Hope everyone is enjoying this fall! We have been working hard on our ongoing projects around our house. As I mentioned earlier this month, we are planning a major renovation and addition on a family farm house for my family. Polly and I have been busy looking at design plans making sure we get it right in addition to being affordable! It has been a fun, yet challenging project.

For Sweetest Day, Cameron and I planted 8 sunset maple trees and 1 buckeye tree (by special request) down our new driveway-Polly has been commenting (for the past 17 years) how she has always wanted a tree lined lane—Cameron, his dog Joe and I got busy on this project while the girls where gone to a fall softball tournament. Cameron is really proud of our accomplishments.







Alex has been playing in fall softball tournaments on the weekends this month and she’s having a good time. Last weekend, she was able to make progress towards marking items off her bucket list of things she wants to accomplish. She hit a Grand Slam in a tournament game and she has started to pitch in games. I wasn’t there for the big hit, but I knew something big had happened when she called me to tell me. I wish I had recorded the conversation-it was priceless!



We have been walking pigs for the North American next week too. The kids are excited; my mother in law is excited- all to go to Louisville. If you show pigs and haven’t been to this show I would recommend you go. It is a great time! We have seen some spectacular sunsets recently, here is one that we caught while walking pigs.



On Saturday 10/30/10, we will be hosting free show cattle in clinic at Campbellco in Cedarville, Ohio featuring Kirk Stierwalt. The weather forecast looks great for tomorrow, we will provide lunch (shoestring catering), lots of giveaways from Weaver Leather, EZall, and Honor Show Chow. There will also have a Cimarron Trailer on display. Stop by if you get a chance, Kirk does a great job and anyone from novice to expert can learn from him. We would love to see you tomorrow—If you have questions or need directions please give me a call 937-313-2973.

We have are having a Super September here in Ohio. The kids are back into the swing of school. I have had the opportunity to recently go to Alexandria, Louisiana & Lubbock, Texas for Honor Show Chow Clinics.

At home, everyone has been busy. I am grateful Cameron loves agriculture because he is a huge help to me—especially when I am out of town. He takes his dog, Joe, and they go and check the cattle every day. They do a good job!



Fall is Cameron’s favorite season of the year-mostly because of harvesting. He loves to ride in the combine and sometimes he gets lucky and he gets to drive it!



In other big projects at home, we have decided to move into one of our family’s farm houses. The house was built in the 1890’s by a great, great, great aunt and is structurally sound. We are just beginning renovation on interior of the existing structure and hopefully will be able to start construction on the addition before it freezes this fall. My wife keeps deciding that addition isn’t big enough, so it continues to grow.

In the new addition, we are planning for a new kitchen, family room, walk out basement—and the part that everyone is most excited about is a Mudroom, where we can all leave our smelly barn clothes/boots. We have lived in the same home since we were married and we outgrew the space several years ago, so everyone is very exciting about having more space and the upgrades-especially central air-conditioning! We have lots of decisions to make and it is challenging but fun. There are times when my wife wishes the DIY channel would come out and film “run my renovation” where the viewers vote and make decisions for the home owners. This project is very exciting, and we will keep you updated on our progress.



Since this picture was taken we have demolished the little barn on the left and trimmed the big tree back. We have taken out the fence all around the house and put in a new driveway.

We are also in our countdown to getting our pigs ready to show in early November at the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky.

This week was a week of new beginnings for my family. My daughter started High School, my son started Junior High and their Grandmother gets to enjoy the part of retirement she treasures most -sleeping in (she doesn’t have to get anyone on the later morning bus). I am pretty certain they were all excited for different reasons! Alex and Cameron both had summer homework due the first day of class—my wife and I didn’t ever recall having a homework assignment over the summer.

Our state fair went well. Cameron won 2 classes and had a Reserve crossbred division winner in the Junior Show barrow show. Alex had a class winner and a 3rd in the open barrow show. In the breeding gilt show they had a York class winner.

It was a good week at the Ohio State Fair. They made new fair friends, connected with existing friends—I told them some of my closest friends I met during the fair showing livestock while in 4-H when I was young-and they are still my very good friends today. Of course they looked at me funny when I tried to share my wisdom. I even reminded them if it wasn’t for 4-H, I wouldn’t have met their mother!

Last week I went to Alexandria, Louisiana for a show feed clinic. The clinic was held at LSU and we had a great crowd.

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!

County & State fairs are just around the corner. My advice this week is to get your final days feeding plan together. How many days do you have until your fair? When you are looking at your projects what do you think it is going to take to fine tune your project? Do you have weight concerns or are you on target?

