Last Pig Show

Joshua had his last pig show this past weekend. He went out with a bang.

Bree placed 4th in class and ended up selling for $1000 dollars to the same guy that bought Blanche last year! I was SO happy about that! They keep their names and they have a good home! You can see Blanche here when you scroll down to the gilt section. Bree will be there soon! Dan is an awesome guy and I'm so glad he has our two girls!

Aubie placed first in class and ended up with another Reserve Champion title to his name!

He is such a handsome boy. I'm talking about the pig y'all! ;)

Just Kidding. My Josh is the most handsome thing I have ever seen.

Sadly, it is the end of the road for dear ol' Aubie. He is a barrow and that means he is pretty much good for nothing.... except bacon.

It was fun while it lasted and I can't wait to have pigs of our own one day! I know Josh will miss it.

Pig Show!

First off,

It was only last week when someone came trudging onto my blog and made me feel as if I couldn't write what I feel for being watched like a hawk and picked apart. Well guess what, I don't care. If you want to come onto my blog and mock me- that is perfectly fine with me! You are only wasting your time and brain cells.

I only hope that one day you will be as mature as I am and have a relationship with someone that makes you as happy as I have been with my boyfriend.

I also can only pray that you will never be treated as I have been treated by you, but I can hope differently.

As one of my favorite bands sings  "I don't think that I could be so Cold hearted".

That being said! Moving on.

On a lighter note, and the reason I started to write this post, Josh and I had a very busy and successful weekend!!

As many of you know Joshua raises showpigs. Duroc showpigs. He had a very bad incident where his main breeding sow and best momma pig miscarried. She was carrying the pigs for the show that happened this past weekend. Since she miscarried, there were no pigs for the show this past weekend.

That all changed when Josh and I made the long trip to Butler, KY. I could have sworn I wrote a blog post on that, but I can't seem to find one! I'll just post a quick recap! :)

 

We left the boring flatness of middle GA and headed toward the gorgeous mountains of TN and KY.

We got to our destination and picked up all these little piggies!

Most of them are for kids that show pigs and wanted a KY pig that Josh picked out for them.

The two 'red' pigs at the top left corner are Josh's two little show pigs. 

I loved that trip. It was fun and relaxing.

Josh and I both agree that roadtrips are our favorite things to do. Just the two of us, no one else to worry about!

While we were at the barn in KY, Josh had to pick out his pigs. He was looking for a gilt and a barrow. He was had chosen his gilt and was trying to figure out which barrow he wanted. He and I narrowed it down to two, then, boars. He has since castrated the poor fella making him a barrow. Anyways, it was down to the two. Josh couldn't decided which one he wanted for sure. I knelt down beside him and tried to help him figure out the flaws of each and the positives of each. At some point, after he was still undecided, I just blurted out... "That one! He's got the best... everything" and he said "Looks good to me!"

So Aubie it was. Bet you can't guess where I got that precious name from!

I named the gilt Bree and the rest is history!

 

Bree

Josh and I spent some time walking them and Josh fed them up the way he knows how and off to the show we went. Since the two pigs were litter mates, they are very much the same size. He was sure they would be in the same class (since classes are done by pig weight), but they just happened to be in two separate classes! He took Aubie out first. The second he walked out of the holding pen the judge pointed at him. He was pinned! Yes, my little Aubie has a chance to win this thing! (Every pig that the judge likes he sends to a different holding area to look at them again after all the other pigs are out of the way. He has to look at about 20 different pigs in each class, sometimes more, and pick 8 of those to place.)

I go get Bree and bring her around into the holding pens to get her ready to go into the ring for the next class. 

They let all the 'pinned' pigs out of the ring and the judge looks over them for a while. He slowly pins certain pigs again which are the pigs that are 4th-8th places.

Josh and Aubie are still in the ring. 

Then the judge looks at one guy and holds up three fingers. He turns around and quickly flashes two fingers at the other showman and one finger at Josh. He won!

Now it's Bree's turn! Guess what, same thing! 

We have 2 first place pigs and there are only 2 classes of Durocs. Josh automatically wins Grand Champion and Reserve Champion for the Duroc breed! It was just a matter of picking which one was Grand and which one was Reserve. Aubie ended up with the Grand and Bree was Reserve. 

I'm so proud of Josh! He won BOTH Grand and Reserve! He was pretty excited too.

Sorry for the horrible quality of this picture! I was the only help Josh had and I didn't have time to fumble with my camera, alas the cellphone was there.

Since Josh won the overall Duroc show, he had to stick around and show in the overall final drive. That means there will be one pig from each breed (all the Grand Champions) showing together in the ring for the judge to pick out the Grand Champion Overall Pig. 

Josh didn't expect to win this because the Duroc never does, and just as suspected the Crossbred won the Grand and the Hampshire won the Reserve.

Overall, it was a great (& long) Saturday!

Big thanks to Clint and family for helping Josh get the pigs to the showgrounds while he was on his way back from Athens!

The rest of the weekend was great as well. I am now sitting here at work waiting until I can see Josh again! I miss that boy when he is gone...

