Fairgrounds 4-H Mural

Many hands make for light work!

 For the second year now, the Rolla Fairgrounds has asked our 4-H Club to paint a mural for them.  This year they gave them a prominent wall at the front entrance.  Desi and Jenny started out by mixing the colors for the background sunset.

We got the aid of the very talented artists, Tabitha and Zeke Gill, to help sketch out the ferris wheel.  Zeke is using a pencil tied to a string to achieve a circle effect.

Sketching begins

 Since the wall faced the west, we only had a few hours each morning to work in the shade during our 100+ degree weather.  The nice part about a mural is that there is room for many to work at the same time.

It's coming along!

The finished masterpiece!

For a first hand look, drive by the Rolla Fairgrounds anytime.  Way to go Lucky Duckies!

New look for trashcans...

This past July our 4-H Club painted trash cans at the local fairgrounds. It was sure quite a transformation for the cans, which were previously so yucky and rusty I wish I had taken a picture before they started!

This is a hot air balloon trashcan. I was very impressed that someone had come up with this idea. Unfortunately, I don't remember now whose idea it was...

As you can tell, the name of our club is the Lucky Ducky 4-H Club, so painting a duck pond seemed perfect.

More duckies. Well, they were cute!

Again, I don't remember whose idea it was, but this was an Eye Spy trash can. It asks if you can find the ducky?

So, did you find the ducky? Look in the clock.

Here Jenn and Brooke are mixing paint.

Matthew and Cordell working on the rock wall trash can.

Mikayla working on the rainbow trashcan.

Jenn painting the ivy on the rock wall as Mikayla looks on.

Ryan adding something...

Desi prepping the duck pond.

We sure are lucky to have such talented and creative 4-Hers! This made for quite a fun activity, and so nice to see the results of hard work!

Fair Time!

Once again, we found ourselves at the Rolla Fair during a very hot week in July. The rides and entertainment were lots of fun, especially the bull riding, tractor pulls, and demolition derby. But let me (Pam) tell you. The real excitement for us was in the livestock barns! This picture doesn't really do justice to the impromptu pig wrangling that often occurred. Here Jenny is helping to push a pig down the isle to be loaded into a waiting trailer. If you have never "wrangled" (for lack of a better word) a pig, you never know if you are going to be stepped on, slobbered on, get your clean pair of pants dirty, or even go for a ride when the pig chooses to go between your legs. Let's just say it can be rather entertaining to watch!
Ok, as you have already guessed, Jenny and Cordell both had market hogs at the fair as part of their 4-H Swine project. This involved raising them since April, and keeping track of their feed costs.

Here is Cordell sitting on his pig, Hippo. Hippo weighed 43 pounds in April, gained 172 pounds in 103 days for a rate of gain of 1.67 pounds per day. To do this, Cordell fed her 425 pounds of food! His pig was purchased by The Butcher Shop for $1.20 per pound, and Intercounty Electric boosted everyone's price up to $1.40/pound. I think Cordell will be rather pleased with his profit margin!

Jenny with her pig, Eugene. Eugene weighed 78 pounds in April, gained 177 pounds in 103 days, for a rate of gain of 1.72 pounds per day. She fed him 425 pounds of food costing $67. Her pig was purchased at the Livestock Auction by Intercounty Electric Co-op. Jenny will also be pleased with her profit margin!

Part of what made the fair extra fun this year was having our cousins showing bucket calves and a market hog as well. Here Jenny is braiding Jessie's hair before the Bucket Calf show.

Here is David with his market hog, Toa.

Brook with Coudy, her Charlais breed calf.

Washing the calves.

David with Jessie's calf, Dolly, a Hereford breed.

I also have to mention that the kids participated in a frozen T-shirt contest, and Brooke won a cool bicycle at the kids games!

Lots of great memories.....

Posted by Pam

4-H Club paints a mural...

Last month the Lucky Ducky 4-H Club worked on a community service project at the Rolla Fairgrounds. It took many days of careful work, but you can see the progression. Jennifer and Desi were the primary painters of the quilt border and the star design. It has a rather patriotic red, white and blue theme. The fairboard staff were very pleased with the club's dedication to the project, and especially that they were being so careful.

Funny Story. Mr. Nadalski, a Fairboard member, was talking to the club about how pleased he was with how careful the club was being with the paint. Practically in the middle of his sentence,

Desi somehow tripped over the can of brown paint and spilled it on the ground. It was just too funny, and Mr. Nadalski was very cool about it. We just let the paint puddle dry up and peeled it off the ground later.

Here Desi & Jeni are working on it.

Cordell and Mrs. Cureton stretching to reach the high squares.

Will, Markus and Erich Baur, along with Ryan show off their hand print squares.



Getting closer to completion...

I just realized that the final pictures are on Jenny's camera - who is away at camp this week. So, I will have to leave you in suspense as to what was painted on the final 2 squares.

This was a great project for our club and 16 different members and 2 moms worked on it.

Look for it when you visit the Phelps County Fairground - you can hardly miss it!

Posted by Pam