Lucky Ehh

I would like to start off by saying I had a great experience with my host family in Luxembourg. I stayed with Raoul, Dominque, and Yahnik Putz. Yahnik was 18 years old and they had a daughter that was working on a farm in Canada. There house was over 250 years old and was one of three houses that was not destroyed during the Battle of the Bulge in the village of Nothum. Raoul had many different cartidges, bullets, military jeeps etc. from the war. He had alot of knowledge about the war and was very interesting to talk to. Raoul was a veterinarian for food inspection and his wife, Dominque was a dance instructor at a college.
Thursday night I got dropped off with my host family and we had a dinner with another family that hosted girls. We had a fantastic dinner and enjoyed the evening getting to know each other. The meal consisted of potatoes with cheese that we melted on a George Foreman grill. We added ham and a cream cheese on the potato and it was delicious.
Friday morning we had crepes for breakfast and then went to the show. We judged a class of cows and watched the show. I met some well known people in the cattle business and talked to them about different subjects. The sale was later that evening and we all helped prepare the cattle. The highest lot went for about 26,000 euros. Genomics played a big part in the sale as they do in the states which was interesting to see.
Saturday we started the morning off with crepes as well. We toured a dairy goat farm that milked about 600 goats on a 48 goat carousel. After that we toured a 100 cow Holstein dairy that was spotless. You would think that they had not used the parlor a day over the four years they used it. After that we went to a Blue Belgian farm. The farmer there was very interested in American farming and had many different videos of large dairies in America. He also milked Norwegian Reds. After that we went back to Raoul's friends house and enjoyed lasagna for lunch. Then we saw a lake where they like to go Kayaking and camping. We continued by going to a village surrounded by a river and mountains. At the top of the village is a castle that we got to walk around in. We then had a Bar B Que back at the fair grounds and had an awards get together for the judging we did. While we were at the fair Raoul gave Yahnik the keys to the car so he could get his jacket. While Yahnik was gettign his jacket he moved the car to another paring spot to pull a prank on his dad. When we left that evening Raoul could not figure out what happened to his car and it was very funny.
Sunday morning we packed all of our things and then had a short breakfast. We went to the fairgrounds where the showmanship contest was. I was give a heifer who did not behave very well in the beginning. She dropped her head and ran into anything she could to try and get away from me before the show started. When I got into the ring she began to change her attitude and I got very lucky. I made the top three of the first round. The top three made it in both rounds to give a total of six. I was pulled out in the top three of those six and named Reserve Grand Champion of the International Showmanship competition in Luxembourg. I was very fortunate to have a heifer that decided to lead well at the right times and got lucky in Luxembourg. I had a great experience and hope you all enjoyed this blog.