Archives March 2015

Last night after work I tried to get some more work done on the shed/coop.  On the way home I grabbed some hardware cloth with smaller, 1/2″ squares, instead of the 1 inch stuff we got at Rural King.  The 1/2″ stuff is more secure and actually easier to bend to fit.

I stapled the top of the wire to the platform.  I pushed the bottom of the fencing into the trench in such a way that it folded with the excess extending forward.  This layout makes digging under the fencing next to impossible for predators that can dig. Cindy and I then back filled the trench, giving the chickens what will be a secure safe haven under the coop.  I had enough fencing to do two of the three sides.

Yesterday my automatic chicken door showed up.  Getting the door assembly mounted into the side wall of the shed will require some of my construction improvisation skills since it is designed to be mounted in conventional wood construction.  I already have a rough outline of how I can do it in my head.  I shot a quick video demonstrating the coolness of the robo-chicken door.

Last night we watched the Walking Dead season finale.  The 90 minutes passed by very quickly.  The people we wanted to die were not on the hit list unfortunately.  As any good season finale, it left Cindy and I wishing the next episodes weren’t going to be 6 months away.

Saturday Cindy and I were up at 4AM for the race.  We set the alarm around 15 minutes earlier because we didn’t load the truck the night before.  We got on site a little after 5:15 and got busy.

This race has the nicest registration area accommodations of any of our events as it takes place inside of Artis-Naples, the home of Naples Philharmonic orchestra.  The area that we normally use for registration had some other stuff stuck there so Cindy and I had to do quite a bit of rearranging.

As I mentioned last week, this was the first race where I had Cindy run a split timing point for me.  She handled the task well, we captured a split time for everyone we had chip finish time for.  She added a nice touch by writing some words of encouragement for the runners on the street ahead of the split in sidewalk chalk.  The winner of the race crushed the field, finishing almost four full minutes ahead of the second place runner.

Cindy and I got home between 10 and 10:30 and got busy.  I worked on the post race processing and Cindy started on some of the chores.  Mid-afternoon we had some errands to run, at the tail end of them we picked up Nicki and Sadie for a two night visit.  Originally we had loose ideas about going to the movies Saturday night but those plans were abandoned later in the day when we both admitted that sitting in a theater would surely result in both of us dozing off, regardless of the quality of the movie. Instead we watched The Game Stands Tall, my latest Netflix rental, a movie about a high school football team that held an incredible 150 game win streak.  The movie was solid and inspiring, a good B+ rental.

Sunday was a really good day.  The weather was beautiful with cool temps and low humidity.  It was almost perfect conditions for a run so that is what Cindy and I did, logging the 5.5 mile track and back course.  The last mile and a half was pretty grueling as it was right into the face of a strong headwind.  I can only imagine how it would have felt to ride bike into it.

We decided we would do something we always do at a time we never do it, go to a 1:05 matinee, making up for our missed Saturday movie.  We took the SSR with the top down, taking advantage of what may be the last of the truly awesome weather of the spring.  We went to see Insurgent, the second part of the Divergent series.  I wasn’t all that thrilled with the first film.  I found Insurgent more entertaining for sure but still nothing that would approach A quality.  I will give this one a solid B+.

It was odd and a bit disorienting getting out of a movie at 3:15 in the afternoon.  We got home and had plenty of time to get more stuff done.  I was outside for awhile, first burying the extension cord that will provide power to the new shed/chicken coop.  I then grabbed a shovel and dug a trench around three sides of the shed platform.  The reason for doing so is to bury the fencing which will be used to keep digging predators out of the area.  The chickens seem to really like hanging out under the platform so we are leaving the chicken run side open so they can do so if they want to. Cindy was cooking/baking like mad in the kitchen making an awesome dinner and cake.  I was the lucky benefactor of her efforts.

I wound down my Sunday playing a couple hours of WoW which was a nice way to decompress.  It was the end to a Sunday that had almost the perfect balance of exercise, work, and play.

