Houston Stock Show

Madison giving Daphane a bath (these picture are for Mary)
Daphane getting a drink during her bath

Madison with Bella

Gavin with Lola

Gavin with Daphane

Gavin & Daphane sleeping (he's really faking, the pig is really asleep)

Poor pregnant pig (she was due on the 8th)

I wish I could say we came home with a winning pig, but I can't. This show was a lot different than Ft. Worth. The biggest thing was we were freezing in Ft. Worth & sweating in Houston. It is March and it was 84 degrees. As for showingthe pigs, Madison finally got to show Bella, and they placed 7th. That would have been outstanding if there were 15-20 in the class, but there was only 7. At least we placed, as they do not have to place anything after 5th. Gavin did not place either. His classes has 24-30 in each. That is a lot of pigs in a small show ring. We did have a lot of excitement. There was a tractor display behind us that kids could pretent they were plowing a field ; that is where Liam and I spent a lot of time and I mean A LOT!!!! If I was not standing at the tractors with Liam, I was helping chase one of our pigs and yes I said chase. We were getting Lola ready to show and she freaks out and runs. Pigs can run fast too. The good thing is if you have pigs, you know they can run fast and if you see someone with a runaway pig, you help corral them. Then it was Daphane's turn to be shown. She was easy to get in the holding pen, until some girls that were there to see the Jonas Brothers started messing with her and the gate on their side was open. Daphane started to push on the gate and the girls stepped back and took the gate with them. That is all that she needed, an opening and she was gone. Gone right into the petting zoo and caged animal displays. Ding dong Daphane starts running through the people with their small children, some in strollers and some on foot. Some of the people were laughing which it might seems funny, but it is very dangerous. Daphane weighs atleast 300 lbs. When she steps on your foot, it really hurts. I'm not sure they would be laughing if their kids got hurt. Thanks to a stock show volunteer, we guided he back to the swine area and she went back to the holding pen. The whole time we are chasing Daphane, Liam was yelling, "catch my pig, she's run'd away".

Once the show was over, we were allowed to leave. But, you had to have a release and your trailer release form all of these were obtained from different people in different places. We got all of our paperwork, went to get the trailer and headed back to pick up the pigs. This was 3:20 pm. Brett decided to take a different exit and that is where the mistake began. Remember there were some girls there to see the Jonas Brothers, well, we got stuck in the Jonas Brothers line from Hell. There were cars everywhere all trying to get into the stock show grounds. We are in a truck with a 20' trailer and the Houston police tell us that we need to make a U-turn and go to a different street. Hello, I am not in a little car that can just make a u-turn. When you have a trailer especially a 20' trailer you need a lot of room to make a u-turn. Do you mind if we re-model the street and take out a few light poles and a bunch of cars, as this was the only way we were going to get turned around. Finally, listening to our reasoning, the police let us through. We went to the next street, turned, got back on 610 and took the exit that was right. By the time we went through the JB exercice and got to the swine barn, it was after 5. Which meant we would not even be close to getting home until after 10. I have never wanted to be home as much as I did then. The good thing it we have almost a year before we do this all over.

Liam in the tractor