I have looked at several families’ animals and have been making feeding plans for them. Based on what I have been seeing the weights are good, some need to be softer, others may need muscle shape. I can tell that everyone is working hard and taking excellent care of their projects. If you need advice on your project or have feeding questions for the final weeks before your fair please email or call me, send me some photos or even a short video. I would be more than happy to help!

Last year, I mentioned the importance of demonstrating what I like to call “good swineman-ship.” Each year, fair visitors will stop and ask us questions about our pigs, I remind my kids not everyone lives on a farm and many Americans are more than one generation removed from the farm and that means this might be the only time they see livestock except what they see in the news or on T.V.

Please take the time to tell your story, be honest with your visitors and share specifics about how well your family has been taking care of your animals at home. This continues to be very important as there is a lot of negative media about swine production and agriculture. It is important for the public to know what good care you give to your projects at home and what they are seeing on the TV definitely does not apply how all animals are raised.

Around our house, the weather is either hot and humid or raining and humid! Do you remember the old saying about corn “knee high by the 4th of July?”… Well, our corn is tasseling now. Alex celebrated her 14th birthday over the weekend at a softball tournament. The birthday girl had 2 big hits—one should have been a home run, but ended up as a triple (she stopped at every base to look where the ball was instead of running!). Cameron is counting the days down to getting his cast off his arm this week.

We had sad news earlier this month, our older dog died—he had been my daughter’s faithful pal since she was a very little girl. The same lady where our older dog came from had one pup left in a litter and we went up to look at her. We ended up bringing her home, her name is Ash, and so far she has been a real joy. So far, she has demonstrated she is smart and has good puppy manners. She has been up to the local gas station/coffee shop with my Dad and has been to several softball games. We joked about teaching her to bark at the umpire when he makes a bad call!



Have a great week!

We had a great time at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa last week—my mother in law made the trip out with us. We joked that we were on a Clark Griswold style trip across the Midwest because my kids were threatening to tie my mother in law up on the roof of the vehicle because she need to stop every 1-2 hours.

My kids absolutely loved their experience at the World Pork Expo and have come up with a list to share with you.

Top 5 reasons you should go to the World Pork Expo according to my kids:

1). The food! You will find the best pork bbq on the fairgrounds. Cameron hunted out the bbq teams and had the best ribs, pulled pork and sausage straight off the smokers. My wife and I joke that these kind people took pity on him because he broke his arm at school a few days before we left to go out to Iowa. Also, the Louisiana group cooked delicious Cajun meals everyday-we had crawfish etouffee, shrimp gumbo, and jambalaya.





2). Farm Toy Show! If you collect toy farm equipment, this is the place for you. Each year there is a super collection of farm toy vendors who bring out the best, hard to find, and must have toys for the carpet farmer or collector in each of us.

3). The Junior Show and Breed Shows–My kids are grateful to participate in programs like the National Junior Swine Association and Team Purebred. These programs are designed to offer networking among young swine enthusiasts as well as educational and competitive opportunities to promote the swine industry. They met new friends and reconnected with old friends from all across the US who all share an interest in agriculture. We had a great week, Alex and Cameron had Reserve Champion Hampshire Gilt in the Open show and placed 2nd in class in the Junior Show.



4). Trade Show—here you will find things that you never know you needed. My kids came back with their bags filled and their arms so full of stuff that we wondered where we were going to sit in the vehicle on the way home. In all seriousness though, every product associated with swine production (that I could think of) was there—it’s a great way to ask questions about each product in person and network with other producers about their experiences.



5). The Iowa weather. This past week we saw temperatures in the 90’s with humidity in the 90% plus. There was severe weather warnings every day of our trip. You never know what to expect with the weather in Des Moines, one day we were in sweltering heat and we were soaked with sweat and then would be a “super soaker rain” (that’s what my kids call it) then we’d have to put on a sweatshirt because the temperature would drop and cool off, then take it off in a few hours when it got hot and muggy again. On the day we arrived, I thought we might see a tornado, the skies looked ominous. Here is a photo my son took of some weather moving in. On the day we left, we had to drive thru standing water as high as my running boards on our vehicle—the kids thought it was cool and my mother in law not so much!

On the schedule for this week is the Honor Show Chow VIP event. Hope to have some photos to share with you next week!

My tip of the week: We have been reaching temperatures in the 90’s be sure to keep your pigs cool. I tell my kids Cool pigs = Happy Pigs. Our pigs have fans on them inside of an old bank barn during the day so they stay nice and cool. Refrain from exercising your pigs during the heat of the day, we walk pigs in the early morning and after it cools off in the evening. Also, with all of the rain we have had recently, if you keep your pigs outside you will need to worm them. Good Luck!!