About pigs and more

Another one bites the dust: The 2020 October Fest scheduled for September 26 has been canceled.

On Friday morning the Jasper County Roundtable had a session highlighted by a report of Belstra Millings LEAP program. About a year ago Belstra set up the Leading Education About Pigs (LEAP) Foundation. Its goal is to tell urban America the wonders of the pig. It will be offering scholarships to people in pig-specific careers as well as internships. It has also developed classroom material  aimed at third through sixth grade and can include an on-line presentation with someone who has been a guide at the Fair Oaks Farm Pig Adventure. Its first test will be this week at DeMotte Christian.

Before he talked about the LEAP program, Nick DeKryger talked a bit about Belstra Milling. They are headquartered in DeMotte and employ about 210 under the Belstra name. They produce enough feed for 100,000 dairy cows a day. Most of their feed sales are in the five-state area and they have about 50 dealers. To ship the feed, they can use their own transportation company that has 12 trucks. In addition to selling feed, Belstra has eight pig farm companies, all in our area, with about 18,000 sows.

The meeting was lightly attended, so the roundtable part was fairly short. Curtis Craig, Superintendent of Rensselaer schools, said that the schools had adapted to a new normal. About 12% of the students opted for remote learning, but some of them are now starting to come back to the classroom. Wearing masks does not seem to be an issue.

The Jasper County Library is still doing curbside pickup for those who want it. The Library is planning some activities that can take place outside.

Other things: The Little Cousin Jasper Festival was scheduled for this past weekend. If it had not been canceled, it would have had to deal with rain most of Saturday afternoon. This past weekend would normally have been the time for the Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational, which a year or two ago became a middle school only meet. This year it was canceled.

Fenwick Farms Brewing announced that the small building across the alley from their business will be demolished to make way for a new facility to house brewing equipment. It is next to the building with the mural and that has had its roof collapse. Fenwick purchased the building in August according to the Jasper County GIS site.

Grass has been seeded and has started growing on the Blacker Fields.

Last week when I took the picture above, a truck was dumping more stone for the parking lot.

All eight rows of the solar farm at the County Jail have had solar panels installed.

The Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery held its dress rehearsal on Sunday. It is an interesting program with a diverse set of people portrayed. Do you know which past Rensselaerian was famous for elaborate hats, often more elaborate than the green one in the picture below?

Tickets are limited in number because of the need to keep people distanced.

There are two performances this year, one in the morning at the Hall Shelter for those who do not want to walk and an afternoon performance that will have groups that walk through the Cemetery. Tickets are available at Browns Garden Shop, The Willow Switch, and Jordan Floral.

The event relies on sponsors to cover expenses not met by ticket sales.