A confession, and then lots of fun:)

It is past due for me to post this. I had hoped to blog about each day during the competition but I have a confession to make...Saturday was such a tough day for me, I didn't know what to say in this blog. Many of you went online and watched the YouTube video of me shearing in the Ladies Machine Shearing Competition. I placed 4th. Many of you have sent your congrats and I have tried to be positive about being 4th place but it was tough. I should have won it, I hoped to win it. I beat all those girls in the intermediate competition the day before...I was pumped to win. But the sheep were horrible. They were tough strong solid beasts. In the video you can see the sheep moving around the board while I try to hold them still, at one point you see the sheep get up on me and I had to put it back down. I couldn't hold any of my 3 sheep still enough to do a good job. It was horrible. I left a huge chunk of wool on the back of my last sheep because she had me pinned up against the wall and I couldn't see it and I had already pushed my button. It was one of my worst runs ever. It was just as embarrassing as having to shear 2 sheep by myself, on stage, with the blades, in the last world championships. I was so slow I still had two sheep to go and everyone else was done. That was horrible. This took less time but was just as frustrating. So while I'm grateful for the enthusiasm, I should have done better. So that is why I haven't blogged. It's been tough processing my disappointment but I came up with a game plan. Work harder, do better next time... 8-)

Once I had moved past that, I was able to once again enjoy my remaining time at the Golden Shears. Here is a sample of some of the festivities:)

This was the sidewalk at the show grounds...solid mud.

Lol:)

Some tapestry, embroidery work I saw...

Texels

Sheep show

For some odd reason the Suffolks were orange colored for show...

New Friends:)

Ready for the competition!! All the girls were first class:)

Waiting backstage...

Waiting for the finals on Sunday

On the road Monday, we headed south to Johnstown Castle and the Irish Agricultural Museum outside Wexford.

They had a bowtop Gypsy Trailer!!!

The inside...

Other museum sightings...

Chicken paraphernalia 

Milk bottles and cans

Old milking machine 

Butter molds/stamps

Last night we stayed in Enniscorthy in a beautiful riverside hotel. This was a sign outside the "Bah" where we had dinner:)

Today we visited the Irish National Heritage park. We walked through centuries of history and saw homes the Irish have lived in starting in the Stone Age. It was really neat. 

Stone Age thatched communal home

Thatch from the inside

Replica stone circle

Replica megalithic tomb

A fulacht fiadh or cooking pit using hot stones...they were cooking bacon in it

Viking art

After that we went to the town of New Ross and visited the Dunbrody Irish Emigrant Experience Museum. We saw and got to explore how tiny a vessel that would have brought Irish emigrants to the USA really was.

The inside of this replica of a real vessel was very small and one can only imagine the smell, the bad food and what it was like to live with no privacy with up to 310 other people for up to 50 days.

Bunks shared by whole family's or multiple adults. Folks were only allowed on deck for 30 min a day, this was used to wash, empty toilet buckets, and cook bread.

Tonight we head into Dublin and tomorrow is my last day in Ireland. I'm gonna try to eat as much butter as possible;) Ill be home very soon...