Who did what again? The pigs, of course. Who did you think I was talking about? bah-ha-ha-ha......Yes, the pigs got out of their pen again. Only this time it wasn't because the gate was left open. This time they used their weight and brute strength and pushed a hole in their fence.
Let me back up a minute here and explain better what happened. Joel and I had gone "to town" to buy pig and chicken feed and run our errands. When we returned to the farm, we unloaded the car and were in the process of taking the heavy sacks of feed out to the bins where we store them when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. Aw, man, the pigs were roaming free, scarfing up all the acorns their greedy little mouths could scrounge.
Ummm, yea. They're not supposed to be over there. Rooting around. Digging for acorns.
Time to get serious and bring in the tools to repair the fencing. So, on with our boots and Joel got supplies from his workshop.
Yup. Here's what the oinkers did.....pushed that fencing away from the 4"x4" post that it had been stapled to. That fencing is some tough stuff, I can hardly believe they were able to dislodge it and wiggle their tubby bodies thru the hole. Darn. That's going to be fun to fix.
So, we dug around the post and poured in quick setting concrete to reinforce the post in it's hole. Then, we had to re-staple the fence in place....with a whole lot more staples. Then we reinforced the hog panels with smaller fence posts. That should hold them until it's time to take them to slaughter.(Which, by the way, was approaching closer and closer as Joel and I chased the pigs. Do you get my drift?) Ok, now that that's taken care of.....how do we two round up these huge pigs?
I mean, these are not exactly little piglets any longer. See how big they are compared to the Polaris? They both weigh in at over 150 lbs. And you can't believe how quick they are on their feet. Chasing them is impossible.
The pigs were feasting on the thousands of acorns and seemed to have no interest in any food we used to try and entice them into the pen. Then, Joel got the idea to use the chicken scratch as it has a lot of corn in it and pigs simply can't resist corn. And it worked!
The pigs were docilely following Joel at a leisurely pace all the way to the gate of their pen....Just call Joel the Pied Piper of the Pigs. Ha!
And then they bolted! I mean they ran like the dickens in opposite directions. Um, not good. And Joel was most definitely not amused. We tried to lasso them, we tried to lure them with food, we tried to herd them and nothing worked.
Joel decided that the pigs would come back to their pen when it got dark and so we hauled some new straw and put it inside their Pig Palace to make it nice and cozy for when they returned.
I mean, really, why wouldn't the pigs want to come back to their pen with a view like this of the distant mountains?
Aw, geez. Now one of the 2 Rhode Island Red hens flew out of their pasture.....she was being harassed by some overly ardent roosters. Joel loves these 2 Rhode Islands....they will eat out of his hand or the scoop when he offers them scratch. He really wanted to catch this little gal and get her back inside the netting so she wouldn't be in the way of the pigs.
Here is one of the handsome culprits responsible for her flight. He is a dandy, though, isn't he?
Well, back to the pigs.
We had 2 small pumpkins left up at the house, so, I retrieved them and Joel was using them to lure the pigs once again. And it seemed to be working. Sorta.
By now Bacon was huffing and puffing and she laid down to catch her breath. Pork Chop was still following Joel. Hey, if we could just get one inside the pen, the other would eventually follow.
Right?
At this point I was sitting in the driver's seat of the Polaris and Pork Chop got up and started rubbing herself against the thick tires of the ATV. She literally was rocking the boat! Joel and I were laughing and shaking our heads at this point as we had been at this for well over an hour with no success. Since we were getting nowhere fast, we decided to take a break and check on the pigs closer to evening, and headed up to the house.
Not 5 minutes later the dogs were barking and we looked out the back door and this is what we found. Yes! The roaming pigs had come all the way up to the house....which is near the road....which means they could get hit by a car..... So much for waiting until dark and letting then go into their pen on their own. Now we had to get serious about rounding these bad boys up.
Time to put the boots back on again. We herded the pigs with a lot of arm waving and yelling and got them back closer to their pen once again.
And then they just nuzzled into the huge pile of leaves we were getting ready to burn. They continued to bury their heads deep down to retrieve acorns. How can you not laugh at such antics?
Enough already. Joel was getting pretty irritated and the sun was about to go down. Through a series of chasing, herding and a lot of yelling we finally managed to get Bacon in the pen....where she immediately plopped down in some thick mud and lay there panting. Pork Chop was only a couple of minutes behind her and greedily drank and drank her water.
Thank goodness! I don't know who was more tired.....the pigs or us. I was just happy they were safe in their pen and hope to never have to repeat this adventure again. And it only took us a couple hours this time! hahahaha
The End. Seriously. The living End.
Whew!
Debbie
