Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome back to another edition of ACF four one one,
the official podcast of the Allen County Fair. I'm your
host Rush Decker and joining us in the podcast parlor.
We call it a parlor because we're actually in the
old milking parlor at the Allen County Fair on the
north side of the dairy Barnes. Come by and say
hi to us. We want to remind you before we
get into this episode that you may be saying, hey,
(00:22):
how do I watch or listen to the podcast? And
you can do that anytime. You can listen to it
anytime you want to on the iHeart app, and you
can see it anytime you want to on YouTube. So
we want to thank iHeart and YouTube for hosting our podcast.
So joining me in the podcast parlor today, we have
(00:42):
the Shaeffer Family. Now, when I saw that, you guys
wan't know Kelly Cobble who she is. Yeah, So Kelly
put the list together and she chas it down as
the Shaffer family. I thought we were going to have
a country band, That's what I thought was going to
come into the parlor, but instead we have three lovely
ladies and they all have projects here at the Allen
can only fair, and because you have the microphone, you
(01:02):
get to go first. So introduce yourself and tell us
what projects or projects that you have here at the
fair this week.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
My name's Gwendolen Schaeffer.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I show market birds, market chickens, and I did a
medium woodworking project for the first time this year.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And I think that's all that I show at affair.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And how'd your chickens do?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Not good?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Not good.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I didn't even get pinned or any of that.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So, so answer this question. I'm not a chicken shower person,
but I've heard so. Do you actually have to hold
the chicken up upside down by its feet?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We do.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Did they like that?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
No? No, I don't think anyone does.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, because I'm thinking, I bet they're not too quiet
about that, are they?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
They make a little No, not really.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So what are the judges looking for when they turned
the chicken upside down?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Mostly a good chicken breast because that's where most smata is, So.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
They like it.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I don't know how they like it depends on the judge,
but they like a good breast that matches with both birds.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, so that's true. You do flip it upside down?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
And it's the best way to film.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We do them at home before we when we're picking
them out, we gotta flip them over because it's the
best way to feel can't do it while they're standing.
But it's just it's uncomfortable because you can't feel it
well because the bird's backing up because they don't like that.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So it's best just to flip them.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And aren't they mean.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Some are, but they just they just eat. So that's
for the most part.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
All right. So the old story about like the chicken
chasing the guy down the road, probably not happen.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Or not with these birds. Okay, not with the birds
we show.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, they're used to people, right, you're handling them.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, we do handle them a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, well, good, well, we're glad to have you in
the podcast. I'm going to have you pass the microphone
down to your all. These are both older sisters, right,
Oh you're you're the youngest. You're the baby, so yeah,
you do everything perfect because you're the baby of the family. Yeah,
so what are you showing this week?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I'm showing meat birds and a fancy rooster.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So okay, again, a lot of people who are watching
the podcast explain to us what's a meat bird.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
A meatbird is what you usually find at the stores,
like your meat.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So is it ducks chickens? These are chickens too or yes? Okay?
And so I knew somebody showed us a meat duck
and it was like you weighed too much for the
wings so it couldn't fly because it's so that's why
it's a meat duck. But oh yeah, yeah, and what
was your other project?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
A fancy rooster?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Ah? So I imagine the rooster talks a lot, yes,
just in the morning or all day, all day, all day,
and keeps all the hens in line because he's yelling
at him.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
They have him separated like they're in their categories like roosters,
and then they have the fancies.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So I'm guessing that's a noisy part of the barn
if you've got all the roosters together, because they probably
don't like one another, do they?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Nope? They do not.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, I'm guessing. Yeah, So that's not where you take
naps in the poultry barn, is with the roosters.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Now how'd your birds do?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
They did pretty good?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, none of them, no ribbons?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But so how much work is it to do a
rooster or a chicken project?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Just depends on how much you want to hold them,
how much you want to care for them.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So do you? So you're both doing birds. So do
you have a poultry farm that you live on?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Is that no?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Not, it's just your projects make it look like a
poultry farm. Yes, I got you. Okay, why don't you
pass the microphone? Now we have the oldest sister, the
wise sister. Right, yes, So what projects do you have
at the fair?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
So? I do meet birds and then I also did
a woodworking project.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Okay, so we've talked a little bit about the birds,
let's talk about woodworking. So, yes, what interest did you
in work with wood?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Well, it was an assignment for an FFA class because
me and her do FFA at our school and one
of the assignments we had was doing woodworking projects and
we had the opportunity to bring it here to like
just to show it off, and.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We did so, which which FFA chapter was that this
is Alan East Allen East. Okay, that's a big chapter,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
It's growing?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
It really is. Yep, Yeah, that's it is a growing chapter.