We still have not addressed our rooster situation.  Both of us feel very guilty about the prospect of removing the birds from our backyard which they have certainly come to enjoy.  We need to make sure that they are going to a new home where they will be free to breed and live their lives instead of becoming chicken nuggets.

Last night after work I got home a little late since I needed to drop off race materials at the running store for early packet pick up today.  After getting changed I immediately let the chickens out so they could get in an hour or two of free ranging time which they have come to love.

My task at hand was getting power to the new shed.  It will be needed for the automatic chicken door I have en route to my house.  In addition power in the shed will be helpful if we want to throw things like a fan or even a web cam inside the structure.

To accomplish this my plan was to tap into the power line I already have buried and run to the small shed.  My low tech method of cutting the ends off of buried extension cord surely is not up to code but has held up fine for the 6 or 7 years it has been in place.

I dug up the connection point at the small shed and wired in the cut end of the new 100 foot cord I bought after work.  A quick test confirmed juice was now flowing to the new shed.  I drilled a small hole in the corner of the floor to get the power inside.  I still need to get the new cord buried which will require a hand edger tool to accomplish.  Basically I make a slit in the ground, rock the tool back and forth and stuff the cord into it.  The grass quickly will create a green stitch over the line I cut.

Before I get to start enjoying my weekend we have a 10K race to time tomorrow morning.  Cindy always helps me out with both pre-race prep as well as whatever I need her to do on race day.  Tomorrow I am having her do something new, set up and run the half way split timing point.  Basically she will be taking one of the timing boxes to the halfway point and set up the equipment. After the last runner crosses the mats she captures the data to a USB drive and brings it back to me.  We aren’t advertising the split as part of the race so if something goes wrong it isn’t the end of the world.

After the race is out of the way we have lots of stuff to keep us busy, lots….

The past few days I have noticed that right around dusk a small rabbit has been hanging out right around the large shed.  I am pretty sure there is a rabbit hole under there.  Well last night the chickens were still walking around as the sun was setting.  We had their coop open.  The rabbit saw that as an opportunity to go into the coop and start chowing down on pellet food we give the chicks.  Two of the chickens saw this and came running up to the coop, watching the rabbit eat their food with what I assume is a chicken “WTF” expression on their face.

I got an email from the company that processed the party van donation on behalf of the Humane Society stating that it was sold for $1100, meaning the HS will get a nice little chunk of dough.  I am sure it was wholesaled.  I am curious if it will be back on Florida roads soon.  If so I hope the new owner wears their seat belt.

This weekend is one of the club’s bigger races, a 10K that is held at Artis-Naples.  I am having to get creative with the disposable timing bibs we use to time races.  I only have around 540 of our normal timing bibs left and we currently have a little over 500 10K runners registered, meaning I will run out of bibs by race day.  To get by I am going to have to redeploy timing bibs that were left over from last year’s Thanksgiving race.  It’s not an ideal scenario but one that came about because a new race was added to the club schedule after we made the last bib order, throwing our usage number estimates out of whack.  Using the leftover bibs turns into a lot of extra work for me since they are not sequential.  I need to do a lot of manual tracking and assigning of bibs to make sure all the numbers jive at the end.

In a couple weeks Cindy will be breaking away from the chains of a normal 9-5 job.  The big goal is for her to get her trainer certification complete which she has been working on for a month or so.  The timing of the change will actually work out well for the house flooring project. She will be able to be home while the installers are there, meaning I won’t have to burn tons of PTO to get the project done.  Cindy also has a list of home improvement/chores that she wants to work on while she has the time.

She will of course be working at least part time down the road but hopefully it will be something that offers flexibility and is more in line with Cindy’s strengths and abilities.  Personally I would be ok with her being my full time house slave.

I forgot to mention that we watched Dumb and Dumber To over the weekend.  Of course it could not live up to the original which was one of the funnier movies I have ever seen.  Still I thought they did a decent job although Cindy would probably not agree with the overall B rating I am giving it.

