The True Vine

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that many of Tim’s 4-H projects had a bird theme. For example, his photography project featured birds.

As did his drawing project.

Oh, wait, that’s not Tim.

There, that’s better.

I think his bluebird house is very cool.

He made this collage of his trip to North Dakota this summer and it gets to go to state fair.

This is a poster about chimney swifts and how their habitat has changed. Pretty interesting.

And here is the lone non-bird project: a jump rope he made with “potholder loops” for his Child Development project. It has already been put to good use around here and we are going to make some more.

Next up: Tim and Dirk.

This year in 4-H, Peter made some gingerbread people.

He also made a “pirate” cake for cake decorating.

His drawing project was very colorful.

As was his Theatre Arts shadow puppet bird.

He sewed a washcloth puppet for his Child Development project and it has already been put to good use. He learned how to do a satin stitch and an outline stitch for embroidering the bear’s face.

His Decorate Your Duds project was very cool, I thought. Amelia helped him choose the different things with which to make the letters.

Amelia also helped him sew this groovy 4-H pillow, which has assumed a prominent position in his bedroom.

I loved how Peter’s photographs of Margaret’s saddle turned out. (Clara gave him some coaching and he really paid attention.)

Peter is certainly enjoying the fruits of his 4-H labors this year.

On Saturday after food judging, Margaret and Clara went with Sheree, Alissa, Brenna and Quinn to decorate the Neigh Burrs’ horse stalls. Michelle was there, too. She and Clara crawled up and down to hang the buntings (provided by Tracy, I think).

Groovy, eh?

Alissa supplied the stall cards.

Should we put it here?

Yes!

How about here?

Very nice.

(Oops, in that last photo, the wind has blown all of the buntings over the tops of the stalls.)

Sheree treated to snow cones after all of the hard work.

Then, thanks to Clara and the Slagles, Margaret and Reginald were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early Monday morning, ready to go.

First, came Pre-Junior Showmanship.

We were so excited when the judged placed her in the blue ribbon row!

Then, came Reginald’s halter class. I counted 25 geldings in his age class. Oh, my. So, he ended up in the red ribbon row. At least he didn’t end up in the white row.

After halter class, Margaret got ready for Walk-Trot Western Pleasure and Walk-Trot Horsemanship.

She did a great, great, great job concentrating and really paying attention in both of those classes. And, thank the Lord, there were no wrecks, either.

We were very excited, again, when she placed 5th in Western Pleasure and 4th in Horsemanship with blues in both.

Margaret was so tired after all of this excitement that we decided she would not show in Open Class on Tuesday (MUCH to her dismay), so her next events were Wednesday when she ran barrels and poles.

She and Reginald warmed up.

Then came some sustenance,

and she headed in for the real thing,

while Amelia and Alissa watched,

and Clara said, “Margaret, Margaret, Margaret, I told you not to try to lope him around the barrels.”

Yes, Margaret’s love of speed got the better of her in barrels and she tried to get Reginald to go faster than they had practiced so he broke pattern. Alas.

BUT, she listened to Clara before she went in for poles and took it slower,

until she loped home. Which was fine.

Whew. That’s all over. In her relief, Clara decided to take Reginald for a spin and Alissa joined her on Peanut.

Well, maybe “spin” is an exaggeration. In any case, hurrah for older sisters who help with horse projects.

And hurrah for Mr. Tim and all of his help.

And hurrah for Margaret and her horsey 4-H project.

Margaret showed Cindy again in dog Obedience and Showmanship.

Here they are concentrating on Obedience.

And here we are watching them concentrate on Obedience.

Here is their whole class of Novice B Obedience (Margaret and Cindy on the left, Tim and Dirk on the right). The judge is telling them what they need to do to improve. Yes, both sets of Novice B participants belonging to our household could use some improvement in Obedience. Dog, that is.

Margaret and Cindy then moved on to Showmanship, moving being the operative word.

Whew! They got to rest for a moment.

Then, they were off, again,

as Grammy watched.

And that concludes Margaret’s 4-H dog show participation. They got a red ribbon in Obedience and a blue ribbon in Showmanship. Yea, Margaret and Cindy.

Next, we move on to Margaret and Reginald.

Margaret was queen of 4-H projects (or, maybe, princess) this year. With Amelia’s help, she got her Clothing 1 outfit completed way back in June. Woo-hoo! Clothing 1 is always a challenge because the 4-Her is so limited in what fabrics and sewing techniques she can use. I think that Margaret’s outfit turned out to be very wearable.

She got a purple ribbon on the construction of her tiered skirt. The judge commented on her French seams.

She got a blue on her top.

Margaret styled her outfit in the fashion show. Wheeee…. It’s hard to capture her in focus when she’s have such a good time spinning.

