Do you have what it takes?

"I am enough of a realist to understand that I can't reach every child, but I am more of an

optimist to get up every morning and try" - Preston Morgan.

What do 80's soundtrack music, squealing baby pigs, dirty horse tack, bingo, and auction strips have in common? That's part of what is going on at Juanita Valley! As we jam out to some 80's rock the auction slips and money are being counted from the past Saturday. With sales up into the thousands there is a lot of checks to cut! We are also baby sitting two piglets! This is perfect for 2 reasons. The first being the swine unit we just finished in 2 of my classes. The other being the fetal pig dissection that we will being doing next week. It may be a tad morbid to think of pig dissections when the cute little piglets go running around the shop. However, a major part of agriculture is animal production. The majority of our nations consumes meat products. Granted, we don't dissect pigs for the production aspect. We dissect pigs to exam the bones, muscles, and other systems of the body. I want my students to see first hand how what we are leaning on paper is applied in real animals. By better understand the inside of the pig we can create better pigs for agricultural production and in turn the nation.

This week I reflected a lot on involving the community and the support it provides. The community can really help blossom an agriculture program. It gives it that step above and support that a program needs to be truly successful. What are some ways to get the community's support? When you want something from someone you need to make it worth their while. They have to get something in return, it's just good business sense.

A perfect example of how the community and the program mutually benefit is from the FFA's auction that happens this past Saturday. The community brought their unwanted items to the fair grounds. When they arrived they got their number, bought a breakfast bowl and perused the items to be sold that morning. There was a large turn out of over 200 bidders alone. The FFA had 2 picnic tables, corn hole boards, and a saw for sale. The auction went straight from 9am to 1 pm. Most days I teach the kids in my class. However, last Saturday they were teaching me. Being from a horse farm I was very unfamiliar with a lot of the equipment that was there. I had my students and other members of the community educating me about what everything was! It was such a great day.