The Grafton Agricultural Show 2009

Our Family went to the local show today.

First of all we went to see the dobermans-


We love dobermanns, they are our favourite breed. We oohed and aahed and patted the puppies through their cages and walked around and looked at all the dogs.
The Red Setters caught our eye, reminding us of "Lord Red" in the Jack Russell dog detective books.
We also had a chat to some whippets and looked at some Chinese crested dogs, the hairless ones.

We love dogs and all animals here but the dog shows seem a bit too structured and serious for this dobie loving family- mind you next year when the show is on again I will certainly pop in to have a little look at those lovely dobermanns.

When we got to the main showground Mr10 dragged us straight in to the bird pavilion to see the parrots and we befriended a lovely galah, called Pinky and a talkative eclectus who won our hearts. There were lots of new breeds for us to look at and some beautiful colours, there were even three lorikeets and one of them looked just like our beloved Emerald.


We wandered around looking at the local produce and the various displays- the boys were really interested in the Navy and the Army cadets, Mr10 got to try on some camo gear, and Mr5 made a friend at the SES stand who is going to send him out some books about what to do in floods and storms.

One of the highlights for all of us was the snake man, he put on an excellent show with his venomous snakes and cheeky little Bearded Dragon.


We really enjoyed his talk, his beautiful reptiles and his obvious passion for educating everyone about snakes on the east coast. He was awesome. You can check him out at Steve McEwan's Reptile World
We also enjoyed the lapidary display and watching the wood choppers, they are amazing!

Next it was on to the main pavilion where the boys had put in some entries.
It was fantastic to see so many entries in the kids section, and the work was great, so much variety and different ideas to look at, we spotted Mr5s nomads hut and went over to have a look and it was champion exhibit! in the model and sculpture section. WOW !!!


It was all excitement to find their other entries and we soon spotted Mr10s Australian animals hand painted cushion, sporting a blue ribbon- 1st place , the boys were thrilled


Next we saw Mr5s viking with a Special Commendation and Mr10s Sydney at Night also with a Blue Ribbon.


It is so lovely for the boys to have this recognition from outside our 'homeschool' but seeing 4 out of 6 entries with ribbons on them was such an unexpected thrill.


After all that excitement the boys wanted a ride on the dodgem cars


It was getting late in the afternoon and we still had so much to see and do so we went to look at all the animals, the baby ones in the petting zoo were very cute


The alpacca's were lovely, the goats a bit smelly and we missed the cows, they must have been yesterday and the horse events were on all day in the ring.

We were feeling rather weary but popped back into the bird pavilion to see how the judging had gone, our friend Pinky had a blue ribbon, and so did the eclectus parrot but he didn't want to chat anymore, and Pinky didn't want to have a scratch or a cuddle, I think they were very over it and just wanted to go home.

Mr10 enjoyed meeting one more type of animal and had a go on a mechanical bucking bull!


He did really well and stayed on for quite a long time.

We had a fabulous family day out,
but it was so nice to get home, have a nice peaceful cup of tea, and cuddle and pat our own animals.