Sheep in the Sunset

Last Saturday evening around 7 p.m., Husband and I left home to drive to a county dairy banquet near Waverly. A stunning, out-of-this-world sunset show was in progress as we drove west on C-57. You’d better believe I pulled the camera out of my purse to snap some photos. (These shots came right out of the camera……no editing was done.)

The next scene shows the bridge over Crane Creek. If you look closely, you can see something on the highway up in the distance. At the time, though, I didn’t notice that, for I was engrossed in snapping photos and looking downward, oohing and aahing over the glowing golden-orange scenes on the camera’s LCD screen.

Suddenly, Husband slowed the car and blurted out, “Sheep!” I said, “What???”

Sure enough, a small herd of sheep had chosen that very moment to escape from their pen and scamper across the highway into the front yard of their owner’s house. Frantically, I began clicking the camera……

The sight of the gorgeous sunset was incredible enough……the sheep also making an appearance at that particular moment was indeed flabbergasting!

Whew…..just like that the amazing little sheep interlude was over and onward down the road we went, shaking our heads at what we’d just witnessed. The sun hovered over the lane we were driving in, as if beckoning us to come along…..showing us the way!

The banquet was held at a church in rural Waverly. A farmer was burning fencerows in the field adjacent to the church. Shortly after we were seated for our meal, firetrucks were called in to help control the blaze!

This was the only picture I took at the banquet, and its rather blurry….sorry about that.

The Dairy Banquet makes for a pleasant enough outing and a chance to hobnob with other dairy farmers and people in related occupations. A dairy princess and junior princess are crowned there every year……sadly, there was only one candidate in each category this time, and they were even sisters! Those two girls and their parents will have one very busy summer, attending parades and being involved in county fair activities.

Several annual awards were handed out……”Cream of the Crop'’ to a deserving dairy woman; “Dairy Service Award” to a business which serves dairy farmers; and, “Distinguished Dairyman Award” to a dairyman who is considered “distinguished” (silver-haired temples not necessarily required). Every year, I listen in amazement as the winner’s off-farm activities are enumerated…..this year’s winner was lauded for heavy involvement in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, school bond issue committees, DHIA board, dairy promotion committees, etc. It always makes me wonder who is home doing the chores while he is away at meetings and such! In the background must lurk a helpful elderly father, a wife, children, and, perhaps, employees. Husband’s farm work is all-consuming and he has no time left over for off-farm activities.

The banquet meal was OK. I’m not a fan of huge, rarely-cooked slabs of prime rib, so I handed mine off to Husband. Actually, big meals in the evening are not my thing anyway, so it was all I could do to eat the baked potato and green beans, and innards of a piece of pie (I dislike pie crust, too…..picky eater, aren’t I!). The soft-serve ice cream machine owned by the Dairy Promoters was there and that was the best treat of the evening! Yum, yum! In the past, we’ve rented that machine for our kids’ graduation parties; my favorite memory is leaving the machine running until the next morning and eating soft-serve ice cream for breakfast! It was so good……very easy to take!

Four Bonnie Mohr prints were given away in a drawing. Sadly….boohoo……neither Husband or I won one of those. My water glass had a number on the bottom so I did win a door prize……a “Got Milk?” t-shirt in size XL. Wowser…..Husband can wear it. There were containers of Cows caramel candy on the tables, so I stashed a couple handfuls in my coat pocket. Hey…..why not…..people were supposed to help themselves and hardly anyone did. We also received our choice of a pound of butter or a pound of cheese on the way out the door, so we definitely did not go home empty-handed.

Let’s see if I’ve forgotten anything……oh, yes, there were several tables of dairy posters drawn by elementary students in the county. What a hoot! Quite a variety of ideas, ranging from very creative and clever to rather silly and sloppy. Many kids attempt to draw a cow, which is a rather difficult undertaking.

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Before I bring this rambling to a close……back pedal for a moment to the encounter with the sheep on the highway. That happened on Saturday evening. On Saturday morning, Poetikat (gifted writer/poet/blogger from Canada) left a comment on my blog in which she happened to randomly mention that she liked the photo in the sidebar of me holding the lamb! That’s the first thing that came to my mind after we saw the sheep in the road! Poetikat……you let those sheep out, didn’t you!!

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(Little Orphan Annie and me……circa 1964. Annie’s mother had died giving birth and I raised Annie on a bottle. She lived to be very old and gave us many lambs. She was always a pet and would come a-running whenever she spied people.)

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