In honor of the American Royal I will miss

Although I am very grateful for my new job, I do have one major complaint.....not one of the very serious nature, but rather I have to act like an adult and stay home and work while Ben gets to travel to one of my favorite pastimes - livestock shows.

While I'm spending the next three days in "New Staff Orientation" - Ben will get to catch up with our friends in KC at the American Royal, spend time with Craig and Regina, roam around the expo center and....oh yeah, see some great livestock in the meantime. I'm sure that my displeasure won't last once I get that nice paycheck and the security of one for many month (and hopefully years) to come.

In honor of my absense, I'll pay tribute to one of our most favorite pasttimes. In September I did hop in the NDSU judging van for a trip south to Kansas. Who in their right mind would pass up a trip to a) Kansas, b) see your family or c) see good livestock? Certainly not me. During this trip my cousin Shelby competed in her final (I think) Kansas Junior Livestock Show.

The wether show was held on Saturday - concurrent with the collegiate livestock judging contest - leaving Ben able to spend time with me and my family and watch 2 Diamond W Club Lambs compete. Below is a few pictures from the weekend.

This lamb is out of their "Skunk" buck (clink for a link to his picture listed on their website). If I had been thinking - I could have saved interim pictures we took over the course of the spring/summer to show this lambs progress. Dad, Dena and Shelby came to Indiana and purchased lambs, 2 or 3 of which were out of this buck. To say the least (as noted by the next picture) - we were all very pleased with the lambs from this buck.

This lamb won an intermediate weight natural class, and although my pictures do not do this lamb justice - he was in his prime. The lamb had a good touch and a good big hip. I could very well be mistaken, but I think this lamb was near the 125 lb. mark at the KJLS show.

The next two pictures are from the second wether lamb in Shelby's lineup. I am uncertain of his pedigree - but this lamb was an early pleaser. He peaked earlier in the season and didn't quite have enough lower leg to compete with the big boys. However, like I said - all were pleased with how they performed.

We've yet to hear final word on whether Shelby will compete one more year in 4-H (since she is a freshman at Hutchinson Community College) but we still have the two young'ins to think about. I'm certain that the Williams' will have many Kansas' lambs over the next 12 years!

So I shall say - good luck to all those competing this weekend AND hello to all those I won't get to catch up with this time! We'll see you in January!