Dexter Year in Review - Part 3

I guess I'd better finish this up before I'm another year behind!  Our last show in 2014 was the Utah State Fair.  Our unofficial count for the show was 72 Dexters, and let me tell you, that's a big show.

We nearly didn't make it there.  Moosters was plagued by events that will make this the "never to be forgotten" show.  The trailer was loaded, the truck was nearly loaded and it was the wee hours of the morning:  ugh, both sets of keys just got locked in the cab.  No problem, we'll just call On Star since we still have our free trial with them.  After an hour of trying, On Star finally tells us that we are apparently not within range of their services at our home, so they'll just call out a locksmith for us at no charge.  Apparently no one explained rural living to On Star.  The earliest that they can find someone is tomorrow.

Several hours later, after a valiant try from a local locksmith and a promise of a replacement window waiting for us in Cheyenne by our wonderful truck dealer (just in case our only solution was to break the window), Chris was able to scratch his way in with a coat hanger and pull the door handle open.  Whew.  Finally on our way.  We arrive quite late (for us anyway), get the cattle settled in, stop for a bite of dinner (we swore we'd remember to feed Calli this trip!), and off to our hotel at about midnight.

Not what we were expecting at the end of a long day!

Long story short, here's what we found.  No housekeeping, no keys held by the hotel staff to housekeeping stores and no other room to be had at the entire place.  We drag ourselves and our stuff back into the truck and move to another hotel 20 minutes away.  By that time, Chris' "I don't feel that great" has turned into full blown flu and we all collapse for a few hours sleep.

Calli and I leave Chris behind in the hotel to sleep the day away because he is truly sick (and must be because he NEVER says he doesn't feel good).  We are thankful to our Dexter friends who help us get multiple animals fed, washed, clipped and ready for display (and kindly kept our poop scooped as well!).

By show day, Chris felt better and we were back in business.  We had some great seminars and are really building up the Youth Program there:

The Pee Wees did a phenomenal job!  These little folks are the future of our breed -- what a great experience for them all.

Great show (long show), lots of folks there to watch, lots of folks through the barn to talk about Dexters and lots of exhausted but happy show folks.  Tired Dexters:

We didn't make it to the Missouri Dexter Show in the fall; winter was upon us (almost) and we still had some major projects to get finished before the cold and snow arrived.  This is another great show with extremely high quality animals from all over the country.  We were so disappointed that we couldn't spare the week to attend, but taking care of business at home had to come first this year.

Our new corrals did get finished in time, complete with water lines and a new three sided shed with lights.  The last load of hay arrived and we were all set for the deep freeze of Winter.

On to the New Year at last!