Good morning!  We are still here at the National show, this being our last full day.  Yesterday we showed our Alpines and following are the results:

Yearling Milkers - Thea placed 11th out of 33, Dixie didn't make the cut. 

2 year old milkers - Gala placed 5th out of 51, we scratched Alithia as she didn't fill up. 

We placed 13th in Best 3 Senior does out of 14 (had a hard time competing with older, more mature does).  Placed 5th out of 11 in Produce of Dam (Gala and Dixie out of Gatlin).

Just a few pictures from yesterday. 

Abigail and me showing our yearling Alpines

Abigail showing Gala

5th place out of 51!

Bad news.....our camera broke so this is the end of pictures for the week. :(  Our week is nearly finished however and we are hoping to leave early tomorrow morning.  So....adios 'till then!

~Bethany~

Alpine Junior Doe Show

Another update from Louisville!  Today was the Junior doe show where we showed our 5 junior does.  We have 1 intermediate kid, 3 senior kids and 1 dry yearling.  The class size ranged from 33 to 37.  Our intermediate didn't make the cut (top 20) but two of our senior kids (Alexia and Athena) did.  The ended up 16th and 19th.  My dry yearling (Ali) was in the biggest class and ended up making the cut and placing 11th.  Very excited about that!  We also competed in two group classes...Best 3 Junior Does and Junior Get-Of-Sire.  In both (classes of 13 and 9) we placed 5th.  Very happy with the outcome! We are just really 4 years into having quality show dairy goats and we know that we have a ways to go and are excited we've come as far as we have. 

Here are just a few pics of the day!

Waiting to show our junior does!

Ali in her class.

5th place Get-of-Sire.

5th place Best 3 Junior does.

~Bethany~

ADGA National Show

Well, we are here at the ADGA National show here in Louisville Kentucky and having a great time!  We left at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning and arrived around 10:45.  We settled everyone in and relaxed for a while.  That evening competed in the Judging and Management contest and we practiced fitting and trimming so we would be all ready for the next day and got our showmanship does ready.

Sunday morning we started showmanship at 8:00 a.m.  Abigail and I were in the Intermediate II class which consisted of 35 exhibitors.  The pulled out the top 10 or 12 and unfortunately none of the MI kids made the cut.  Elizabeth and Ben showed in the Junior class and Elizabeth pulled out with a 3rd overall.  Yay!!!  Good job Lizzy!  At 11:00 we started the Fitting and trimming contest.  Our team (consisting of Josh, Jenna, Abigail and I) ended up with 1st overall (out of 20+ teams).  We were estatic to say the least.

The last few days has been kinda laid back just doing chores and trying to stay cool.  Yesterday the temps reached around 105*F, today they are supposed to be about 101*F and tomorrow 100*F.  A little warmer than we are used to.

Anyway, thought I would update you all and post some pics!

~Bethany~

Abigail in showmanship.

Intermediate showmanship class II

Junior showmanship lineup.

Elizabeth and other MI kids on a fitting team!

The 'Stars n' Stripes' Fitting Team.

Getting judged.

1st place!

Aiden, Strawberries, NATIONALS!

Here are a few pictures of me and my steer!  He's doing great and settling into life here at Asher Acres.  Sometimes he gets kinda mad at me if I don't do chores RIGHT on time, or I don't take him out 2x a day.  Ahh, he's so demanding.  :D 

We're all getting ready for the National show here.  We finally finished up shaving last night around 10:00.  Abigail and I decided to just go at it and get it done.  Today we were working on all of our tack and getting a shopping list together.  Tomorrow we go in for health papers and TB test results so we're getting pretty close!  Friday we'll have to work on getting the whole camper/trailer/van ready.  We're planning on going to bed around 9:00 so we can be up and on the road at 3:00 a.m.  We can't get into the barn until 7:30, but it will take us about 5-6 hours to get there.  We're taking our great friends, Josh and Jenna with us as well, so should be LOADS of fun! 

Abigail and I are still working full force over at Harvey's Farm and the picking is great!  The pickers picked over 400 pounds yesterday before 11:30.  Crazy crazy!  Many u-pickers have said this year is the best they've ever seen here, so we're enjoying it to the fullest!  Raspberries are coming on now too, so that's always fun. 

 The whole family picking @ Harvey's.  We all went swimming afterward in their pond.

Have a great rest of the week!  I'll try to post right before we leave for Nationals and perhaps our results as we go through the week.  We leave the 19th and come home the 26th.

~Bethany~

Lovin' the Farm life

The latest farmin' story from Asher Acres.

