Thomas Stangl, 11, a member of the North Butler Blazers 4-H Club, tries his best to keep Missile from burying her head in the cool wet sand of the show arena July 13 at the Calhoun County Expo

By HANS MADSEN

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ROCKWELL CITY – One of the swine belonging to Thomas Stangl, 11, of Pomeroy, was living up to its name Friday morning in the show ring at the Calhoun County Expo.

Stangl calls his pig Missile.

“When we worked with him he just passed through and barged in,” he said.

Cash Freimuth, 5 of Lytton, left, along with Ford Patterson, 5, of Jolley, look over the Calhoun County Expo from a fence along the show barn July 13.

In the ring, Missile used his snout to burrow into the cool, wet sand in the arena. He didn’t want to walk around.

Stangl’s No. 1 interest at the Expo?

“Showing pigs,” he said.

He enjoys many aspects of the Expo.

“It’s really fun,” he said. “There’s so many things to look at.”

Aiden Melody, 7, of Lake City, was going to show his bottle lamb, Snowball.

Getting ready for the fair means work.

“We shear it, walk it, work with it and clean up.” he said.

His mom, Breanne Melody, echoed the last sentiment.

“We’re doing a lot of that,” she said.

Bailey Vainreb, a member of the Pilot Creek FFA Chapter, was showing cattle that included Flash, a crossbred steer and Smoke and Little Smoke, a cow/calf Charolais.

Vainreb is back from college at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota.

“It’s really special,” she said. “It’s great bonding time with my dad.”

She’s also enjoying seeing old friends and like so many other youth in both 4-H and FFA, seeing what hard work can do.

“All of your hard work pays off.” she said.

There’s a lot of fun things to check out at the fair.

The Family Fun Barn offers a bin full of corn to play in.

Tyjah Sease, 12, of Rockwell City, a member of the Logan Larks 4-H Club, got into the bin and let her friends cover her with corn.

“It felt like a lot of weight pressing down on you,” she said.

A toy wheelbarrow kept the corn off her face.

“I couldn’t see a thing,” she said.