21st Century 4-H Club readies for county fair

Published by admin on Wed, 07/26/2023 - 7:55am

Naomi Ruth of the 21st Century Farm Kids 4-H club works on a quilt in preparation for the Washington County Fair, which runs July 31 through Aug. 5 in Cambridge. Many of the 4-H members have worked as long as 10 months in advance of the much-anticipated competitions. Photo by Nancy Grindstaff
By: 
Nancy Grindstaff
For 4-H and FFA youth participants, it’s long been understood that the Washington County Fair and Rodeo in Cambridge is the best week of the year – every year – and the memories stored up from those experiences last a lifetime. 
 The six days in what can be the hottest part of the summer in southwest Idaho is the payoff for as many as 10 months of working with livestock and small animal projects or making creative exhibits that are found in the air-conditioned exhibit hall during fair week. 
 Over the past couple of weeks, 20-plus members of Weiser’s 21st Century Farm Kids 4-H club have been putting the final touches on multiple projects. 
 Under the club’s banner, members can participate in not only large and small animal projects, but sewing and quilting, cooking and cake decorating, two divisions of shooting sports, dogs and dog agility. 
 Last Thursday, two members, Jonathan Sprinkel and Naomi Ruth, were finishing up their quilting. In his second year, Jonathan’s 2023 project is more involved than his first-year, nine-patch quilt he made for his baby cousin. Naomi’s first year project is a dog blanket for her best friend, Molly, who will be competing in the dog agility class this coming Saturday morning at Weiser City Park. 
 “This is a wall hanging called the Pine Walls,” Jonathan said. 
 That day, he was finishing the machine quilting on the project, with plans to add the binding and finish up the hand sewing on it over the following few days. His other projects include cooking, rifle and pistol shooting sports, cake decorating, and rabbits. 
 Naomi had just a small amount of hand work to do, along with tying her quilt to finish it. She was really hoping to give it to Molly for her birthday, but since that’s coming ahead of the fair, she decided the gift-giving will have to wait until after it’s been judged. 
 Moving to Weiser with her family in 2020, Shannon Sprinkel is now the organizational leader for the long-standing, Weiser-area club.
 “I have three or four other project area leaders,” Sprinkel said. “Autumn Benjamin covers most of the large animals, Cassidy Davis does small animals and blends over into the large animal, and Valerie Ruth does the cooking. My mom, Pat Gates, does most of the sewing, and my husband, Eddy, does the cake decorating and shooting sports.” 
 Sprinkel went on to explain the club’s first cake decorating leader had ended up having to move, leaving the leadership spot open. 
 “It was ‘who will take this on?’” she said. “I was going to, and my husband said, ‘Nope, I’ll do it,’ and he loves to cook, bake and barbecue, so it’s really not a stretch for him. He’s just never done the decorating. For a math teacher, he has an amazing creative streak.” 
 Sprinkel brought out her nephew, Jed Davis’s, completed quilting project. 
 “He’s 15 and very mathematically minded, and he does a beautiful job,” Sprinkel said. 
 Friday morning was a different setting altogether. Goat, sheep, and rabbit project members got together for showmanship practices at the Davis’ place on Mann Creek Road.
 Emma Thomas, 11, was refining her showing skills with her pen of three meat rabbits.
 “Last year I only did breeding goats because I was more interested in that than anything else,” she said. “This year I started off on horses, and that didn’t work out.”
 Although most of the horse project members have saddle horses they use in 4-H, several in the club adopted mustangs through the Bureau of Land Management wild horse adoption program last fall. Thomas said she received a concussion in February, when her mustang accidentally kicked her in the head.
 “After that I decided to do dogs, breeding goats, pack goats, rabbits, and shooting sports,” she said. “My horse is doing fine. He didn’t mean to kick me. He was scared because the other horses were running around.”
 Sprinkel said the kids who adopted the mustangs are all working on taming and getting their mustangs riding ready.
 “One of the girls has been able to get a saddle on hers, and then my son, Michael, who’s not in 4-H, has also been able to get a saddle on his,” Sprinkel said. “So, they’re getting really close, and next year they’re hoping to show their mustangs at the fair.”
 A 10-year 4-H member, and in his sixth year showing rabbits, Jed completed a full demonstration with his three-year-old black Rex rabbit, showing what it takes to present a rabbit project to the judge. At the same time, Emma worked closely with leader Cassidy, working on memorizing facts about her meat rabbits and what the judge will be looking for.
 There are some differences in showing sheep versus showing goats. What is the same, no matter what animal is being shown, is for the showman to keep their eye on the judge.
 There were three goats of varied sizes on hand to work with on Friday, with two sheep project members handling two of them. At the very least, the two sheep kids were getting some round robin practice if they win a showman championship placing at the fair.
 There’s no doubt this year’s 21st Century Farm Kids will be more than ready for the fun and friendly competition at the 2023 Washington County Fair. The staff at the Signal American wish them all the best of luck, and look forward to seeing them in action next week.

 

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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