Yesterday marked two years since Cindy went to a Tarpons game with me which evolved unexpectedly into something much more.  It seems bizarre that two years have already passed since that night.

Cindy’s devotion, support, and love she shows for me everyday has changed the way I bump along in life for the better, the much better.  As I have said before, our symbiotic relationship just works for each of us.  We don’t need a lot of outside distractions to keep us happy.  We are content together pretty much anywhere, whether that place is driving across the country, working in the yard, or just sitting on the couch. In two years we have already accumulated an overflowing basket of great memories.  I am looking forward to filling many more baskets in the years to come.

Last night was not a good one from a sleep perspective.  I woke up at 1:15 to take a leak.  As I laid down I recall thinking to myself, “wow it would suck if I couldn’t fall back asleep”  Well of course this is often a self fulfilling prophecy.  I wound up laying there for at least two hours trying to fall back asleep.  Several times I was on the verge of rolling out of bed to go do some middle of the night WoW’ing.  The two things that stopped me were the repercussions if I only got three hours of sleep and my desire to not penalize Cindy for my restlessness.  She is a very light sleeper and it is nearly impossible for me to get out of bed and close the door without her waking up.  I will more than likely be grabbing some coffee for the drive home so I don’t doze off.

Speaking of coffee I have a little rant about the Dunkin Donuts near my office, which is the location I typically hit if I need coffee after work.  I have had issues with the staff that works at this time of day for awhile, they are slow, inept and weird.  Well the other day they annoyed me enough to fire off a complaint about the location on the DD website.

I was the only person at the drive thru and placed my simple order for a single large coffee.  I pull up to the window and after a short delay I pay for the coffee.  The clerk then steps away from the window for a minute or two and then comes back without coffee in hand.  He tells me I should pull forward to the white line, 20 feet ahead of me and they would bring the coffee out to me. (they did this once before).

This act made no sense to me.  My pulling up does nothing to increase efficiency as my vehicle was still blocking the drive thru lane.  All this did was allow the one car behind me to pay for their coffee and wait at the window instead of behind me waiting at the window.  Plus it obviously takes longer to walk the coffee out of the store than to just hand it to me through the window,  I waited at least 5 minutes to have my coffee brought out.  When I took a sip and it tasted like hot water with coffee flavor I mentally committed to sharing my experience with someone that could influence future staffing decisions at the location.

So I spent my vacation day trying to finish up the shed build.  The first portion of the morning was spent trying out to figure out a way to make the two front doors close securely.  Because of the misalignment of the floor layout the right door was a fraction of an inch high, causing it to get hung up on the frame.

My remediation involved several modifications. I did a lot of hacking and cutting at the mount for the right door hinge.  I cut out the floor to allow it to slide more to the right which in turn would cause the top edge of the door to drop down slightly.  I also inserted a shim in the right side of the front gable to give me another few fractions of an inch of clearance. At the end of my hacking, slashing, shimming and wedging I was able to completely close the right door and utilize the slide latch.  Doing so takes a little extra effort but it’s functional.

The remainder of the build was straight forward where I installed the windows and translucent skylights that are on the eave of the roof.  I finished up the shed build late in the morning.  All that was left to do was to secure the shed floor to the wood platform with lag screws.

Yesterday I also worked on finishing up Cindy’s pull up bar.  The 4″ x 6″ post was cemented in place on Saturday, it felt quit solidly secured to the ground by yesterday.   Since I have built a number of bar structures at this point, adding a 7 foot high bar to the collection was not all that difficult. I had to buy a long bolt for the pull up bar as well as the lag screws for the shed at the local hardware store.  I was surprised how expensive lag screws were at nearly $3 a pop.

I finished up the bar install.  The 7 foot bar is too low for me to do pull ups comfortably but should work out great for Cindy.  I recorded the install on video.

