The Great Pig Escape

Yes, you read it right.....the pigs escaped from their pen.   I had spent hours in the kitchen canning and was taking a break mid-afternoon reading my emails on the computer.   Something outside caught my eye and I looked up to see Pork Chop and Bacon romping thru our trees and heading down toward the seven acres of woods.  Oh, man!  If they get lost down there we may never recover them.

That's not good.   I yelled out for Joel and Jeremy and the three of us took off outside, trying out best to herd the pigs back in the general direction of their pen.   Hahahahaha.....like that was going to happen!

Ummmm, looks like Joel forgot to chain the gate.   Bet he won't do that again.  We ran behind the pigs and tried to lead them back to their pen.....Joel was talking to them like he always does when he goes to feed them, hoping that they might follow him because they were familiar with him.    They weren't having any of that!   Did you know that pigs can run really fast?    Yeah, really fast.

It's been raining here all weekend and the sun had just come out when the pigs escaped.   The temps soared as well as the humidity and we were all dripping wet from running around trying to corral the little suckers.    The chickens were oblivious to all the carrying on outside their run.   Just pecking and scratching going on inside their little world.

Uh-oh.   The side property line of the farm has a barbed wire fence running the entire length of our property.....except for a few feet.   Wouldn't you know it, those industrious critters found their way past the barbed wire and into our neighbors field.   The brush is so thick thru there that the guys didn't even attempt going in there.   Joel and Jeremy kept running down our fence line trying to keep the pigs in sight.

Pretty soon I spotted them coming back the same way they went into the field.   Jeremy had gone up to the house and grabbed some apples, one of their favorite treats.   He was hoping that they might be enticed to follow Joel if they knew he had apples waiting for them.   Nope.   Nadda.   They could have cared less.   They were having the time of their lives.   At least they stayed together.   That's one good thing about them being siblings, I suppose.

Good girl, Bacon.   Come on girl.   Well, at least they came back onto our land.   We spent the better part of an hour trying to prod, push, corral, and lead them back to their pen.....all of it was in vain.   By now the pigs were panting as it was really hot and they hadn't had any water.  Every once in a while they would lie down next to each other under a tree, trying to cool off.   I went off searching for rope, thinking that if we could just lasso them while they were down and out, maybe we could finally get them into their pen.

Guess what I found out?   We are a farm without a rope.  Not a single, lousy piece of rope was to be found.   Nowhere!   Unbelievable!   You know what I'm buying this week, don't you?   Yessiree!

Just when it seemed we had all reached an impasse, Joel remembered some red nylon rope-like stuff in his truck.   We ran up to get it while Jeremy sat with the pigs.

But the pigs were on the move again.  Seriously???   Now we were just plain old irritated that they wouldn't cooperate.   Another 15 minutes and they laid down under the trees again, really panting hard this time.

Joel made a noose of sorts with the rope and managed to get it around Bacon's neck.   She was not too happy, let me tell you.   There was quite a bit of squealing going on while Joel and Jeremy pulled her into the pen.   Ok, one down, one to go.

It took us another 10 minutes, but we finally got Pork Chop in the pen, too.   Boy, were they ever glad to be back where they had access to water and their mud hole.

Jeremy sprayed them down to help cool them off and they both promptly laid down in their mud hole.   It's a pig thing.   Joel still had to remove the red rope from around Bacon's neck and we were done.   And it only took us an hour and a half.   Brother.

As the three of us wearily walked back toward the house, the pigs laid in their wallow....happy to be home once again.  Let's hope we never have to repeat this adventure.

Going rope shopping this week,
Debbie