Pig races

Last week I read an article in the newspaper featuring fall events that would be happening throughout October. One that really caught my attention was a farm that holds open house on October weekends with hayrides, a corn maze, all sorts of farm products and farm animals, and pig races. Yes, that's right: pig races! I told Bob right then and there that I had to blip the pig races and wouldn't he like to go with me? He agreed, but last weekend the weather was cold and rainy, so we put off our visit to the pigs until today, which turned out to be picture perfect weather.

The farm was located about an hour down country between the little towns of Middlefield and Mesopotamia. As we drove into Middlefield, the welcome sign announced that it is the heart of the fourth largest Amish community in the world. Sure enough, the Amish families in their buggies were on the road in full force, enjoying the beautiful fall weather just as we were.

I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed by the farm. I've seen better kept farms in my day, but the pigs were absolutely adorable, and well worth the drive. The farm family had set up a little race track, rigged a starting gate, and found an air horn to announce the start of the race. With the audience gathered around, the starting gate was raised, the horn blasted, and the pigs took off. Each race had three pigs competing for the prize: a chocolate chip cookie! The farmer's wife said they had tried different things to motivate the pigs to race, and the cookies enticed them the most.

After the race, we visited some other animals, purchased some apples and tomatoes, and set off to continue our drive through Amish country. If you want to see more pictures of the pigs and other sights from this fun day, you can look here .

Note: No pigs were harmed to provide this entertainment. They were given fresh water to drink immediately after the "race," and they had a shaded corner for resting when the race was over. I also need to say that this farm was not an Amish farm, but this farm family lives as good neighbors to the Amish community, and the wife even leads tours of people who want to visit Amish farms and learn more about the Amish culture.