But, so happy I can call him mine! :)

I think we might just have to have some little pig showers of our own one day! Don't worry, they will show horses too!

Photos from this week!

Excuse the poor quality... They are from Josh's cell phone!

Is he not adorable?

He's growing like a weed.

He has man paws.

His legs are like stilts.

He gets so excited when he sees me... that he empties his whole bladder! 

Thanks Latch. What a great gift! :)

This is me and my little Matilda!

One day... she is going to be a fabulous show pig.

For now, she is my fabulous pet pig.

She never squeals when you hold her.

She's mine. Sort of ;)

Hopefully she'll be Josh's good friends pig instead of some random kid I don't know. Then I'll be able to visit her whenever I want!

This was Matilda exactly 1 month ago... She was so little!!

This was Matilda in April. She was itsy bitsy!

Her wittle ears were still floppy and everything!

My babies!

Lola and Latch.

And I didn't even mean to name them with "L's".

They are the best puppies in the whole world.

Except when Lola got in the trash today.

She got a whooping, but not from me!

From Grandma Jan.

I wondered why she was all happy X10 to see me today when I got home. Baaad dog.

I'm going to see my sister this weekend!!!!!! SO excited! Sadly, it's been a while since I went to her house in North Alabama. I always have fun when I go up there and I'm so excited that Josh gets to experience small town mountain life! I'm glad I have the chance to get up there! I just wish it was cooler! And I get to see her next weekend too!! Double whammy! :)

Belted Babes

Litter number 2!

Me and "Pumba"

They're THE cutest!!!!

Me and little Matilda!!

count: 10

6 boys and 4 girls

Duroc X Hampshire

It's That Time Again

Precious, sweet, sleepy, 3 day old baby pig.

Blanche

Current Temperature:  64 degrees

It's like heaven. I sure do wish I could be riding my horse!! Med surge and work are stopping me. 

Maybe Sunday. Maybe. Med Surge will really be making me feel guilty if I do though.

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend! Blanche is now up in her new home in Illinois... I'm quite sure she's enjoying the 30 degree weather. Brrrr!

Blanche being a little sweetheart, letting Josh brush her!

Gotta get those shavings off of you Blanche!

I had to include this one because Josh said he liked it!

By looking at this picture... you can see just the reason why Blanche should have won the whole show!!! Look how square she is when she is walking. Look how wide! You can't get much more square than that! If the judge would have seen this picture.... sure winner!

Congrats to Josh!! He got Reserve Champion Bred and Owned.

If anybody knows how to breed Durocs.... It's my Joshua!

Josh and Blanche showing in the Open show. You paint their number on the side of them so that all the big time buyers will know which pig is which! Obviously it worked since she sold for a decent chunk of change!

View form the stands. (Can you tell I was tired of standing and taking pictures!?)  :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing Josh and Blanche. Who wouldn't enjoy looking at that precious couple!?  

We'll miss you Blanche!

Show Pig Success!!

Josh had another show this weekend. It was the Southeast Regional NJSA show. He rocked that thing.

I took many pictures, but as always the pictures look the same! Maybe I will post a few later.

Like the show 2 weekends ago, Josh and Blanche were stars.

He placed 2nd in his Duroc class. He didn't get to go up for Grand or Reserve... this is a much bigger show and it's a lot harder to get that far. Blanche and Josh did awesome though! I must say, I think they could have won the whole Duroc show if it were not for the judge... He didn't know much about Durocs.

Josh also won Reserve Champion Bred & Owned. That is an accomplishment! He should have gotten the Grand... but the NJSA pulled him from the class because some irresponsible people waited until the class was already in front of the judge to decide that they were supposed to be in that class. It was the girl that won 1st of Josh's previous class... he got second so he got pulled from the Bred & Owned. The judge picked her to win Grand so Josh got to go in for Reserve and he got picked.  Not fair, but whatever!

Blanche was also entered into the open show. Once again, 2nd in class.

Since Blanche was entered into the open show, she would be in the sale later that night. After a trip to Longhorn's with Josh's family we went to the sale. Blanche was the 3rd pig to go through the sale for the Durocs. That's a really good position! The grand champion goes first, then reserve, then Josh got to take Blanche.  (He usually is in the middle or near to the end of the Durocs, which kinda stinks).

Blanche sold for.... are you ready?......  $1000!!

That is the most he's ever gotten out of one of those sales! It was amazing.

But really... that's nothing compared to the pig that sold for $205,000 at the louisville show. ha!

We met the buyers afterwards and they were really nice! I told her that she had a name and that I just had to tell them! They stopped me and asked me my name and then said Well dang we've already had a Molly! (they were going to name her after me!! aww :)
So I told them her name was Blanche and I was so excited to find out that they  name ALL their pigs! I've always gotten some weird looks when I tell people the pig's names!
"Oh, that's Penelope!"
"Huh?"

So Blanche is going to a good home. We got their contact information and plan to keep in touch. Hopefully I'll be able to see Blanche on their website real soon! And her future babies!

