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Is it Really the End of July? |
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Is it really the end of July? It seems that time has really speeding up! We are about 10 days from our weigh in at the Ohio State Fair barrow show and are counting the days until we move in and we are trying to ‘get our oink on’ so we’ll be ready.
The weather has been extremely warm, making it a challenge to get our barrows walked. The past few nights we haven’t been able to start walking hogs until close to 10pm and it is still pretty warm. My wife and I spent our 17th wedding anniversary walking hogs with the kids in the moonlight, a full moon nonetheless……she said it was the best anniversary ever!
Earlier this month, my kids showed at our County fair. Overall, my kids had a great time at the fair.
Alex showed in the breeding gilt show and ended up Champion York and Reserve overall purebred breeding gilt. She ended up 3rd in showmanship and was reminded a valuable lesson…No matter how severe the weather is, showing livestock is fun and she should be having fun in the ring. The judge told her she was placed 3rd because she didn’t smile or look like she was having fun, it wasn’t because she couldn’t drive her pig where it needed to go, it was obvious she had spent a tremendous amount of time working with her pig at home—as soon as he told her that she lit up a big smile and she realized she was just going thru the motions because she was hot, tired and the heat was getting to her. She knew that her mom had taken photos of her in the ring and she wanted to see them. When she saw her facial expression in the ring, she said “Oh, I didn’t know I was doing that.” To be honest, her mother and I didn’t realize it either because we too were focused on the pig, not her. My point is this, showing should be FUN! Be sure to tell your kids our story, so they can learn from it too!
My son is the young man in the middle of this group. He showed his meat chickens and a single fryer at the fair and learned a few valuable life’s lessons. He learned that despite the best of planning we can’t always plan for variables which we have no control over. We couldn’t take his pig to the fair because she hurt her foot the day we were to leave; he didn’t show a pig at our County Fair this year, it wasn’t anyone’s fault-it just one of those things that can happen. His meat chickens must have had a disagreement just prior to the fair as they had all of their feathers the week before when we sorted them off but we realized that they must have been busy establishing a “pecking order” because they were missing important feathers when we were getting them ready the day before the fair. The good news is he had a great time at the fair!
Despite breaking his arm, Cameron has had a great summer! He decided he was going to plant a garden and try his hand at the farmers markets “eat local” program, except he never went to one farmers market all summer. He sat up at the end of the driveway with a piece of plywood which he spray painted advertising his produce. He is all sold out of sweet corn, is still selling green beans and is getting really close to having his tomatoes ready. He will be delivering fresh chickens to his customers at the end of this week.
This is one of my kids’ favorite barrows this summer named, Hollywood. In order to get on the favorite list at the Vaughan house, the barrows have to do a few things: must love marshmallows, stick their tongues out often, love to be brushed, always lay on their side when you scratch their belly, and they shouldn’t try to get out of walking by trying to out run you in the walking arena!
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Update from Mineral Point |
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Since my last blog, Mineral Point has had a lot of humid weather, we’ve gotten a good bit of moisture, but not as extreme as parts of southern Iowa. The crops look the best I can remember.
On July 11th, our family all went to the Madison airport to see our German foreign exchange student, Natalie, off. She, with her mom and grandma were heading home back to Germany. Natalie spent approximately 11 months with our family. She was a great kid and a pleasure to have here.
I got to do a clinic at the Simmental Junior National in Des Moines on July 16th. Had a very large turnout. My nephew, Jon Gevelinger, helped me with the clipping and fitting clinic. After the clinic, Jon, Kylie Willard, and myself judged the fitting competition. There were 14 teams and we placed a very competitive group of kids. We placed the top three teams and they announced the winner Friday evening at the banquet. Thanks Jon and Kylie.
Saturday the 17th, I went to Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan to watch Lauren in a gymnastics tournament She finished 3rd overall on the floor and vault. Lauren and her teammates performed well and seemed very focused.
After the competition, I went to Indiana to look at cattle and back to north of Milwaukee that evening to clip a county fair steer on Sunday.
We are just wrapping up most of our county fairs. We had 4 Grands, a Reserve, and a 2nd place, so we had a pretty happy group of young exhibitors.
Just 2 weeks until the State Fair starts. Good luck to all, then we’ll start gathering calves for the 2010-2011 season.
Bob May
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