I am very proud of our State Fair in Ohio-I have been to most of the State Fairs in the Midwest and in my opinion, the Ohio State fair is one of the best! We have excellent facilities and some great attractions for families of all backgrounds. Our Fair started yesterday and will run thru August 7.

My kids have a must do list every year at the fair. One of their favorites is the seeing the Famous Butter Cow Sculpture. Something new this year – they are featuring a Chocolate pig sculpture!



Of course there is the Natural Resource Park inside the fairgrounds where the kids can kayak, fish, archery and use BB guns. The family looks forward to the fair food, the sky lift across the fairgrounds, the Budweiser Clydesdales, and some things new for this year – nightly fireworks and the tractor square dancing!

We are almost ready to move in to the fair and the pigs are nearly ready! As I write this, we have just 5 days until weigh day for the Barrows. Our weather has been very hot and humid—record breaking! It has been a challenge to get our pigs exercised-we have all decided that it works out best to get up really early and walk pigs. Cameron told me this morning that of all the weather we have walked pigs in, he thinks walking them in the snow is the most fun. He is not a fan of the heat, and our pool has certainly gotten lots of good use this summer. I know the kids are grateful to the pool as we live in an older house that does not have central air!

There has been a lot of hustle going on at my house to make sure we get everything done. It has been difficult to manage the select softball schedule –Alex has played over 40 games since Memorial Day, she is also on the tennis team and cross country team at high school and has been attending their practices plus their 4h projects. I am thankful my parents are retired and can help to shuttle her around. She has started a countdown to day she can get her driver’s permit!

I hope to share some Fair photos with you next week!

**Stop by and see us in the Honor Show Chow tent if you are in Des Moines—Dr. Burgoon, Ryan Watje and I will be available**

Today, our trailer is clean, shiny and full of pigs headed to the World Pork Expo. We are expecting typical Des Moines weather this week- humid and hot with temperatures exceeding 93 degrees as well as a severe thunderstorm (or two). My son, Cameron, hopes we get to drive thru axel deep water again at the fairgrounds this year as we have in the past 2 years. I anticipate the highlight of our trip to be stopping at the I80 World’s Largest Truck stop outside of the Quad Cities-my kids have been telling me it is a “must stop” on this trip because they really like that truck stop.

I sometimes get asked what tips I have when traveling distances on very hot days with your pigs. Our trip to Des Moines will be around 11.5 hours. My advice is to leave very early in the morning. Open up your trailer vents and limit your stops –the pigs get hot fast when the truck isn’t moving. We buy bags of ice and lay into the pens when we stop to help keep the pigs cool. We have a new Cimarron trailer with an insulated roof and it seems to be making a big difference in the trailer temperature. As for traveling with your kids—we keep them pretty tired in the days leading up to the trip so they sleep!

We are taking my mother in law again this year and have told her to pace herself in the heat-We don’t want to have to strap her to the roof like Aunt Edna on National Lampoon’s Vacation.

The most common question I get asked relates to how I have my barn set up for our show pigs. This winter we remodeled our pen system. Our pens are 6.5’ x 14’ with the waters and feeders set up in the fronts of the pens. Pigs like to be clean and will keep the backs of the pens clean and the fronts will get dirty. This system makes it easier to clean the pens as we only have to clean the front 1/3 of the pens twice a day. I use a combination of shavings and ABM wood pellets for bedding.

I haven’t updated on Joe, our golden retriever, lately—he is doing great and trying to keep cool from the heat too. He has found our manure pit to provide significant relief from the heat. My daughter has diagnosed him with an addiction to any kind of balls-she has been finding her softballs everywhere, even in our neighbors flower beds.

My kids are out of school and staying busy. They both ran the 4th leg of the flying pig marathon in May and did great. Alex has recovered from her arm injury and is back playing softball-she told me her plan is to swing hard and hit the ball far—She has hit 7 home runs since early May and I have to admit it is pretty cool seeing her hit them past the fence!

What can I say? I think fractures are contagious around our house in the spring-My wife said they just fester and then Bam! Somebody has one. This year, my daughter got the “fracture bug.” She broke her wrist playing softball. She was hit by an errant throw and it hit her in just the right spot. Prior to her fracture-she really looked good this spring. She broke her schools home run record in just 4 games!

The good news– I caught Spring fever and decided to redesign our pen system in our summer barn. I purchased a set of gates and we are almost all done with the installation. We had them cut to fit our barn and allow for more pig space! I will give you a quick look now and will show more later this month.

