Author Regina Jennings
Every adult needs a skill set that makes them valuable and employable. Sure, I love being an author, but there are no guarantees in this business. If this doesn’t last I must have something to fall back on, some skill I can rely on to contribute to the family coffers. That’s why I keep my training current so I’m prepared to, in an emergency, go back to the lucrative career of…weighing pigs.
This is my dad. My whole life he’s been a livestock order-buyer. When the kids were small and before homeschooling became a full-time job, I worked three mornings a week with him at the stockyards. The industry has changed over the years with fewer small farmers and more corporate customers, but every spring finds him in desperate need of help, and I answer the call.
Dad at the Stockyards
You see, Dad isn’t a farmer or a butcher. He’s the one who brings them together. Packing houses specialize in certain cuts of meat, but a farmer has pigs of every size, gender and condition. Order buyers get orders from the packing house for a precise number of animals of a preferred size. Then they have to find those animals to fill their order. Sometimes there are more animals than orders. Sometimes they have to search for animals to fill the trucks. Supply and demand – the literal “Stock Market”.
Pigs (as well as most livestock) are bought and sold by the pound, so we have to know what they weigh.
ONSY Scales
This is my station when I’m helping Dad. I’m the Weighmaster. It might sound like an exercise device sold by Suzanne Somers, but the weighmaster is responsible for paying the farmers a fair amount. The scale must be kept balanced and the weight tickets must be filled out correctly so the farmers are paid for their hogs – and no one else’s.
So I ask my dad to take a picture of me at work and do you know what he says? “Don’t you think you should’ve put on some make-up and done your hair?”
Excuse me? To work at the Stockyards?
This is my keyboard…
I’m afraid if I used this keyboard to write I’d end up with a dirty book. Ha, ha! OK, no more corny jokes.
This is my walkway to the office…
That’s not confetti on the catwalk. It’s pigeon decoration.
So forgive me if I didn’t dress up enough for this post. At least the pictures aren’t scratch and sniff.
Thanks for letting me share my second career choice with you. Do you have any secret skill or unique career you’d like to tell us about?
~Regina
Connect with Regina on her website (And thanks, Regina, for this hysterical – and heartwarming – post)
Tamera Alexander
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I LOVED this post, Regina! Brought back so many memories. My dad raised champion Hampshire hogs up until I was in junior high. We sold our 4-H pigs at auction, which was always the saddest day of my year, betraying my poor little piggy by taking him to market! 🙁 Hmmm…I guess it didn’t scar me too badly. I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot even as I type this! Thanks so much for guesting on IBLaF today!
P.S. Someday you MUST write a heroine who has this job!
Oh, Deb, show pig season is the saddest. Watching those kids say good-bye, those cowboys trying not to cry…. it breaks my heart! And the little girls who ask “What farm are you sending Wilbur to?” 🙁 Most of the time it’s not that sad, though. And right now prices are through the roof, which helps.
And there might be a heroine in the works who finds herself in this position. Stay tuned…
Regina, I loved this post. As I read it, I wondered what other job I could do, if my career doesn’t work out. In college, my goal was to go to law school. My problem, paying for it. It was then I tried education, only as a means to pay for law school. Couldn’t do it. Hated teaching. I joined a domestic relations practice and discovered I can not handles family law. What did I do, I went back to school. I am now learning to be a tax lawyer. I think if this legal thing does work out, I may have to join a convent. Only problem there, I would have to become Catholic. Oh well. We’ll see. God always has a surprise around the next corner.
Tax lawyer or nun? Not sure I could live with either of those choices! I love how you keep learning and looking for that perfect fit. You’re living an adventure. Good luck to you, Dora.
As if the writing life wasn’t glamorous enough, now you tell us you’re a stockyard weighmaster, too??? I think you’ve got a great handle on the markets that require no make-up or dress-up for successful employment. Makes me want to reconsider my day job. Giving tests (ACT, CLEP, etc.) isn’t nearly as fashionable as pig weighing, but it does put money in the family coffers between writing checks. If only I could escape the make-up and business attire. Sigh. University students probably care as much as pigs do about what I wear, but there is the professional image to uphold. So sad.
I would say that we work with completely different demographics, but that’s really not true. You’d be surprised how many Ag teachers/professors come in and how many farmers have 4-year degrees. I remember a few years ago when my dad was out of earshot one of the Ag professors motioned me over and said, “You seem like a bright lady. Have you considered getting an education so you can find another job?” But then I might have to dress up and wear makeup on weekdays, so I didn’t give it another thought. 🙂
Regina, I loved hearing about your “non glamorous ” job (since no makeup or hair fixin’). Animals are a big part of our lives and we have made many a trip to the sale barn. Our oldest grandson just started showing and he was determined that his pet goat, Buster, was not going to be sold. There may be tears down the road or moniless pockets when we have to buy the goat back!
