2010 AKGA National Convention Batesville, MS

We survived our trip to Batesville, MS for the AKGA National Convention! I have lots of pictures, so get ready for a looong post.

This year we took our kids to the convention, so I wasn't able to be as attentive to the convention as usual. I have heard that I missed out on some great seminars. Shane was able to attend several of them, and enjoyed them. I did get to meet some new faces which is always one of the better parts of the convention. Yes, getting to see some familiar faces was equally enjoyable!

Thursday evening there was a goat cheese and sausage social. I must say that the goat sausage was delicious!!! I am hoping that we can experiment and try to make our own goat sausage this year. My uncle Jamie made some deer sausage that was out of this world this past winter, who knows what recipe we'll come up with for the goat sausage. I will have to let you know when we try it...

There were some nice goats offered at the sale, but we are not planning on buying anymore goats right now. We are planning to breed Rooster to some all of Pistol Pete's daughters from last year this fall. We are focusing on our herd right now......We have been collecting data for two years now on the does we purchased from Dr. Sarks and have ended up culling 8 does from that group. I am very excited to see what we will end up with in a few years from now from the things we've got planned to do....

Here are then pens that held the animals for sale. I thought they had a pretty good set up. It was really nice for the goats to be able to be in an air conditioned facility compared to he place last year. Despite the Mississippi heat, we were very comfortable in the Batesville Civic Center. I think Terry and his convention committee did a fantastic job!

There were also many farm displays! I have to admit, ours wasn't decorated or flashy at all. We only put out our business cards and brochures this year. It was kind of a last minute decision. There were some very nice ones though! Not only were there farm displays, but also a few vendors. One woman had a table set up with lotion and soap made from goat milk. The soap smelled absolutely WONDERFUL!! Here is a link to her website: http://www.covenantcreekgoatmilksoap.com/index.shtml I plan on buying some of this stuff for Christmas presents. It seems like now days everyone has everything. I don't think soap made from goat's milk is something they have though.

Mallory wanted to go look at the goats a lot. She wanted to be able to pet them, and of all the goats there, she had to pet this guy...

He had his "cologne" on very strong, and she said "Mom, look he will let me pet him." Of course, I tried to discourage, but what can you do? We just washed the hands.....

Dillon enjoyed telling tall tales to Mr. Darryl and Ms. Gail Byrd. He has a way of creating stories that are quite fascinating. He loves to get someone to listen, and the more they get interested in his story, the taller the tales.

More to come....we ate at a FANTASTIC steak house, I have photos and more on this later. I have chores to do......