is rubbing off by the end of the day

and the animals look like some kid has drawn outside of the lines.

Huge bulls, huge.

They can be a bit nudgy as they walk.

Then theres the fencing comp.
That's building a fence.

I've never seen a fencing fight in my life but

I have seen plenty of fencing competitions.

This one is the Tasman Region comp

and the winning pair goes to the National Final.

It's all on in the sun.

Ok I admit I know not much about fencing

but I bet I know more than you do

but maybe not as much as Charlotte does.

Charlotte and Nigel the judge and Prez of FCANZ

had a bit of a chat about the criteria for judging the lines.

They talked about this

and this

  and knots

 and gates

I know you are probably kicking yourself for missing this

two hour fencing competition

but don't worry we have eight of them a year

all around the country.

Next one is the National Final at Invermay near Dunedin

on Thursday May 24th.

Let me know if you want to join us.

The judges moved in.

Dave, in the black there was the organiser of this comp.

Nigel in the blue runs all of the comps

from afar usually cause he is always off putting really hard fences up

in random places with no cellphone coverage.

Then the winners and organisers get to go in the

Grand Parade around the arena.

Lisa, Reuben, Sarah and Lucy carried the flag for Young Farmers.

Ripper day it was.

Oxford A&P

On Saturday I meandered along to the Oxford A&P Show.

It was a bit of an epic drive

cause I did my usual thing of leaving without looking at a map

then realising there must be a quicker way.

There was.

Mags came along to sit in the ute for most of the day.

I met up with Charlotte and had a delightfully, relaxing day walking

around and round the Show.

What's an A&P Show? I hear you ask.

Why its the local Agricultural and Pastoral show

when the rural community comes together
to see men dressed in skirts
and kids in hats

show off their wares, sand gardens, floral displays,

hand crafts, stock, fleeces and skills.

 Oh and all the key ingredients for any Show are things like these.

Heaven knows how kids can ride those things at 10am in the morning.

Me, my breakfast would be all over the crowd.
They had organsied special tractor parking.
I bet the guy with the blue tractor was relieved when he parked up.
His will be easy to spot when he comes back,
too bad for the other guys with the red tractors.
Actually funny story,
Charlotte and I got sconed with a handful of lollies
while we were having a sit down in the shade of a portable drafting gate.
The flipping lollie scramble guys drove past and
randomly threw a handful of hard lollies at us.
A candy drive by it was.

Clown shows.

Even better not scary clowns,

nice mummy and daughter clowns who give things away.

Remember these clowns.

They are cool clowns, fun clowns and

the carnie lady barking out calling over the wee kiddies.

She was little scary in a pedophile in a park kind of way

luring little kiddies over to her to play her games.

Why are carnie people scary?

Must be that old transient, temporary people thing.

Maybe they need a Big Fat Gypsy Wedding programme.

Doubt they'd go for massive wedding dresses though.
Bet people check their wells after the carnies have been through.

The mandatory Highland Pipe Band

who, lovely Charlotte reckoned only knew one tune.

This is entirely possible

though I wouldn't argue the point with that wee woman in the front there.

Doesn't she look like a Mike Myers character?



The fundraising Lions full fat, fried food cart

with old men who are on a customer service lark for the day.

Making money to give back to their community.

Charlotte, who is based in Christchurch while on her senior mission

was a bit sus about eating a sausage

(it's a Grapes of Wrath thing,
I wonder if the sausage industry can post humerously sue Steinbeck
like the US cattle industry sued Oprah?).

We got really meaty snags from the

Oxford Rugby Club BBQ with coleslaw and fried onions

all on fresh white bread,

just as sausages at Shows need to be -

greasy, piping hot and scoffable.

I caught up with Charlotte at the wood chopping competitions.

Perfect place to have as a meeting point.

Plenty of action, heat after to heat of choppingness.

The old guys had the upper hand.

Like most things, it's all about the forward planning
rather than the force fo the chop.

Shearing is another prefect meeting place.

By the middle of the day it's a tad hot

and the shearing competition at Oxford is in a shady shed with seating.

Plus this guy has quite nice arms for an old fulla.
Viewing bonus.

This was the last shearing comp before the season ended.

The end of the season just means all the young guys are off overseas.

NZ shearers go all over the world and dazzle the locals with their quick, speedy,

thoroughly efficiently wool removal.

I love shearing, watching that is.

I love the smell of wool.

I love sheepies,

not so much nudie sheepies though.

Woolly ones are the best.

Charlotte and I covered off quite a few topic areas of our lives

in that shed watching the rousies and shearers.

And whats an A&P Show without Young Farmers?
Nothing, I tell you nothing.