Unknown to most passersby, there’s a 12-foot-tall replica of the Washington Monument under a manhole near the actual monument. (via Atlas Obscura)

Harry McCune and his wife, Dee, are jumping head first into livestock production. Their first pig barn was finished in May 2016 and are now having an open house for the second barn.

“I wanted to find a way to diversity our farm and keep livestock in the state of Illinois,” says Harry McCune. “If we don’t keep the business here it will go elsewhere, and I want to keep the benefits of it local.”

 

The McCune’s now have two 2,400 head wean to finish barns that will contribute to the local economy through taxes and providing jobs. In addition, each barn will consume a large amount of local corn and soybeans and produce 5 million slices of bacon each. That’s 10 million slices of bacon per year being produced by two barns in Bureau County!

“My favorite part about raising pigs is watching them grow and progress through the different stages,” says McCune. He and his family are third/fourth generation farmers. Harry and Dee have two daughters, one of whom is employed in the ag industry, and a son-in-law. Harry’s parents were grain and livestock farmers and he and his brothers are continuing on that tradition.

Pig farmers are dedicated to preserving the environment and being good neighbors. Each day they work to leave the land better than it was before and provide a safe and healthy pork product to consumers.

“Open houses provide the opportunity for neighbors and community members to come in and tour the inside of a barn before pigs come in and ask any questions they might have,” says Morgan Booth, IPPA Director of Communications. “We partner with the Illinois Livestock Development Group on these events to help promote the positive story of the livestock industry in Illinois.”

Sponsors of the Open House include: Illinois Livestock Development Group, Illinois Pork Producers and the Pork Checkoff, Quality Ag, Inc., JBS Live Pork, LLC, Princeton Ready Mix, 1st Farm Credit Services, Maurer Stutz, J Mac Metals.

Over 100 neighbors, friends, and community members attended the McCune’s open house and enjoyed a delicious pork lunch prepared by the Bureau County Young Leaders.

Maurer-Stutz is pleased to be selected this week by the Woodford County Highway Department to provide all of the federally funded Phase I Planning Study work for the reconstruction of a 4.5 mile long segment of County Highway 13 from US Route 24 to IL Route 116 in Roanoke.andnbsp; The study also includes rehabilitation or replacement of three bridges. andnbsp;

Hear about James Eads and the Historic Eads Bridge, a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. Eads, a self-taught engineer, completed the bridge in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the longest arch bridge in the world, and its ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material: it was the first such use of true steel in a major bridge project. David Lobbig, Curator of Environmental Life at the Missouri History Museum, will tell us about the bridge and its self-made builder, James Eads.

How thick should I pour my floor? Do I need reinforcing? Which type of reinforcement is best? How much load can I put on it? Will my fork truck crack it? Do I really need joints in my floor? Should I install a polyethylene vapor barrier or vapor retarder underneath the whole slab? What about insulation? Do I need rock underneath? And how much do all these things matter?

Our very own Terry Feldmann, PE, along with Alan Schambach, PE, from FBi Buildings Inc., discuss this topic in the new issue of Frame Building News as published by the Construction Magazine Network.andnbsp;