2011 Gilt show

Girls in the Grand Gilt drive

Gilt show was Friday, was going to post but WiFi is spotty here, and I wanted to put up a picture that had all four kids that showed but my memory card is acting weird.
It was a great day, Elizabeth had Champion Hamp gilt, Champion Poland gilt, Sara had Champion Hereford gilt, Jayme had Champion Chester Gilt, and Matthew had Champion Berk gilt, so 5 breeds in the Grand Champion gilt drive, had to find a kid to show one of our girls. Cool thing is, the Poland and the Berk are both out of gilts we showed last year, so much fun to see second and even third generations from the same line do well, the Poland last year was out of the Poland we had the year before, she is actually a third generation to be shown by us.  Ended the day with the overall Reserve grand gilt, with Eby's hamp, the belted pig in the picture. She is a great gilt, only got beat by a crossbred, so very close!!!
So very proud of the kids and to see their efforts rewarded!!

Friday's the day

Our county fair starts Friday, gonna be a hot one too. Hoping it subsides before to much of the fair comes to past. It is a stressful situation to begin with, months of hard work by the kids coming to an end, waiting for one mans opinion that day. Heat adds to the discomfort of all involved. Looking forward to watching them show their projects, regardless of outcome I'm proud of them. Want to try to blog through the fair, daily posts, well maybe several times through the week. Gonng be makin' memories with my kiddos!!

the ant and the grasshopper

The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER  This one is a little different .....  Two Different Versions ....  Two Different Morals  OL D VERSION  The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE OLD STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.  CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America  is stunned by the sharp contrast.  How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?  Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not EasyBeing Green...' ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the SEIU group singing, We shall overcome. Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright  has the group kneel down to pray for thegrasshopper's sake, while he damns the ants. President Obama condems the ant  and blames  President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope  for the grasshopper's plight.  Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid  exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.  Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number  of green bugs and,  having  nothing left to  pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government GreenCzar and given  to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading  friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is  in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't  maintain it. The ant has  disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper  is found  dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over  by a gang of spiders  who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous  and peaceful, neighborhood.  The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest  of the free world with it.  MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be careful how you vote in 2012.