I then drove the 8 lag screws into the shed floor, locking it in place with the wood platform.  I would like to do some additional bracing to lock the walls to the floor although the shed supposedly has a wind load rating of 65 mph as is which should hold up to most storms short of hurricane strength.

Cleaning up the scattered tools and supplies from the two projects took a loooong time.  I bet in total I spent close to two hours.  30 minutes alone was spent cutting up the huge shed boxes with a utility knife so they could fit in the recycle bins.  By the time I officially called my outdoor work as done it was 5PM.

I did get a chance to check out the shed for leaks when a pretty strong afternoon storm blew in.  I got inside the shed as the wind and rain banged off the walls, windows and roof.  The roof looked 100% dry which I was quite relieved about, especially with the two large skylights up there.  Despite some gusty winds the shed walls appeared rock solid.  I felt no movement whatsoever.

When Cindy got home she was quite happy with the fruits of my labor. She was relieved that my hacks were able to compensate for the floor layout problem and she loved her new pull up bar.  It felt good to be done with what was three of the hardest days of labor in recent history.  I can hardly wait to get back to the gym today so I can rest.

I also made a video documenting the platform and shed install if you find that sort of thing interesting.

This is going to be brief because I still have many hurdles to clear this fine Monday.

Sunday morning a second member of our flock of four started crowing, Curly, indicating we had yet another rooster.  Unfortunately we are all but sure that Kathy, the biggest  of all of the chickens is a rooster as well based on her huge feet and feather layout.  Cindy and I are both very frustrated as we have grown attached to all the chickens  at this point.  We don’t enjoy swapping them out like they are a bad light bulb.  We both want to get our next birds, preferably chicks from a place that actually sexes the birds scientifically.

So both Saturday and Sunday were just overflowing with work.  I knew building a raised 8×10 platform and shed was going to be time consuming and hard work.  I didn’t think it was going to be quite this hard however.

The platform build went relatively smoothly.  The construction process started out in the driveway where I hoped to find an 8′ x 10′ flat piece of concrete to build the frame on upside down.  That proved to be more challenging than I expected.

Once I had the outer frame together and four of the legs attached it was already getting heavy, we figured we needed to move it to the back yard while Cindy was still able to lift it.  The way we got it to the back yard would have made for a funny video clip.  We lifted one side of it onto the back of the Tacoma.  The frame was far too big to fit on there so I got behind and became the human trailer.  As Cindy drove slowly around the back of the house I walked behind holding the other half of the frame.

Once we were in the back yard we got busy.  I built the entire platform using my mental plan which was modified several times on the go.  After digging the holes and putting the frame two feet deep into the ground we used the two bags of concrete we had which was not enough to fill everything.  That was ok since we could pick up more when we went to Home Depot to get the plywood for the top of the platform.

We filled up the truck with three more bags of cement and a bunch of wood.  In addition to the three sheets of plywood we bought additional lumber for cross supports as well as a big 4″ x 6″ post to be used as an addition to my bar park.  Since I had all the stuff already out to sink posts I figured I would add another bar to my set up which is lower and more accessible for Cindy.  The Tacoma sunk as all of the heavy construction supplies were dumped into it.

We spent the rest of the day, almost until dark getting the platform finished up as well as the pull up bar post in the ground.  It was bust ass work but the platform felt strong and flat, the two most important things.  Cindy and I were quite tired, sun burned and sore.  The great news was we got to do it all over again on Sunday.

We started Sunday with a trip to Home Depot to get the pipe and flange that would be used to make Cindy’s pull up bar.  It also gave us a chance to fuel up with some Dunkin Donuts coffee for what was sure to be another hard day.  When we returned we jumped right into construction.  Just getting the two big shed boxes to the back yard was hard work, their size and weight required a lot of grunting and straining to get them into and back out of the Tacoma.

