The Royal Winter Agricultural Fair

As promised, tales from the Royal, and plenty of pictures.

We started out with the Superdogs, who really were Super. They were a lot of fun, although I have a feeling Jodi left with a bit of 'Super-envy.'

Next were the cows, and you've never seen so many cows in your life - well, I hadn't, anyway. Jodi got some funny looks from the farmers when she asked if she could pet their cows, but they were very sweet and gentle and seemed to enjoy the attention (the cows, not the farmers)

It was amusing to see all the farmers - tough, overall-clad, beer drinking men out there, brushing and shaving the cows, shining up their feet, with their beauty kits all laid out. The sheep were even funnier - after they're all prettied up, they get hoods and jackets put on to keep them clean. Alas, camera went wonky then, so I have no pictures of the super-hero-in-disguise sheep.

A highlight was the giant vegetables. Here's the winner of the giant pumpkin contest, weighing in at over 1000 pounds. Congratulations, Norm!

The whole vegetable area was pretty neat - here's an overhead shot, that I was quite proud of - the flash wouldn't light up the scene (obviously) so I had to play with exposure, which I don't often get to do, and it turned out tolerably well. If only I could have made everyone in the place freeze on the spot for a full second, it would have been perfect.

Jodi really liked the giant watermelons. To make sure we could understand the scale of the thing, yes - that's her shoe alongside.

Another highlight were the butter sculptures. I heard that they'd melted sometimes in past years, but they seemed to be holding up pretty well this time.

And I felt it was important for me to look at the wheat sheaves on display, as I'm supposed to be learning more about that side of the business. They were pretty, in any case, even though it kind of feels silly to be taking pictures of wheat. Oh, well - it's not like I haven't taken odder pictures.

Speaking of - here's one just for you, if you're reading - you know who you are. I present: Yak Butt - in all its glory.

Yeah, you know who you are. Only for you would I take and post a picture of an animal's behind.

This was in the petting zoo, which was a lot of fun.

It did remind me of Colasanti's, although these goats weren't nearly as aggressive. I did feel for the people who were shorter than most of the animals.
A gratuitous llama shot - what would a site of mine be without pictures of llamas. I liked this guy's 'do.

Jodi, of course, was in her element.

She even got so carried away as to cheat a little on her own Lenny, much to my shock. But hey - what happens at the Royal - stays at the Royal.

Our last stop was the horses, which was somewhat disappointing. All the snooty horse people had the area around the stalls roped off, with curtains hiding the horses inside. Here's one guy who was out and about, but I wish I could explain how BIG he was. To help put it in perspective (hm - should've used a shoe) I couldn't reach to the top of that gate he's standing near. People were standing on ladders about the height of a desk, just to reach to brush the heads and back of these guys. Massive.

So those are my pictures from the Royal. Now I'm going to go put on my jammies and let myself feel sick. I've been denying it all day, despite frustrations and anger and unfairness and fatigue. I have a cold, and I have an unrelated infection (for those who know me, yes, it's another one of those) and I'm on three different kinds of medication (one that makes me loopy, one that makes me sleepy, and one that I'm told could make me stop breathing, but probably won't), and now I'm going to lie down and wish for someone to make my dinner and bring me soup and fluff my pillows and clean my house.