It was a good weekend for Josh's Showpigs! Not only did Blanche do well, but a few pigs that he sold this year and some offspring of some of his past show pigs placed!  One of them was the Grand Champion for the Durocs! That gives Josh a good 'breeder name' the more that his line of pigs win!

Hopefully the 2 litters that are on the way will be just as promising for him!

Inside of Josh's World

I think I've been around my mom and Blair too much... when I typed Josh's World... I sang in my head "Elmo's wooorld".

Most of you know that Josh raises and shows Pigs, but some of you don't know that. Well, today I am going to take you through a day in the life of showing a pig!

After the pigs are transported to the fairgrounds, fed, watered and bedded down they are left there to rest. They will have a very busy tomorrow ahead of them!

Josh loves going to pig shows. He could spend all day, 8am-12am, out there. Yes, I said 12am. Which reminds me... that's how long we were there one night for his Showmanship class! Actually longer.

Meet Blanche. 

We have just arrived at the show barn and Blanche has been munching on her feed and drinking a little water. She is no where near show ready. Look at all those shavings!!! She has got to have a bath. Show pigs are all about pretty. Believe it or not. I always talk about how nasty and smelly they are (which is still true), but it takes a lot of prepping to get these puppies nice looking. The big key factor is FEED! Josh knows how to feed a pig to keep him/her looking their best.

Josh takes her to the wash racks and breaks out the Mane n' Tail. Yeah, you thought that stuff was for horses huh! Well, you'll see that Joshy here uses a lot of horse products. Maybe that's because he's got a horsey girlfriend :)

After the soap.... the scrubbing

and the rinsing

After Blanche finished her bath, Josh used a scrap to take all the water off of her. Another horsey item! He had to buy a wooden one because he broke my black one that I let him borrow. So really, the cool new wooden sweat scrap is mine! Mwahaha

Now, Blanch needs some shine.

You spray that white stuff on her and brush it and... and wahbam! Shiny and pretty pig!

Lola came too!!

"How dare that human not pet me when she walked by"

After Blanche is all pretty and shiny, she's ready to go to the show ring!

Josh walks her down the aisle a few times before heading to the ring.

Waiting to go into the ring.

Josh is the first one out! Look at that smirk on the judges face...

He knows Josh because Josh has been showing for what seems like forever!

These were the judge's words, "You still showin'!?"

Notice: More pigs coming out... Judge you're supposed to be looking at the pigs not chit chatting with Joshua!

The point of a pig show is to get your pig to walk in front of the judge.

See all those other pigs.... they get in the way! You have to beat them... you have to get your pig if front of the judge and get that judge a lot of different views of your pig. Front, back, side, other side... you get it.

See! Other side!

The backside

They like to look at the back side. See how wide the pig is and she how they walk. 

Josh ended up being pinned in the second spot!

That's a good sign! 

I thought he would let them back out and Josh would get a chance to get 1st place... but he placed them as he pinned them in this class. The only class he did that way!

So, Blanche ended up being 2nd in her class!

She was in class 2 of 2 in the Duroc division.

So, here's the sort of confusing part. Since Blanche got 2nd, it was a possibility for Blanche to get reserve. They call for the 2 first place Durocs to come into the ring. So the winner of Class 1 and the winner of Class 2 go in. Whichever pig the judge picks wins Grand Champion Duroc. For Reserve Champion Duroc, the 2nd place pig of the Grand Champion Duroc's class gets to go into the ring and compete against the pig that is left (the 1st place from the other class).

So, the winners went in..... 

 here are Josh and Blanche (getting fueled up) waiting to see if the winner of Class 2 gets picked.

the judge picked the winner of class 2! That means that Josh gets to go back into the ring to try and get Reserve Grand Champion Duroc!

Do good Blanche!! 

Josh and Blanche on the left, going up against the 1st place Duroc. of Class 1

You can just guess who the Judge picked! :)

Josh and Blanche!!

Congrats Blanche! You did good!

Lola got a picture with the winner too!!

haha!

Now we all go back to the barn and get ready to go home!

I'll make it really difficult for you. Since Josh and Blanche won Reserve Grand Champion Duroc they had to wait around all day for the final show to see who won the Supreme Champion. All the Grand Champions of each breed (Duroc, York, Hampshire, Crossbred) went into the ring and the judge picked the Supreme Champion. If the Supreme Champion was the Duroc... then Josh and Blanche would go into the ring and try to get Reserve Supreme Champion against the other breed Grand Champions. The Judge ended up picking the Hampshire, so Josh and Blanche didn't get a chance to go for the Reserve Supreme.

But that was a.o.k with us! Blanche did good getting Reserve Grand Champion Duroc!!

So you may be thinking, what is the point?

Well, Josh does it mostly for fun. The same reason I like showing horses. I loved showing horses and I wouldn't mind getting back into. Ever since I started helping Josh at the shows when his dad would be out of town... I realized just why he stayed around those stinky pigs! It is so much fun getting those pigs ready for a show! 

And there always is a reward!

Feed money!