The barn at the Brown Farm was pretty busy as the contestants for the Mr. and Miss Farmhand Competition. For many that had suggested it, it was based off of some people that saw the various Animalians picking apples the previous fall and essentially making it seem as though there ought to be a competition that would essentially be the idea that the competition would be little more than Animalians in swimsuits doing jumping jacks in a field. It was something that tended to reflect a lot of the ways Animalians were often viewed by many humans outside of Lyre that were "fans." These people liked Animalians, but it was more for how they looked and not about who Animalians were as people.
And while Animalians did fit the ideal form of what many people saw as "sexy" in that females were voluptuous and muscular at the same time while males were athletic and muscular and well endowed, that didn't mean "sex" was the only thing they focused on. Animalians may fit that ideal and may be fairly open with "flaunting it" when it came to that sort of thing, especially among those that were double dosed, but that didn't mean that was the only thing they favored. In this with the planned competition, it had been redone so that they were to compete in a way that they would be doing a lot of the actual work that the Brown Family had done for years with regard running their farm. After Animalia came about many of their former livestock often worked on the farm along the Brown Family in making the farm more profitable, but the competition would be for those who weren't by profession farmers.
Abby felt a bit saddened by the fact that the competition would not allow her to compete in it, as much of the idea for it had been promised to be in good faith and good fun, but then she'd helped her parents run the farm where she could and after she joined Animalia, she and Samson both worked together to keep it running, particularly as it moved away from ranching and into more farming. In this, she was well aware of the things that her parents did to run the farm and at times helped with those ideas. In that, she could accept that letting her compete would essentially give her and Samson an unfair advantage over many of the competitors in the competition with only her parents having more experience than she did. That soon became even more obvious when many of people who had showed up at the barn weren't farmers by nature, and there were a fair number of humans that were also there. Sarah and Malice sat together on a set of hay bales with Sammy and Samantha and a couple of humans that she knew worked for the Lyre Fire Department. To some extent that would make for a rather interesting competition.
"Welcome, everyone," Martin Brown spoke as he came forward, "welcome to the Brown Family barn... some of you may remember being here as humans when coming to go ridding with Abby. Some of you came during the initial outbreaks and got into some things they shouldn't have..."
Thee were a few glances to Sarah and Malice, but both Siberian Husky Animalians simply smiled and wagged their tails, almost as if to say that they were pleased with the events as they unfolded. Though the glances were also ones with amusement and one of the firefighters patted Sarah on her shoulder.
"But at present the barn will be the base for the Mister and Miss Farmhand competition," Martin continued, "Where each of you will get a shot at competing against one another in competitions that will see how well you can perform the basic tasks that farmers do every day..."
Josephine Brown then came forward to stand by her husband, "This will include a lot of the work that goes into the running and maintaining of an active farm environment, though for the sake of competition and that our farm's actual operation won't be taken over by the competition, various events that will be part of this competition, a lot of the events that you will be participating in will be compartmentalized that fit with the various times of the year and what sorts of tasks that are required."
"This will include some herding events, but that will be closer to the summer months with the cooperation of the various sheep Animalians," Martin added, "but for the moment... the tasks you will have before you is to plan out what you will do. This will include what you want to grow, where you will grow it and arranging for the appropriate logistics that relate to it."
Martin and Josephine then turned and motioned to a large map that was hung up on the wall. It marked out the Brown Farm and its borders with the various locations, such as the barn and the specific areas that would be used for the competition. Both adult horses explained many of the background rules that would relate to what would be done. It compartmentalized the areas that the competitors would be working on would have spots to work with in a way that Sarah, Malice, Sammy, and Samantha wouldn't interfere with school work and so and so that all of them knew where they to go and where they would be responsible for so that the Brown Farm as a whole would remain productive.
"And each section that you will be working as part of the competition will be critical for winning the prizes that will be awarded," Josephine spoke, "a week long vacation of your choice... and whatever you earn when what you grow is sold."
There were some cheers at that before Josephine and Martin moved on.
"Now we will help and provide some base clues with regard to these first events that will relate to planning," Martin spoke, "This will include figuring what you will need for certain tasks and so on. We will provide clues... as will other regular members of the farm, like our daughter, Abby, and her mate, Samson. All regular employees on the farm will give you clues on what to do but they won't tell you what to do. They won't do the tasks for you and you will need to make the final decision for what the tasks will be."
The gathered competitors all nodded.
"There will be other events that will be part of the preparation that will be scheduled," Josephine continued, "but for the moment a lot of that will have to wait until the weather is more cooperative with us... which will be the BIGGEST lesson you'll need to learn about farming. You are not in control and that a lot of what you do as part of the competition will be controlled by the weather. That something that we can't get away from and for the competition... neither will you. In that, I wish you all the best of luck."
And from there, things went rather well with the opening events as the competitors were to plan out what would be done. Martin and Josephine agreed that cellphones with weather prediction software could be allowed, since a lot of that was most accurate in the short term. There would be a lot that would have be done as things moved along. The main thing with the plans was that each competitor would write down on a note pad what their plan was and how they expected it to work and taking account of what they would need for this plan. Most things didn't go too bad, though there was one bit of folly.
The folly ended up with a middle aged man who'd heard on the contest online, which wasn't that much of a surprise, as much of Animalia's promotions were put online. It was large a way of being open and showing that anything that came as a surprise was a surprise because no one knew it, not because it was being deliberately concealed. The surprise was that this man in a midlife crisis not only came to Animalia to compete in the contest but decided to prove his manliness for one of the mares who was actually competing in the competition. The mare had come from the Williams Ranch originally, and while she liked visiting the Brown Farm, a lot of that had been more to buy apples during the fall harvesting season. To impress her, the man decided to throw one of the large hay bales that had been set up as benches in the barn for the contestants to sit at. However, because Martin and Josephine didn't know how many Animalians would come out and which Animalian species would come out for the tournament, the hay bales had been tightly packed and carried a fair amount of weight. While the man did manage to successfully throw the bale, it didn't go super far and he seemed to strain his back as well. To make matters worse, the mare he wanted to impress gave a snort of disinterest.