It is late Saturday night, and all is quiet in the Headings house. The sheep are all tucked back into their pens. The heifer is going to spend the winter at my cousin's farm. And, we are sitting around talking about next year. NEXT YEAR? Just three short hours ago, my girls were tired. They were crying. Life is not fair! Why do we have to show animals anyway. But, we are home now. Everyone has showered. And, we are admiring the ribbons. Ah, yes, the ribbons. But I am sure that our reward was far greater than those ribbons.
We are reminiscing over our successes, our learning experiences, learning how to work together. We learned how to arrange scrapbooks, we learned how to shoot bows. We learned how to show lambs. We ALL learned how to fit lambs for show. We learned how to show cows. Only Madeline was in 4-H, but we all learned a lot from 4-H this year. From lamb camps, to actual 4-H camp, all four of my girls (and my dear husband) pitched in to make this year's summer a success in the show ring. We all realized that Madeline might be WHO was showing the animals, but we all saw that it was OUR farm that was being represented. We learned that it takes all of us working together to achieve success!
So, now that we are clean, our truck is unloaded, our lambs are sleeping, we have decided to plan for next year. And, the girls are begging for a chance to show at Louisville this fall. Our feet and arms ache, but the drive to succeed is greater than our weariness. We are looking at farm catalogs to see what equipment will make it onto our Christmas lists. What child wants a livestock blower for Christmas? Well, if Santa gets these lists, he might think we need four blowers! I have also seen hydraulic blocking stands and top line bushes on the lists. And, my husband, ever the diligent tailor, is working on sheep blankets in the kitchen. Even as we are exhausted, we have our eyes on next year. As my youngest daughter likes to remind us, we have our eyes on the roses! Go TEAM HEADINGS
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