The Great Pig Escape!

Well, it wasn’t that great actually, but it makes for a catchy title.  I was home on Tuesday, using a vacation day to cook up some tomato sauce and get some other things done.  Kurt was heading out the door to work and stopped on the deck.  “The pigs are out” he said with no great excitement, much like I would say “dinner is ready” … like this was not at all an unusual event. 

In truth, it was a very unusual event.  Our goal is to keep our pigs well fenced, hopefully avoiding such an occasion. Having raised a few pigs over the years, this break out may be a first; of course I am not known for my recollection skills, so maybe not...

Though Kurt was quite calm about this, I was not.  The last thing we need is our bacon wandering into the garden or worse, out on the road.  Visions of our pigs slogging through the tamarack bog out to Ole Lake passed through my sub-conscious...I told Kurt to call work because he was going to be late.  I heard him say “Hi Matt, I might be late, I have pigs out”.  I would guess that Matt was pretty understanding about the situation… this is the same Matt that helped us get these pigs in the first place and himself an experienced swine-raiser.  I reached for the house phone to call in reinforcements.  Turns out, Rollie was out for his morning walk, so he missed out on the fun. 

In actuality, it really turned out to be a non-event.  The pigs evidently had not been out for long and although they were a little excited it wasn’t all that difficult to lure them back through the break in their fence.  Once they were shooed back to the general vicinity of their pen, a bucket of food was all the enticement needed to put them back behind bars.

Naughty piggies!

Girlpig

and Boypig enjoying their new environs!

Yesterday the pair got moved to new digs.  Kevin fenced off a verdant portion of the former horse pasture adjacent to the winter-coop yard where they have been residing.  After pulling in one of the pasture shelters, the pigs were ushered in and appear to be delighted with the new arrangement.

Otherwise, the routine of the place is reluctantly shifting into fall mode. Kevin is discing and hauling composted manure out to the field and I work on making tomato sauce whenever I have enough ripe tomatoes for a batch.  There is a lot to do yet … potatoes to dig, cornstalks to cut down, apples, carrots and onions to harvest, etc. but with the current warm and muggy weather, and today rain, these things are put off a bit.  This afternoon, depending on the rain situation, we are planning to attend another SFA farm tour and potluck event.  Tomorrow, Labor Day, is predicted to be cooler so we have put off cleaning out the does living quarters in the barn until then.  I am also hoping to cook up another batch of tomatoes.

So, posting during daylight hours today.  Happy long weekend, and be well all!