She also styled her Decorate Your Duds project. She made a shrug out of an old sweatshirt and then decorated it with fabric yo-yo flowers with button centers. She embroidered grass and stems on the shrug, too.

For her twirling efforts, she received a purple ribbon and then a best of show ribbon.

And, construction-wise, she received a purple, too.

I think she’s going to get a lot of wear out of this shrug.

It has so many pretty (sadly out of focus in this photo) colors on it.

After clothing, Margaret moved on to some other projects, such as baking cookies, decorating a gingerbread house and cake decorating, with which she also received help from Amelia.

Didn’t the gingerbread house turn out cute?

I love the gum shingles.

I also like the pretzel fence.

Perhaps the judge did, too.

I think this is the most uniform batch of cookies ever produced in our household. Rumor has it that they tasted good, too. They were from the Roxton Methodist Church cookbook and had oatmeal and chocolate chips in them.

The cake was lovely.

She rolled out Starbursts for the flower petals.

In addition to food and clothing, Margaret’s projects included drawing (maybe this should be considered “horsey”?),

woodworking (oops, this bookshelf might also be categorized as “horsey” — hmmm, maybe that was not the best way to divide Margaret’s projects),

knitting (whew…no horse on this scarf, just a reserve best of show ribbon),

photography (with Clara’s assistance — and this project gets to go to state fair),

child development (this toddler “I Spy” pillow also gets to go to state fair — if Margaret can pry it away from Charlotte),

and theatre arts (Clara helped with this, too and, uh-oh, this puppet is also “horsey”).

Oh, and there was the tablesetting project which also involved horses. Yes, I definitely should have titled this post differently.

In any case, these were Margaret’s projects that did not involve a live animal. You’ll have to stay-tuned for those.

This was also Eleanor’s first year in 4-H. For her Clover Kid projects, she chose to make a hands-on T-shirt, also (with Clara’s help). She put her hands on the front and embroidered her first name underneath.

She painted with her feet on the back and embroidered her last name below them.

She also made a pressed flower picture. She chose the flowers and really planned ahead in getting them adequately pressed. She then glued them to a piece of matting and framed the final product.

I am relieved to report that when the judge complimented her on how nicely dried her flowers were and asked her if she knew what happened if the flowers were not dried enough before they were framed, Eleanor did not immediately think of mold. Even after many hints from the judge, Eleanor still did not think of mold. Obviously, my inadequacy in cleaning out the leftovers in the refrigerator in a timely fashion has not had a negative impact on her.

Eleanor’s third project was showing her cat. Frederick was vaccinated and supplied with all possible cat accoutrements (yes, that word can be spelled two ways) and transported to the small animal show where Eleanor gave a short speech about him and his care.

The judge was very, very nice and gave each 4-Her a lot of time.

Frederick tried to make his escape several times, but Eleanor held firm.

She had to think about some of the questions.

Then, she got her green ribbon,

and a handshake.

Then, she was off to hear Luke Garrett, from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, sing at the Christian concert that was held right after the small animal show.

And that was the start of Eleanor’s 4-H career.

P.S. Amelia and Anne and Clara and Charlotte enjoyed the concert, too. We all did, for that matter.

After pondering how to organize the 4-H posts, I decided to feature one 4-Her at a time. So, first, here’s Lydia-the-Clover Kid.

Lydia did the hands-on T-shirt project from the Clover Kids Handbook. This was her first-ever 4-H project (Clara helped her). She chose yellow paint to make a star shape, using her hands on the front…

and her feet on the back.

She also chose to make trail mix. Her mix included popcorn, mixed nuts, peanut M&Ms and Cajun sticks. Very unique.

Despite her sober appearance, she really seemed to enjoy the whole 4-H thing. She just marched right up to the judge’s table on entry day and told all about her projects. (Just FYI, Clover Kids get green participation ribbons and their projects aren’t actually judged.)

Lydia also proved to be an enthusiastic 4-H event spectator. Here she is at the dog show.

And here she is at the fashion review (getting ready to be tickled by Grandad, an equally enthusiastic 4-H event spectator).

And there you have Lydia’s first year as a 4-Her.

Actually, I didn’t miss yesterday. I lived it to the full. I lived it so fully that I didn’t have a moment to blog. Sadly, this has been my theme of late, but that is soon to be remedied because I am now going to bury myself in 4-H photographs and start uploading them. Beware!

…on 8.08.08!

Happy Birthday to the master of disguises.

And even if she doesn’t have any hats or weapons or facial hair handy, she can throw you off track with her expressions alone.

She likes to swim,

watch movies,

eat dessert,

and play with her siblings.

She’s our one-of-a-kind, no-one-else-like-her, God-broke-the-mold, Lydia.