It's Almost Fair Time

It’s almost fair time and time for all the 4-H, FFA and open class animals to come to town. With this in mind, I decided it was a good time to share a story told by one of our deceased friends. Keep in mind, this is a remember and in no way meant to be a suggestion.

As the story goes, this acquaintance was telling about showing or marketing a pig. It seems the pig did not weigh what they had anticipated, so it was decided to feed it some coal slack, which of course caused a temporary weight gain. Those of us that have a few generations on us may remember that there were several coal mines in the area, so I would imagine that it was easy to acquire some of this feed.

For you that did not have early homesteaders in your direct family line, you may not be familiar with the term coal slack, but on the other hand I do know that there are some people that still burn coal for heat in their homes. I am not familiar with how coal is delivered or stored now days, but I do know that many of the older generation had a coal bin, probably located in a corner of their basement. Handy for stoking the furnace. Imagine the dust as, well as slack. Slack is the bits and pieces that break apart from the larger pieces of coal.

At any rate, this added feed supplement was easily accessible, and apparently worked in the story I passed on. Present day marketing includes health certificates, etc., but I am willing to bet no one will be looking for evidence of coal dust.

Wishing all of you that exhibit animals at the fair lots and lots of success.