We decided it would be nice to return to the birth place of my husband for the local agricultural show. we thought it would be pleasant to have a lovely day in the country. Dalby was our destination a four hundred kilometer round trip west from Brisbane. It is a wheat and sunflower farming area that has been in the grips of a particularly bad drought for the last few years.
We set off at 5am laden with goodies and two very big bottles of iced water for the dogs, as even in autumn it can be quite hot out west. We had a trouble free trip and arrived at 8am in good time for the 9am start. We were amazed when we arrived to see how dry the grounds were. We parked and hopped out of the car into a paddock where obviously all the sheep had grazed the night before because before us lay a pooper scoopers delight. Naturally I trod in one that lay neatly right at my door! I made my way to pick up our number and catalogue through the mine field that lay before me. When I saw the rings I was most surprised to see that they resembled the Sahara desert with the occasional blade of withered grass poking up very sadly. I enquired as to these conditions, only to be told that the drought had put very large cracks in the rings and were very dangerous, especially for Chihuahua's, who may have been lost for weeks down some of the cracks, they were so big. Hence they had filled all the cracks with sand which was a real test to man and beast in the movement department.
This show had two judges who shared the judging in dubious conditions, two rings being judged simultaneously. The terriers were first in ring number two. We headed into the assembly area to find that the poultry section was the border of the dog section. Naturally the sound effects from the poultry helped get the best out of our terriers and being poultry they never knew when to shut up. At this stage a young lass of about 8 walked up and said to me, "I like your dogs." When I asked her what she liked about them she replied, "because they are fluffy like my dog!" She also said that she was there with her family showing poultry. I asked her how many did you bring today. She replied, "40 because this is our local show." Just imagine grooming 40 roosters and hens. I did see some of them in action busy shining the feathers.
Well, we were surprised how well the Scotties all went in the sand dunes and with the poultry squawking at the appropriate moments. I am pleased to report one of our scots got Best in Group. This meant we had to wait till the rest of the groups had been judged so we could compete for Best In Show with the 6 other group winners. We carefully made our way back to our car and cleared a space, fertiliser free, to set up our morning tea.
Our large umbrellas were attached to our two dog trolleys with our dogs in them and one in a small plastic airline crate. We gave them some lovely iced water and prepared our tea and goodies on the larger of the two trolleys with our dog "Storm" in it by himself. We had just set it all up, sat down and a big gust of wind came along and lifted the umbrella in the air like Mary Poppins, and threw all our goodies in the air. The umbrella hit me in the head, whereupon I threw the cup of tea I had in my hand all over my husband behind me. He was wearing a lovely white shirt. The trolley fell on the airline crate springing the door open so our wee lass Danzel could join the Border Collies in the sheep round up in the next paddock. Poor Storm was lying upside down in his trolley wearing his drink bowl for a hat! He looked quite stunned and was very pleased to have a cuddle to reassure him that all was well and we hadn't gone beserk.
We thought the show was never going to end and finally got into the ring at 5pm. By which time we were all anxious that the sun would go down before the show finished. We duly finished in the nick of time and were very happy to win a class in Show. We speedily packed our car and travelled safely home only to stop and have a Big Mac. It certainly was a long day, arriving home at 8.30pm. After seeing how dry and parched the land was in the west, one realises how they have suffered in the grips of the drought.