Entropy acres

I have this fantasy farm in my head, where everything is perfect: the animals never get out of their fences, the paths and pastures are always free of mud, and every is perfectly organized and runs smoothly. Of course this past week was the opposite of perfect. The abundant rain made lots of mud, the pigs learned to root around a post until they knocked their fence over and snuck out; just the usual farm chaos. Brian always laughs because every time things seem under control and caught up, something happens that takes him several days to fix! But eventually the sun came out and we got some work done. I trimmed all the goats hooves and cleaned out the milking/hay and feed storage shed, while Brian built a new pig shanty and set up fencing to move them to a new area to clear.

Mystery Pig

Last week I was doing my usual morning chores: milking, hauling water, etc, and I had just fed our two rather large pigs and left them happily munching in the pig house. As I started heading up the hill I heard some piggish grunting and snorting and was confused because I was sure the piggies were behind me. A little, brown hairy pig came nosing her way through the bushes and under our fence, where she snorted at me and then walked straight into the pig house and starting eating breakfast! I had no clue where she came from. So I called Brian at work so he could laugh at the absurdity of a pig just showing up, and the kids ran down and instantly fell in love with the new pig, and begged me to let them keep and name her.

We all piled in the truck and start asking our neighbors if they have lost a pig. I got to our neighbor Bud's, where I find him on the phone calling around to see if anyone has found a pig! He was thrilled we had her, but he figured she would just escape again if he put her back. So much to the kids' delight, he asked if we could watch her for the week until he got her pen under control and found a new pig or two to keep her company. He thought she escaped because her larger companions had recently been sent to the butcher and she was lonely.

We kept her for a week, and with Bud's permission the kids named her "Chocolate". Then Bud showed up with a friend and we had a fun time getting a rope around her, slipping her under our fence, and then they led her home with a bucket of feed. Our seven year old helped by turning off the electric fence at the right times and then turning it on so our pigs would stay in.

She hasn't been back so she must be happy with her companions. Also Bud ended up getting a boy pig so we might use him to breed our girls. Brian and I had a good laugh about living somewhere where run away pigs travel through woods and cross roads just to hang out with our pigs!

Here are some new photos, taken by our ten year old:

Action shot

Tiling on New Years eve

Our 4 year old playing with legos

And here is a picture of Brian's raw, bleeding hands after grouting our floor. Ouch!