2008-08-06

Here Piggy Piggy

It is 7:00 am on a lazy summer morning. As I lay in bed trying to finish another chapter of "Breaking Dawn" before my teenage daughter comes down and steals it, I here my son Coty yell, "Mom, the pigs are out!" What the heck? I swear Mark told me the pen was escape proof and then I envision Coty and I running around in the field all day trying to finagle 3 pigs, who are getting quit large by the way, back into a small opening the size of a regular door. Just so you can sympathize, here are 2 pictures of the field they were loose in. The first one is panning to the right and the bottom one is panning to the left with the pig pen in the very left hand side. If you squint your eyes and lean in real close you can see it.

So I throw on a hat and whatever I was wearing yesterday, hoping if we get to them early we might prevent ourselves from having to explain to neighbors why their favorite petunias ended up as pig food. Coty was already running them down the fence line (a lesson we learned from herding cows again yesterday, post to follow), so I position myself to head them off before they could head past our house to the road. It was about this time I remembered when my Grandmother was helping herd pigs at a younger ate, and one ran between her legs. She ended up riding on the pig backwards for quit a distance. I then tried running with my legs close together because I didn't want a story like that to end up being told at an eternity of family reunions. The pigs then shot back out into the field, past their pig pen. One little fella actually went into the pen for about 3 seconds, mostly just to taunt us and make us realize we had no control over anything, then shot back out into the field with some grunting laughs. I snuck (is that a word?) around the septic mound to head them off again, sending them back towards the pen. I told Coty to get something tasty that pigs might like from the fridge. "How about lettuce" I yell. I know they like apples but unfortunately at 2.29 a pound they will have to go without. Coty comes running back (thank goodness he was in track and is fast) tossing lettuce in the pen just as the pigs head back towards the pen. They all look back one more time snorting as if they just had the time of their lives but were now ready for a little rest then walk back into the pen. By the way they don't like lettuce, but I did get my exercise for the morning.

See the smug little look on his face. He thinks he is soooo clever.


And look who is a little worn out from their fall-de-ralling around in the field.


What else can I say but...

Did I mention my husband is thinking about breeding pigs. Heaven help us all!

1 comment:

Steff said...

I'm super impressed with your down home farm skills. Mark got REAL lucky when he snagged you to be his wife!