When we opened the boxes it was a bit intimidating, there were just endless amounts of parts.  it didn’t take long until I recognized why online reviews of the shed were critical of the instructions that are included, they just were not as clear as you would like.  Certain things that were potentially very important were included in small print as a note that was easy to miss or overlook.  This bit us in the ass more than once during the project.

We utilized my race timing canopy for as long as we could to provide us some shade to work.  The sun felt ridiculously hot for March.  The chickens were out free ranging with us the entire time and loving it.  They especially loved walking under the truck for some reason.  The two big birds have grease streaks down the middle of their backs to prove it.

So Cindy and I plodded along making slow and steady progress on the build.  With the shed, I took the exact opposite approach that I did with the platform, I wanted to make sure we followed the instructions exactly.  A few times Cindy made assumptions about how certain things went together that turned out to be incorrect.  None of them were major deals until we were in the home stretch of the shed build.

We were trying to install the right door of the shed but noticed there was no hole in the floor for the hinge to rest in like there was for the left door.  I immediately knew something was wrong.  Well after re-reading the floor layout instructions there was another one of those small little notes that point out that there was a certain way the floor panels had to be oriented which Cindy missed.

Of course I was very frustrated and Cindy felt very bad for the error.  At this point we had the shed built out even further than the picture you see on the left.  If I wanted to floor to be oriented correctly we would have to literally undo 4-5 hours of work by taking it all down.  I started to do just that until Cindy stopped me, crying.  She said there had to be a way we could make it work without dismantling everything.  She reminded me that I am McGyver after all, adept at making things work even when they don’t want to at first.  So I stopped unscrewing and started to formulate a plan to make what we have in front of us work.

The plan involved cutting out a piece of the floor to accommodate the hinge pin in a less than perfect fashion.  I tried to get the mounting hardware the same distance as the left door was from the sidewall which had the proper floor cut out under it.  The end result was us being able to get the right door in in a less than ideal manner.  That door is one of the hurdles I still need to clear today as it does not close correctly, yet.

So after the floor problem Cindy exclusively let me be the direction reader.  Even so, there were still a lot of struggles getting the roof in place.  There was a lot of banging, pulling, smacking and swearing involved.  Part of the problem was a cross support that we later found out we had mounted incorrectly.  It was mis-aligning the center truss.

Cindy and I slammed down some food we had delivered and headed right back to shed work even though the sun was setting.  We wanted to try to at least get the roof done.  We took out a bunch of my race lanterns to light up the inside of the shed quite well.  We managed to get the roof completed, sans a few skylights in pitch darkness as the mosquitoes swarmed us endlessly.  We did not step back inside the house until almost 9PM.

Both Cindy and I were just beat up physically.  We were sore everywhere and sunburned.  Our hands took quite the beating from screwing in literally hundreds of screws during the build.  My hands feel swollen and arthritic today.  I will be popping some aspirin before continuing on.

Today’s agenda is to complete the shed as much as I can with one person.  The big focus will be to somehow tweak the right door so it closes without using a screw driver to wedge it in place.  Hopefully I will have some time left over to get Cindy’s pull up bar up and running too.

I could have paid $300 to have the shed built for me by a crew that does it full time.  In retrospect it would have been money well spent.

Yesterday I finally got hard dates for my flooring project set up.  When you have both tile and carpeting going in the tile always needs to go down first if the two surfaces touch anywhere.  The tile job is scheduled to start April 14th.

The installer said that this is a large job and could take 3-4 full days to complete and that is assuming they don’t run into problems.  I already know they are going to have some issues with areas of the foundation that are not flat.  I know there are a few waves here and there that I can feel through the carpet. The carpet in the office and bedrooms is scheduled to go down a week later on the 21st.

Although the house is going to be more or less a disaster area for around two weeks, having the job split into two areas and two dates will make furniture moving more manageable.  While the tile is being done in the main living area we can slide all that stuff into the bedrooms and vice versa when the carpet is being laid.  It’s still going to be a TON of work and mess.  I am just going to focus on getting to the finish line, confident that all of the effort will result in a much more durable, attractive, and appealing interior of our home.