Over there. You hear a lot about Allen East FFA. So,
so talk about your project. Well, what'd you make?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I made a bench?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, was it? I mean anything special about your bench
or just a bench?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
It was just a bench. The legs were criss crossed.
I got to burn it. I got to burn wood
for the first time, which is really cool. I've never
done that before, so that was a cool I don't
know thing to learn.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, so you're the oldest. You said you were eighteen.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I'm eighteen.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yes, So are you? Did you just graduate? You're a
senior or no?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I am a senior this year.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Senior this year. Do you know what you want to
do after school?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
No? I do not. I don't want to go to college,
but I want to work.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
So but but you think about like starting a chicken farm?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Probably not?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Probably not. No, you learned that much from FFA that
you like you don't want to raise chickens.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, it just depends on the chickens, the meat birds.
You only have. This is a seven week project for
the fair, and those seven weeks are the first two
weeks you have the birds. They're adorable, they're so cute, fluffy,
and then after that it's you don't want to touch
them again because they're just they're just that disgusting.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
But and how'd your bird do?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
They did? All right, they didn't get penned this year,
which is alright, there's like over two hundred birds there,
so like it's it's very hard to do really good there.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
But so there are seems like there's a lot more
birds this year than in the last couple of years.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Is that right, Yes, there has been a lot more. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So do you think it's just because it's a seven
week project instead of a twelve month project that makes
it popular?
Speaker 4 (07:05):
And I think this is like the only project you earned,
like you earn money from like it's not a big animals,
so you don't have to feed it as much, and
like you don't have to pay that much, and like
I think that's why a lot of people do it.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well, that's true, because if you're going to get what's
the average pin of chickens go for or is it
a pin of chickens?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Yes, there's two chickens. Two chickens equals a.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Pen probably three or four hundred dollars, Yeah, somewhere in there,
three five hundred somewhere in there. And again it's seven
weeks project. What's a brand new chicken costs you?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I think there were two. I think they were two
dollars to two dollars a burden.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Wow, well that's pretty good mark up there. Yeah. Now,
of course you had to feed them and spend time
with them. And so for somebody who's listening in there,
they've never done a livestock project and they've never been
in four h or FFA or anything, and they're thinking about, well,
this was needed to fare. We saw the projects. What's involved?
If you decide today you're sitting down with mom and
dad and going I like to have a chicken next
(08:06):
year in the fair, talk us through the process. What
do they have to do any of you?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Well, they got to get their coup first, their pen
to keep the raccoons and coyotes out. We actually had
a bit everyone apparently had a bit of trouble with
coons this year. Five of our chickens got eaten by
a coon. So you gotta find a safe place to
keep the animals out with a heat lamp, because when
(08:36):
they're babies you need to constantly have a heat lamp
on them. But when they get older you can turn
it into just a normal light. So they keep eating
through the night, feed water, and you need to find
a place to get food. We get ours like nutritional
and twenty percent like what you find out tractors supply,
(08:56):
and you raise the percentage every so often.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Okay, so but it does sound like a lot of work.
It's not just take the chicken home and jump some
cereal in the box and there you go, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Just keep in the cardboard box.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah, we've been doing it for a bit and we
took over after our cousin and we've we had the
setup already, so it was pretty easy to just pick
up the mantle after that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Great. So I like to always I always like to
wrap up the interviews on a fun note, So this
will be one I want you to tell me because
the fair is not just all about the barns, right,
there's there's a big part of this fair. It's about
fair food. So passing the mic, although still still we'll
start on this end. But your favorite fair food and
(09:42):
why I.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Think I'm gonna have to go with the caramel apples
place right over here, right across from the interview. It's
always our favorite, and we've gotten to know the people
there so much that it's just always a good time
to visit.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So we'll give them a homemade caramel sauce over apples
or bananas. That's your favorite place, right, we'll see what
your sister's favorite fair food is.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Mine has to be the giant pretzels.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Oh yeah, I know where you're at.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Whenever they're warm, they're always so good.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
A right, So we've got apples and bananas, we've got pretzels.
What are we going to top it off with.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
The Red Barn or it's not the Red Barn anymore?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Blue Barn, oh, Buckling Acres?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yes, yes, that is always a good place.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I go at Brian Fisher's place over there. Yes, you
all know Brian.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
We are not country neighbors, but we live really close
to them, yep, so we see him a lot and
we know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So if all the stuff Brian has over there, what's
your favorite cheeseburger? Cheeseburger? Yeah, I just had a blowny
sandwich for lunch from there, So pretty good stuff. Ladies.
Thank you. Have a great time at the fair for
the rest of the week we're on or don day
five of nine or halfway there, right, and then you
have to clean up and all that kind of stuff, right,
(11:07):
So all right, have a great Allen County Fair. We'll
see you all at the fair and we'll be back
with another edition of ACF four one one after this