State Fair of Virginia - part 3

Continuing and completing our day at the State Fair of Virginia...

As we were heading back to the livestock area, we saw Regina and Jimmy, Ashby, Brent, and Ricky heading toward the tunnel to the other side of the fairgrounds. We got a picture of them with the State Fair of Virginia sign.

We had headed back to watch the "Wolves of the World" show -- it was pretty interesting, though made difficult to view because of the bars between the area with the wolves and the audience. They had wolves from different locations and different types. At the beginning of the performance, they played an audio with information about how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone changed the landscape of the national park -- I didn't find exactly the audio that they played, but the concepts are addressed in a couple of videos that I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHmtVNu97E and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWblV23OeQc.

Things I learned about wolves -- I knew that they lived in packs, but I learned that the pack is led by an alpha female and an alpha male, who are the only ones who mate and reproduce. The other wolves in the pack help to raise the pups, and females other than the alpha female may develop milk to feed the pups. Within the specific pack of wolves in the Wolves of the World group, they recently lost both of their alpha wolves (I think it was within the last year). One of the wolves is identified as being the new alpha female, and they had a "lone wolf" male which the handlers of the show thought could be a candidate for the new alpha male, but the female wasn't having it -- so he is still in the show as a lone wolf. There are two youngsters that have bonded with the lone wolf, but one of them may eventually become the alpha male.

While we were watching the Wolves of the World show, we heard some shooting going on, so went over to see what that was about... 

There was a mounted contest going on with the riders directing their horses on a specific course and shooting balloons along the course as they rode by them -- Mounted Cowboy Shooting (https://www.youtube.com/embed/EbUxoaI8gCg?rel=0). It was very interesting to watch.

I had seen in the schedule that the goat youth costume class was supposed to happen at 6:30pm -- so we headed over to the goat barn. It turned out that the schedule was incorrect, but we did get to see a couple of classes being judged. We also walked around some of the goat pens and got some fun pictures...

Neat coloring!

Pretty!

Probably part of a FFA or 4-H project to answer questions that are commonly posed to goat owners

This one winked at Carl when he took its picture!

I thought this was funny -- the area where the goats and sheep were located was evidently funded in some part by the Virginia Pork Council -- or this was a very strange looking pig!

I had a small goat, Belle, when I was a teenager. She had SO much personality and energy! Some pictures of Belle that I scanned in years ago:

Such interesting markings

 

Checking out what might be edible on this bush

She *loved* to climb! Note me with my horse in background.

 

This isn't Belle, but a picture of what was going on in the background of that earlier picture -- I was sewing braids into Pickles' mane, no doubt in preparation of some upcoming horse show.

Belle out with me working with my horse Pickles and his colt -- next to the horse trailer. I may have been working with Pickles to get him to load more easily. Belle was like a dog with me outside -- when I'd come out the back door, she was right with me wherever I might be going. I remember her jumping up on a metal cylindrical tank that was stored above ground between the house and the barn -- her little hooves echoing as she trotted down the top of the tank, and then she'd launch herself off with all four legs splayed out, hitting the ground and springing up again. 

A story about Belle and my Granny -- Granny did *not* like goats -- she had evidently been butted by one around a yard or up some steps when she was young. One time when Granny was visiting us, Belle figured out how to get into the house through the screen door (literally *through* the screen door as my cats had made a hole in it and Belle enlarged it). Belle trotted through the house and up onto the couch next to Granny who was reading the newspaper. The next thing I knew, I heard Granny yelling from the house -- I was down in the woods with my horse, and came running back. As I got closer, I could hear her saying, "There's a wild animal in here, there's a wild animal in here!" I had no idea what was in the house, but headed in where I found Belle, lounging on the couch while chewing her cud.  

We don't know what happened to Belle... she just disappeared one day, we never found any carcass or remains. Dad was magistrate in our county, and people came by the house to swear out warrants -- sometimes additional people who may have been with them waited in the car. She was such a friendly animal, she may have jumped into a car and gone home to become cabrito for someone's dinner. 

Ok, enough pictures and stories of Belle already!

Carl and I got our dinner at Block and Bridle Club of Virginia Tech -- we had pork barbecue sandwiches and they were delicious! 

While we were eating, there was a beautiful sunset going on to the west!

We got to enjoy ice cream with the folks in the dairy barn before heading back to the farm. What a fun day!