Sometimes, life just isn’t “fair”.
All I can do this time is apologize to my kids for not being able to bring them in front of the County 4-H Community where they should have been recognized properly; then trust my social media friends will clap loudly for both of them!
D, in his first year in 4-H, took rabbits that he bred, raised, and finished out to the fair. He also sold rabbits to others who wanted a Mini Satin for their rabbit projects. You’ve already heard that D’s rabbit “Fader” won Best of Breed for Mini Satins; she also won Reserve 4 Class Rabbit and Reserve Overall Grand Champion Rabbit. There are a couple of caveats to Fader’s win. First, all the Mini Satin rabbits on the judging table were from D’s stock. Every rabbit earned a blue or purple ribbon. That says a lot about the stock, but also about our community of rabbit owners. They were in amazing shape – all of them! Finally, Fader was not our first choice. We planned to bring Brawn, another Jr. Doe to fair; but Brawn died the week before fair. This was tough for D. Originally, he didn’t want to bring anyone to replace Brawn but decided to as he only had ONE rabbit left in the barn – Fader. We thought she was a bit long in the ear, and not as finished in the coat as Brawn, but she was all he had, so he decided to enter her. What a great decision that was. Lesson learned: Always have a quality backup in your barn!
D also received a purple ribbon and a first year State Fair nod for his Ag Science exhibit. What this means is that because he is not old enough, he can’t exhibit at State Fair, but the judge thought his work and communications were up to par. Lesson learned, dad’s right about pinching the c-clips all the way together.
D will be the first to tell you that rabbits aren’t his jam. He loves them, enjoys playing with them, but he is not fond of cleaning them, cleaning up after them, training them, and working with them for hours. He likes to “show and go”. Despite how he felt, mom spent more than enough time reminding D that he spent the last two years wishing he could show his own rabbits at the fair, and IF he wanted to do that, he had to do all the work leading up to it. So, he did, and sometimes, he even had a happy heart! I don’t think many people realize what responsible breeding and raising rabbits truly entails. I mean, could you imagine a Market Beef exhibitor scraping their barns paint scraper and sanitizing every square inch each quarter? Could you see a goat exhibitor cleaning the goat pen with a metal brush so that no saliva on the fence could build up harmful bacteria? Or how many large animal exhibitors wipe the bottoms of their weanlings? Rabbit owners do! We also brush every other day, and trim nails weekly. With the challenging work done, all that was left was to show and go. (smile) I was so delighted that the reward paid handsomely for D; as I stretched to see him receive a trophy, I noticed his big sister, clapping and smiling in joy for her brother.
“This is your award too,” I thought to myself. Sister was the one who brought us into the rabbit world. She was the one who did the research, read the books, and spent hours in the barn, learning each rabbit’s personality. It is Sister who encouraged D to try things a unique way, and yes, sometimes gave unwelcome advice. Still, she set him up with a wonderful foundation stock, and helped him choose the best rabbits for his project. Yes, mom had some input too, but believe me when I say they make the final decisions because I have been outvoted more than I can count!
As we go through the year, the kids must put their receipts up for the “bookkeeper” to enter their information into the database, and when that’s all done, a cash flow report is printed. Each child must then tally up the amount spent on their breed and enter that information into the 4-H worksheets. They must evaluate each rabbit based on quality and feed consumption, record sales and deaths, as well as litter data. Each month, we sit down and talk about where we are with our goals – each their own; and they type the information into their 4-H worksheet. This makes it easier for mom when it’s the first week of August and life gets super busy. I set the deadline for having their work ready to be turned in by 1 September, which gives us about three weeks of “just-in-case” time, should anything go wrong. Like my printer mishap this year. We had to print Biographies at the last minute because the printer drum replacement hadn’t come in yet.
At any rate, all that to say, no matter the tears, the kid got the job done; and while it wasn’t up to my standards, it’s not my book, so again, I don’t get the final say. He zipped it up and called it good. His leader called it Excellent, and he received an award for that too! So, D missed the opportunity to be recognized publicly for all the wonderful work he had done through the year. We are blessed though, that our club leadership thought it appropriate to have a mock award show at our meeting tonight, and the kids all loved it! They had a wonderful time receiving and clapping for all the accomplishments of their peers.
I am thankful to the club leaders for their thoughtfulness of this event. Even though it was small to them, it was wonderful for me. I was able to see one “little” guy get recognized for the work he put in. He’s off to new adventures now; he will still show rabbits, but he has sold off all his show stock and donated his breeding pair to the Washington County Go-Getters 4-H Youth Rabbit and Cavy Club auction. The man that won had the grandfather of the doe and shared the buck with one of our local 4-Hers who wanted to win also. We feel blessed that our rabbits always go to good homes. D will use the skills he’s learned from the rabbit project area in the Shooting Sports project area now. The organization, discipline, focus, determination, and perseverance will carry him far in his next adventure. I won’t be going with him to that one. I’ll be back here with Sister, on our new adventure! Stay tuned!
Momma Rich's 