Bug and Her First 4-H Exhibit at the County Fair

The county fair is done. It was her first year to do an exhibit at the fair. It was a lot of fun preparing for it. We put many, many, many hours into her Entomology case.

 Bug even taught her brother a few things about pinning the insects.

 My proud girl showing off her pinned insect.

 Little Man always making faces and sound effects. He was making the insect cry!

How in the world she could concentrate with her brother is beyond me!

 Her box is the one on the end.

Bug received a blue ribbon. Which in 4-H you could say is 2nd place. It means she doesn't go to the State Fair. For her first year a blue ribbon is considered good.

 One of the two judges is Bug's Entomology teacher. He told me that she did good enough to get a purple ribbon on the county level. They were just afraid she wouldn't have enough of points with her box at the State fair to compete. It can be brutal for a first year student with confidence. She can stay in her level for 3 yrs or until she ribbons a purple. The competition is stiff at the State level. She was the only one as a first year box at the county level. It was learning curve for us both. As I now know what to expect and how to lay out the boxes more efficiently.

All her remarks were good. She had 12 orders and 79 species in her box. Which is a wonderful amount for her first year. She had some more unique insects you don't see in a first year box. She had a few mistakes. One beetle was pinned wrong, one label was not centered correctly, one insect was questionable on the species we had, and the insects are not straight in all the rows,(if you look at the picture you can see it) and one mistake I overlooked was that I put the bed bugs in the wrong order. My bad on that end-I just assumed it was that order without looking. Bug told me," I was a bad girl!"

Bug was pretty disappointed she couldn't go to state. I read to her the ribbon results which said, a blue ribbon is superior work."  We read over the notes from the judges wrote. After a few days of people telling her she did a great job she got over it.

I was a little worried if she made the state fair. Frankly, if she would of qualified I wouldn't have been able to help her get ready for it. In other words she wouldn't of went. Bug wouldn't understand that. It was actually a blessing in disguise for me. As I am having a surgery next week that will keep me down for 4-6 weeks. We would of had to put more insects in her box for the state and fixed the lines straighter. Honestly it is many hours of work.

So when I am back on my feet again we will start pinning again and preparing for next year.