Melanie, I’m sorry for Buster. Maybe you can teach him some tricks or some other way to earn his keep. 😉 I’ve always loved sale days, although I’ll admit to thinking they lasted FOREVER sometimes. Good luck with your goat.
Being a countrygirl myself, I so loved your post. Thanks for sharing real life with us. I think the book thing will work. I know my daughter in love is hooked on you and Tamera’s books now.
Blessings
Linda Marie Finn
http://www.faithfulacres.net
faithfulacresbooks@gmail.com
PS: Tamera dont’ you love Decor Theme , that is what my own site is built on with wordpress. would you have guessed that ? http://www.faithfulacres.net
Yes, love it, Faithful Acres! Lovely site!
Thanks for sharing, Regina. I love your books and look forward to reading your latest! I used to bake pies for our local stockyard for their Wednesday sale. I think I used to do a dozen of them. Those were the days!
Thank you, Deborah! I’m so pleased you like my writing! That’s interesting that you baked pies for the auction. It wasn’t at Coffeyville, was it? My dad still goes to that sale every week.
Loved your post, Regina – – AND your sense of humor! That really is great that you have something to fall back on if needed—an extra way to “bring home the bacon.” 😉
Years ago, my husband was telling me about an uncle in Virginia who’d been a farmer. My husband quickly informed me there was NO way he could ever farm, because I’d become too attached to all the farm animals, LOL. (which is so true)
Thanks for sharing with us today, and have a wonderful week!
Blessings from Georgia, Patti Jo 🙂
Bring home the bacon, LOL! Yes, meat doesn’t taste the same when you know its name.
Thanks for commenting, Patti Jo!
WOW! I didn’t know that such a thing existed and it’s interesting that would be your chosen job. 🙂 My chosen career would be a director of a volunteer center or president of a philanthropic outfit. 🙂
I don’t really know if that would be my “chosen” job, but it’s family ya’ know. I like your choice better.
Loved your post, Regina – how interesting, especially, as with some of the other commenters – I grew up on a farm where pigs were raised!! Their barn was always called the “Pig Palace”!! And you look beautiful even without your hair and make-up being done, Regina (LOL)!!
Aw, thanks, Bonnie. I don’t smell good after being there, but thankfully the pictures can only share so much information. Have a great week!
Regina, I’ve heard you tell this story before. I still can’t picture the well put together, petite Regina that I know tromping around with the pigs.
Sharon, thanks for visiting! I try to keep the pigs out of the office, but I do have to wade through them to get to the scales. Those are the days when the boots stay outside when I get home.
Regina, I adore your humor! Great blog, and hey…you look fabulous sans makeup, woman!
Aw, thanks Tammy. Maybe all that organic material floating in the air erases wrinkles? Thanks for having me!
I Love your post and your since of humor. I worked as a certified nurses aide for ten years and then in September 2013 I had to have surgery and had the top part of my left lung removed because I had three different kind of cancer in my lung. The good news is that they got it all. So I am still at home recovering from my surgery. I am home working on my writing an doing a lot of writing these last several months. I always loved to right every since I was a little girl. When I was a freshman in high school me and my family raised rabbits all through my high school years and after that until my mom got sick. I am not sure I will be able to go back to my nursing job. So if my writing does work out like I want it to I will not give up I will continue to write. I am researching work at home jobs on my computer to find work I can do to get paid for it to get some income coming in to help out are lives besides my husband job. I really think one of these days I would really like to raise rabbits and sell them again like my mother did.
Tara, I’m so glad to hear you’re recovering. What a scare. My daughter is a CNA and that is hard work. She comes home exhausted, but she loves her residents. They keep her going. And raising rabbits sounds like a fun career. I hope they have a better future than the pigs.
How did I miss this post yesterday?!! So great to see my friend, Regina here!
I loved reading about your glamorous fall-back career, Regina. Since I don’t have a fall-back, I’m not sure what I’ll do if the writing doesn’t pan out. Probably sit around watching more TV and eating more chocolate. …Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound so bad…. 🙂
Becky! Good to hear from you! The TV and chocolate gig does sound pretty nice, doesn’t it? Of course my writing supports my chocolate habit, so someday the Ghiradelli would run out.