World Pork Expo Reflections

The PigEasy Booth was located on the southwest wall
of the Varied Industries Building.

As you saw in Katie’s prior blog post, the World Pork Expo has been a family interest for years.  I now have a different perspective on the other side of the booth.

Beyond the planning and organizing prior to, the “move in” day becomes a group effort.

One of my favorite moments was watching this man with his young boy work together in preparing his booth.  First the young boy was directing his Dad in parking his trailer.  Then they both made trips carrying and pulling in various items for their booth (and the young boy had such a serious task-driven look on his face).  The next time I saw them, they were laughing and high fiving each other.  Each moment brought back memories of our kids working with us.  Made my heart swell.

So on the other side of the booth, you realize what it takes to be a vendor. For PigEasy, third time was a charm.  With the debut of our PigEasy products, the first couple of years the attendees were like buying a car –“kicking the tires and looking it over”.  This year, it was exciting to talk to those that have used our products and to people with a real intent.

We couldn't do it without our leadership!

It is great to see familiar faces and spend time with them – vendors and attendees.  The food was excellent, the weather turned out great, and the attendance was a constant buzz of people.  I was in a mother’s dream – all four kids were able to attend; one spouse (the other was out of state dutifully serving our country), my brother and sister-in-law, our PigEasy Board members and spouses, and employees.

As we pulled away from the four days of the Expo 2015, it made me wonder – will that young son join his Dad in his business like Ben and Katie did with us. Makes my heart swell!

- Karen

The Kitchen Table

Friday Feature:

The HUB of our house has always been the kitchen table.  When outstretched to capacity, it is a 113 inch massive Farm Table. 

It started as a place for candlelit dinners when we were first married, a place to gather with friends for coffee, the little artist’s workbench for different crafts, the laundry folding table, the homework station for the young ones, the central place for prayer, the base for pictures of family celebrations.

A typical look at our "desk" set up.

The kitchen table has always been my place to do bookwork -  a convenient way to multi-task – keep an eye on the kids, watch the cookies in the oven and listen for the drier bell to go off.  Not to mention, you can spread your work out easily.  With the start of PigEasy, the Kitchen Table has become a hot commodity. 

You usually think of everyone having their “seat” at the table ready to eat.  Now Katie and I have our “seat” at the table for business.  It is a good location for Dave to pop in to answer questions and Ben to pick up order sheets.  We have gathered around the table to have product naming contests, have prepped some of our products for production, and yes, we still eat at our table. Preparing for lunch includes shoving the piles to the other end.

It is with some excitement that we will be moving the PigEasy office to a new location in town.  It is very exciting to have less clutter and less distraction – but I am going to miss the activity around the kitchen table. 

We are used to having a “mobile office”.  It may be a meeting in the shop, brainstorming on the long drives, or the “feet up for 10” in the living room.  We now have an “official office” in our future, but I have a feeling the HOME BASE of the KITCHEN TABLE will still be an active location for PigEasy developments.  And if any encouragement is needed, the cookies fresh out of the oven always seem to work.

Post-brunch product naming contest.

- Karen