Wilsons Remain Active In Various 4-H Activities
Roosevelt County Fair
Sister and brother Elsie and Rowan Wilson of Bainville have been involved in 4-H nearly their entire lives, and they are looking forward to this year’s Roosevelt County Fair scheduled for Aug. 6-9.
Elsie, 17, says this is her 11th year as a 4-H member while Rowan, who is entering his junior year in high school, has been involved for 10 years.
Becoming members of the Tumbleweed 4-H Club was part of a family tradition because of their mother, Tanya, and older sister, Paytyn.
Elsie’s first 4-H memory is going to a Cloverbud event. “We made grasshopper things. It was pretty cool,” she said. “It was fun helping Paytyn with animals because I was too young to do it by myself.”
In fact, the two younger siblings went on to assist their older sister with her Peytyn’s Pork business when her schedule became too busy. “We started doing her chores,” Elsie remembers.
Rowan and Elsie say that they definitely aren’t fond enough of pigs to begin their own pig business now.
Elsie’s success during fair time has included earning the swine excellence award a few years ago. Her steer was graded prime last year. “It was the second best steer in Roosevelt County,” the incoming senior said.
She has also excelled with indoors projects, especially photography and cooking. Her favorite photo was one featuring peas and lentils that she took about three years ago. She also liked a photo she took of Rowan checking to see whether hay was dry.
Rowan has been active with pigs, steers and a few indoor categories during the fair.
His goal this year is to earn blue ribbons and have a good carcass.
They are each now busy getting their steers ready for the upcoming county fair.
“This year, Rowan has the nicer one as far as behavior,” Elsie said.
They admit there’s a bit of sibling rivalry between the two. The person that enjoys more success, usually then likes to talk a little trash. “It’s kind of more at home than at the fair,” Elsie said of the fun comments.
The two students are able to work pretty well together, however, most of the time. “It depends on moods, too,” Elsie admitted.
This year’s 4-H/FFA livestock and small animal auction starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 9.
With their busy schedules, the Wilsons are happy that fall sports practices don’t start until a week after the fair this year. In some recent years, the first practices came in the middle of the fair. Rowan notes one of Bainville’s football practices consisted of running at the airport in Culbertson because so many players needed to be at fair.
Regardless whether they come away with honors or not at this year’s fair, the Wilsons feel that 4-H involvement has been very beneficial to them.
“It teaches a lot of life lessons,” Elsie said. “You don’t have to be involved with animals to learn things.”
