Watching Birds is not Bird Watching

While we're on the subject of animals I think are super adorable (but in this case don't want to own), look at this chicken cutie. I'm guessing it's a chicken and not rooster, but I could be wrong since I'm not an expert bird identifier.


This chicken, with her funny feather hairdo is pretty adorable. Her movements are sudden and schizophrenic. She bobs around here and there; and has very strange mannerisms. I could watch her for hours, but then that would make me a bird watcher; and bird watching is altogether way too boring for me. I think it's perfectly normal a person could enjoy watching birds but hate bird watching. They're very different. And for very different types of people.

Bunnies!

I want a bunny. Really bad. They're SOOOOO cute. And cuddly.



And furry. And their little noses sniff sniff sniff.

What does 1000 pounds of butter look like?

1000 pounds of butter looks a little like a football player, milkman, and 4 kids on monkey bars--if you're at the 2011 Pennsylvania Farm show that is.



Every year the PA Farm show features a lot of butter carved up into beautiful sculptures refrigerated in a special $50,000 display case to promote the dairy industry. In 2009, "six butter manufacturers in Pennsylvania produced 79.1 million pounds of butter" Wow. That's a lot of butter!

What makes a bucking bull buck?

HeeHaw, it's time for the rodeo! This weekend kicks off the 95th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, PA.

We got to see the rodeo on Saturday and what happened, but the first guy who came out riding a bull got trampled on and had to be taken out on a stretcher. Bull riding has to be the most dangerous sport I've seen. Those cowboys are crazy!


I learned the reason the bull bucks for the full 8 seconds of the ride is because of special strap on a special area of the bull; and once the rope is loosened, the bucking dies down too.

Via Wikipeda: There is a heated debate between animal rights organizations and bull riding enthusiasts over many aspects of the sport. The first controversy is over the use of a flank strap. The flank strap is placed around a bulls flank, in front of the hind legs, and encourages bucking. Critics claim that the flank strap encircles or otherwise binds the genitals of the bull. However, others note that the flank strap is anatomically impossible to place over the genitals; as well as unrealistic, pointing out that the bull's genes are valuable and that there is a strong economic incentive to keep the animal in excellent reproductive health.

Is there a bunny in there?

And then there are the animals at the farm show too. The cows, horses, ducks, birds of variety, pigs, sheep, alpacas, and bunnies. I love the bunnies in particular. I want one. I was deprived as a child only ever having cold blooded pets like fish and turtles. I never had anything with hair. That's perhaps why I think the angoras are the cutest. They are lumps of fur...with eyes...and ears.

I Can't Believe It's Butter!

The Pennsylvania Farm Show has come again, and so that means the butter sculpture too. Nine hundred pounds of butter was lumped together to form a bus, cow, and children. Yes, 900 freakin' pounds. It takes a cow 9 months to produce enough milk to make that much butter. Jeepers creepers! Oogling at the giant hunk of butter is always one of my favorite things about the Farm Show.

My other favorites are the rodeo and the food. I had onion rings and a strawberry smoothie this year. Mmmm. I am sad I had no honey waffle with ice cream though, because I just couldn't eat anymore. I couldn't do it!

And the potato donuts, have I ever mentioned the potato donuts? Those are heavenly too. They are like donuts, only much much better.

My goodness, I just realized that the farm show is incredibly unhealthy. The giant sculpture of butter should have been some indication...