I went to go pick up my steer from the Career Center today.  So he's all settled in.  We also decided to get a pig from them since they had a few extras so I picked out a pretty nice Duroc gilt and loaded her up along with my steer (except that she was in the back and he was in the front).  We get back on the road and stopped at an moderately busy intersection and realized that the trailer divider had not been locked shut as it swung open and was making some nice loud banging noises.  :P  I hopped out to go close it but when I get in the trailer (forgetting to close the gate behind me) the pig ran in with my steer who began wildly kicking at her.  She beelines for the open gate behind me and runs right out into the road and off the side.  I'm trying to calm her down and get her back to the trailer without her going on the road or freaking out but she just keeps running, so I grabbed her ears and she immediately stopped.  Finally everyone else gets out of the van and Dad took her back legs and I got her front.  (Mind you, she's probably 140#s).  We got her loaded up, after several people had stopped, clearly puzzled as to why there was a pig running around in the grass by the road in the city.  Ahhh, life!  When we got back in the van, Dad noticed the camera.  Wish we'd seen it earlier!  What memories.

Anyway, so I have my baby (my 1150# steer) home!  Hopefully I'll get some pics up of him soon.

~Bethany~

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let his praises ring;
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.

 Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
Listening every moment to the Spirit's call,
Resting in my Savior as my all in all,
Standing on the promises of God.

Refrain:
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God.

Thank you God for your wonderful promises, especially those of your unfailing love.  You are wonderful!

~Bethany~

GLOM show

Well, here's the latest show update!  We were hoping to head out of town around 4:00-4:30 and get to the show nice and early.  Amazingly, didn't' happen.  (yes that was sarcastic. lol)  Okay, so we hit the road around 6:00 and were on the road for about a 1/2 hour and we had a tire blow.  Yay!!!  No, we didn't have a spare (had been meaning to get one for a while) so we had to go into town to get one.  Mom and I got the trailer jacked up while Dad and Abigail headed into town.  We were back on the road within and hour, so it wasn't so bad.  HOWEVER, I was scheduled to help with a fitting/showing clinic at 8:00 and it at least another hour to the fairgrounds.  So....that was kinda outta the picture. :P  Ahh well.  We managed to get there all in one piece, settle down in pens (right next to friends!!!) and get ready for the show.  We got to bed around 11:00 and boy did it feel good to sleep!!!

Sat. A.M. we were up early getting our Alpine does ready for the show.  They went in with Thea' placing 1st, Gala placing 2nd and Alithia placing 3rd.  Gala ended up with a Reserve Champion as well, so that was exciting!  We later on had 2 Recorded Grades, our yearling Honey placed 3rd and Hannah placed 2nd with another Reserve Champion!  Immediately following the Senior Doe show, Abigail and I participated in a fitting contest!  This was the first year and there were 3 teams that competed.  We ended up with 1st!  I was so excited.  The team that got 2nd was our dear friends and we are heading to Nationals in just a few weeks where we will be competing as well in Fitting.  It was a great warm up!  After that, we went into the Junior doe show where we did decent.  We didn't pull out any Grands or Reserves, but got several good placings. At the close of the Jr. doe show, we went right into Showmanship where Ben won his age division, Josh and Elizabeth placed in the top 5, and I placed in the top 5 (in our age groups).  The  rest of them all did quite well too.  We sat up for a long time that evening with several other teens talking about lots of awesome things such as dating, where we will spend eternity, the way we were raised, some of the things we've learned in life, and all that fun stuff.  It was very encouraging!

Sun. morning we went right back to it with Gala winning 3rd in Futurity, 1st in her class and Reserve Champion.  Alithia placed second and our yearling Thea' also placed 1st.  Our Recorded Grades didn't fill up well and didn't do as well as we'd hoped.  Hannah still won her class and Honey placed 3rd.  Our kids did pretty well with Kit placing 2nd, Marta 4th, Alexia 2nd, Harmony 6th and True 1st!  True ended up winning Grand Champion, so that was exciting.  We stayed for BIS, but didn't win..  She got beat out by a BEAUTIFUL Sannan though.  We arrived home around 6:30 and were happy to be home safe and sound.  So that's kinda the jist of all that!

Enjoy a few pictures!

Abigail showing Honey.

Fitting Competition!

1st place team!

Elizabeth showing her 1st doe kid for the 1st time.  Beautiful Alexia.  She did well and was up against some stiff competition.

Ben after winning peewee showmanship!

What a good lookin' bro.

Rachel in showmanship.

Have a wonderful day!

~Bethany~