So yesterday I had a voicemail from the owner of the Florida Tarpons, Dave.  I have talked to Dave a few times on the phone since the team came into existence a few years ago.  He has told me of some of the struggles he has endured trying to get the team into something other than the money bleeding operation that it has been.

Well the reason for his call last night was to see if I wanted to renew my season tickets for this year.  I had planned to renew but I did not plan to have the owner of the team calling me personally to do so.

So I told him I was going to renew.  There are only four home games.  When he told me the total would be $200 for the two tickets I paused a bit.  $25 per game per person is pretty heavy considering the level of play, but our seats last year were pretty primo near midfield in row 3 or 4.  But then I considered that last year they gave us those season tickets for free to make up for the cluster fck of a 2013 season that had a bunch of rescheduled or cancelled games.  I figure I at least owed them one season of paying full boat for the seats.  The first home game isn’t until the end of April.

I took this upcoming Monday off to give me a three day weekend.  The extra day is not for relaxation but for labor.  My goal is by the end of those three days to have a raised platform in the middle of the back yard with the new 10′ x 8′ shed resting securely on top of it, fully constructed.

Like most all of my home construction the informal process and plans I am following are completely in my head.  For the most part this unconventional approach to construction has served me well over the years.  Hopefully the streak continues.

After work last night I stopped at Home Depot to grab two 12 foot long 2″x6″ boards which will be used for the long sides of the 8’x10′ foot frame I will be building hopefully this weekend.  Both Cindy and I are excited to get the platform up and the new shed constructed on top of it.

Cindy has really been struggling with eye strain since her job now requires looking at a computer screen pretty much all day long.  By the end of each work day she is in terrible discomfort and struggles mightily to just look at the screen.

I suggested to her the other day that she may benefit from a pair of Gunnar glasses which are specifically designed for CVS (computer vision syndrome).  You may recall that about a year ago I tried a pair of Gunnars and had problems with them.  However my computer/near field vision was fine going in, I was trying them to see if the Gunnars would help the distance vision problem I have. They did not.  But with the symptoms Cindy was having they were a near perfect fit.

So the glasses arrived yesterday.  Cindy’s eyes were hurting as usual after another day of staring at screens.  I had her sit in front of my two 27 inch screens with and without the Gunnars.  When she looked at the screens naked the pain and discomfort returned immediately.  When she put on the Gunnars and surveyed the 54 inches of monitor real estate the pain disappeared.

Later in the evening she used them working on her pc and reported similar positive results.  Today at work will be the most important test.  Hopefully she has similar results there.

Yesterday I had to meet a truck filled with supplies for my flooring job.  They off loaded three palettes of tile, thin set, grout and more.  When added to the two huge shed boxes that were already in there, my garage has suddenly become quite full.  It’s both exciting and intimidating having all the stuff there as it means the work involved with getting all of these boxes turned into home improvements is right around the corner.  I am now waiting to get an install date from Home Depot so I can plan around it accordingly.  I expect to be off from work for several days while this all goes down.

Instead of driving all the way back to the office I just worked from home the rest of the day.  On my lunch break I headed out back and knocked out another 100 reps in my 1000 pull up challenge.  At this point I only have 250 reps to go. There is some chicken footage injected in there as well.

Speaking of the chickens, they were out free ranging all afternoon.  It seems the new chicken that we have now named Lucy, due to her reddish brown color, has now more or less been accepted as one of the flock.  She was side by side with the other chickens most every time I checked on them.  Both Cindy and I are relieved.

When Cindy got home we headed over to the fair.  It seemed pretty busy for a Tuesday night.  Our first stop was for some food since we were both hungry.  We chose to get arepas from the same tiny Mexican woman that we patronized at last years fair.  Just like last year, the corn/cheese goodness of an arepa hit the spot.