If are traveling in the Midwest recently you are very aware of the series of thunderstorms we have experienced. My daughter is playing High School Softball this year, and out of her last 7 games in the past 10 days, 4 have been cancelled due to storms. In the 3 games she has played we stood in the rain to watch. My wife has umbrellas in everyone’s cars. She is supposed to play tonight and it doesn’t look likely- here are photos from this morning and rain is on its way!



How has everyone’s spring going this year? I have had the opportunity to meet some fantastic families at our Honor Show Events in Joliet Illinois, Roswell New Mexico, Muscatine Iowa & Portales New Mexico. In early March, I co-hosted the “Show Ring Success” clinic in Springfield Ohio. We had record attendance with over 790 people coming to hear some of our very best speakers, including: Keith Staggs (poultry), Bart Parker (swine), Mike Witte (sheep), Mark Morris & Dr. Noll (goats), Dr. Todd Price (animal health) & Dr. Kevin Burgoon (nutrition), help them get a great start to this year’s projects! I am very appreciative for all those who helped to coordinate this event and for those who came and spent the day with us.

If you are in the Midwest THIS SATURDAY (March 12, 2011) make plans to come to our Show Ring Success Seminar. It will be held in Springfield, Ohio at the Clark County Fairgrounds from 9am-3pm.

We are having experts on speak pigs, sheep, goats and also Keith Staggs will be there speaking on Broilers and Turkeys. There will be great giveaways for the participants. We are giving away a brand new Cimarron popper, free Callaway shavings for 1 year, Honor Show Chow show feed for a year, Andis clippers, Weaver show products and leather goods. All participants will get coupons for discounts for their show feed, we will have a great lunch by Shoelace catering for free. Also, this is your opportunity to get your Quality Assurance done at no cost.

Hope to see you there! We would appreciate if you could register ahead of time, but if you decide to come at the last minute please do! To register, click here!

Hello! Hope everyone has had a great start to the New Year! We have seen some serious weather fluctuations in February so far—We have been in level 2 snow emergency, had serious ice- lost our electric for 3 days followed by 60 degree weather and some serious rain most recently.

In the beginning of February, we went to the San Antonio Stock show—it was a great time. Most all of the Honor Show Chow ambassadors were there and we had had a great time. I think Mark Johnson might have had the most fun.



As a group we went to the rodeo and saw great entertainment, the mutton bustin’ was a hoot!



We have a bit of spring fever at our house-even the dogs are ready for spring. Joe, our golden retriever keeps stealing my daughter’s practice softballs. Everywhere we go he seems to have a secret stash of the yellow balls.



We are looking at pigs for the Pork Expo nearly every night –this year we are busy making farm visits and looking online. There are great opportunities for families to buy pigs right now-With the use of online sales you can see pigs offered from all across the US in the comfort of your own home. Our biggest challenge is picking out the right ones-hopefully we can do a good job this year.

We are also anxious to move forward on our future residence-we are renovating an old family farm house. We are done with demolition- all the walls have torn down to the studs and we are waiting on our contractor to get going on the existing home with plans to start the addition so soon as weather allows.



If you are in the Midwest on Saturday March 12, 2011-make plans to come to our Show Ring Success Seminar. It will be held in Springfield, Ohio at the Clark County Fairgrounds from 9am-3pm. We are having experts on speak pigs, sheep, goats and also Keith Staggs will be there speak on Broilers and Turkeys. There will be great giveaways for the participants. We are giving away a brand new Cimarron popper, free Callaway shavings for 1 year, Honor Show Chow show feed for a year, Andis clippers, Weaver show products and leather goods. All participants will get coupons for discounts for their show feed, we will have a great lunch by Shoelace catering for free. Also this is your opportunity to get your Quality Assurance done at no cost. Hope to see you there! We would appreciate if you could register ahead of time but if you decide to come at the last minute please do!

For more information you can either call or email me. Hope to see you there!

Hope this edition of my blog finds everyone enjoying the winter season. We have had record snowfall in Ohio this year and many days of school cancellations-much to the delight of my children!

We have had a great start to 2011. My son celebrated his 12th birthday and is measuring in at 5’10 ½. We were very surprised to find that he had grown so much. My wife had commented about how he is continually hungry and has a bottomless pit for a stomach. At 12, he is much taller than his peers and his Grandparents too!

My wife and I went to the Sugar bowl in New Orleans to watch the OSU Buckeye Football team win. We had a great time–it was the first time we have taken a trip together just the two of us that didn’t involve going to look at pigs or involved the farm or work in some way.

I had the pleasure of attending fellow HSC Ambassador Ryan Watje’s winter sale and showpig clinic earlier this month in California. His sale went very well, he had a great turnout and he should be very proud of the group of pigs offered.

