A String of Pearls

Kids raised in Wyoming — especially in the country — have at their disposal an opportunity to nurture and display livestock. Younger children do this in 4-H, and teens can go a step farther and join FFA. Mine had 4-H project animals: market steers, market hogs, horses, and dogs. County Fair marked the end of the project each year, and my kids lived for the annual August highlight.

Our family learned early on that the “open” categories for competition sometimes suited our youth better than the 4-H version. Thus it was that each summer my daughters entered a variety of cookies into open competition rather than deal with the year-long tedium of taking a 4-H baking project.

My girls had market hogs at the County Fair — penned in the hog barn in little paddocks filled with sawdust.  During Fair Week, they spent each morning and each evening at the barn caring for…