We had started checking out all of the animals when we heard the announcement for the Motorcycle Maniacs show starting so we made a detour.  The show was filled with mostly low grade entertainment.  The most excitement was at the very end where they had dirt bikes circling inside one of those mesh globes which had some legitimate high risk danger.

After the show we went back to looking at chickens.  Of course this year we have an entirely different perspective and appreciation of chickens after owning them for most of the last year.  Some of the breeds were just so beautiful.  It gave Cindy and I ideas for other breeds we would like to add to the flock once the new coop arrangements are in place.

We hit the beer tent where they were selling shamrock adorned Bud Light aluminum “bottles” which were a must buy since it was St Patricks day.

Cindy then convinced me to spend $2 to see the amazing serpent woman.  The sign outside said she was a “living snake woman”, an exhibit I have seen at the fair for the last 14 years but never actually checked out first hand.  Having some beer in me made me more agreeable to seeing this “amazing” sight.

So after handing the old woman our two 1 dollar bills she poked her head around the corner of the tent to make sure the snake woman was ready for visitors which evidently she was.

The serpent lady was kept behind a fence, for our protection surely.  Both Cindy and I laughed out loud when we saw her.  It was a young woman with her head poked through a table with fake plants and a rubber snake body lying on top.  Luckily the snake woman spoke english, I asked her if she minded if I took my picture with her, which she agreed to.  I found it funny that even half snake/half human mutants have iPhones which she surely used to browse Facebook during lulls in the amazed spectators.  I wonder how much snake people earn in a night?  I emerged from the tent totally content that I got my $1 worth of entertainment.

We grabbed some other fair food as we walked around like jalapeno poppers and a soft pretzel.  We walked through the hard core carnie area which is always a bit annoying to me.  I hate being accosted to play fair games of “skill” for junk I don’t want.  It seemed like I was accosted a little less than normal, my fresh head shave and ample facial hair probably helped a bit in that regard.

So we wanted to go into the livestock area but it was closed because they were doing the pig show.  It was run in a manner very similar to a dog show except the pigs were brought out by weight class.  Each pig had a kid as it’s handler.  The kids used a little stick looking thing to try to steer the pigs around the ring but many of them were comically bad at doing so.  The pigs, who during the fair spend 99% of their time inside small holding pens, were very excited when let loose in the big judging ring.  Many of them would run around like excited dogs, it was very cute.

There was a judge that was walking around observing all of the pigs carefully.  He would then give an incredibly detailed description of the winning pigs attributes, this guy took his job quite seriously.  Cindy and I sat and watched the rest of the show which probably lasted over a half hour.  We felt both happiness watching the pigs running around acting like big fat dogs and sadness knowing the ultimate destination for most if not all of them would be on somebody’s plate.

After the pig show we went into the petting zoo area.  We got to feed all sorts of animals including a camel.  Cindy however fell in love with the goats, especially the baby goats.  Once we ran out of carrots to feed them Cindy started petting the goats and was surprised that they actually liked it.  She petted a pregnant female goat and a number of baby goats for at least 15 minutes.  It was very cute how they interacted.

Before we left we got into the large livestock area which was closed during the pig show.  We were surprised that all of the pigs were on their sides asleep, I guess the pig show must really wear them out.  There was only one pig that was standing up and awake.

Cindy knelt down and rubbed his head which you could tell he obviously liked.  He started making noises that we interpreted as approval.    He turned himself so he was right against the front of the pen so Cindy could pet him better.  It literally felt like Cindy was petting a dog.

We could hardly believe it when the pig proceeded to lay down right in front of the gate as Cindy was rubbing him.  If she stopped petting him he would stand up and make noise like he wanted her to continue, once she did he would eventually lay down again, content.  It was so cute.  Of course it broke our heart when we needed to get going as it was almost 10PM at that point.  Cindy would have adopted the pig in a heart beat.

We got home tired but content.  We had a good time, it makes it more fun since Cindy and I have such similar likes of most things as well as feelings about animals.  We will be back in 2016.