Recently, Cameron and I took pigs to the National Junior Swine Association Winter type conference in Perry, GA. The facilities at the fairground were outstanding. It was the first time we had ever shown on AstroTurf. For those of you contemplating showing during the winter –this is an excellent show to attend. The atmosphere was very laid back and the kids had a great time. Overall, we had a great weekend. Cameron showed the Reserve Crossbred gilt and Reserve Hampshire barrow.





This weekend we are going to work on our farmhouse renovation project. We are currently tearing everything in the existing home down to the studs for new insulation, electric and drywall. Currently with the help of my Dad and his retired buddies we are making excellent progress. We have the bathrooms and kitchen torn out and should be all done with demolition at the end of the week.

It is pretty amazing to think that we are just a few days away from Christmas! We have had over 14 inches of snow in southwest Ohio so far in December. The weather man said in our area a “white” Christmas occurs once every 10 years and this is our year.

The snowfall has made getting pigs ready for the NJSA Southeast Regional in mid January quite challenging. I am certainly grateful for our heated barn and our propane company is grateful for our heated barn too! It has been challenging to walk pigs in the snow. Our next barn project is to add a water heater to our indoor wash rack to wash pigs in the winter.

My kids have had a fun December so far. Our local Purina dealer had Santa pictures for the pets and we took both dogs in. In turns out getting their photo was very easy-Joe, our golden retriever took a particular liking to Santa-he followed his every step.

My family wishes you a wonderful Holiday season!

Everyone have their Holiday shopping done? Don’t feel bad if you aren’t done-we haven’t started yet! I don’t know what our obstacle is this year but we just can’t get a good idea for what our kids really want. We miss the days of when our children were very little and they were entertained with the just the wrapping paper. Anyone have any good ideas? Maybe my best (but not most appealing idea) is to buy them new shovels for their barn work.

This past weekend we had our first snow. We got about 3 inches-just enough make the road slick and cause some traffic problems. The dogs are certainly enjoying the snow. Because we live in a flat area, I pulled Cameron on his sled with our tractor. He and the dogs had a big time. Joe even rode on the sled with him for a short while.



This past weekend, Alex ran in the “Jingle Bell 5k” in Columbus. She wanted to run with Joe but we decided the night before that wasn’t the best idea—Joe had just gotten into the cattle lot and he was covered in manure. We didn’t think that was in our best interest to let him into our car all dirty and drive him up to the city. She had a great time –there was a big turnout for the event as well as lots of dogs all dressed up with Christmas gear on.

We have had a wonderful November so far in Ohio. This week we enjoyed 70 degrees weather! My daughter had softball practice outside this past weekend –she wore shorts and short sleeve shirt-which is very unusual for our area. She recently ran in the “Run Like Hell 5K” for the cystic fibrosis foundation fundraiser she had a great time-it is a night run thru the cemetery. Many of the contestants were dressed up in costume. She is planning to run the Turkey Trot this week and the Jingle Bell in early December. She is telling me Joe our golden retriever, would be allowed to run with her in December and she is scheming up an elf outfit for him to wear. She is pressuring me to run with her, I told her I had to get in shape first!



Earlier this month, we went to the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. This is one of my kid’s favorite shows. They had a great weekend showing pigs and getting to see their showpig friends. My mother in law made the trip and I do believe she had as much fun as the kids! The kids participated in the Swine Olympics’ as a part of “team pork nuggets” they had a blast!

Last week I went to Duncan Oklahoma for the Fall Classic pig show –As usual, there was a large crowd and lots of pigs. Fellow HSC ambassador Ryan Watje was there with his family-I got to meet his wife and sons—they are a great family. We ordered a trailer earlier this summer from Cimarron and it was delivered in Duncan at the show. We are very happy with it. We thank the Kuhlwein’s for pulling it back for us.





We have had some spectacular fall foliage and sunsets to enjoy this fall.



My wife’s newly planted tree lined lane-Cameron and I worked very hard and planted 8 maple trees and 1 buckeye tree. We are considering planting trees down both sides of the driveway but would have to wait until spring.



Michelle, our mini donkey, is still in need of a donkey friend but in the meanwhile she has made lots of bovine and human friends.

Since its Thanksgiving, my kids have decided to share with you their top 5 reasons to be thankful. We told them they had to come up with the list together.

1) They are grateful I am not cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner this year (last year was a bit of disaster!)

2) Getting to live on a farm and be a part of agriculture

3) Living close to their grandparents and extended family

4) Thanksgiving vacation!

5) For Joe, our Golden Retriever, he has been a great pal to my kids