A busy day with a magic moment ending

The piggies and I had a great day today – the piggies because they got lots of treats and lots of time in the pasture, and me because I got a TON of work done.

The day started with an hour’s weedwhacking with my NEW battery-operated electric weedwhacker. Yes, I caved and bought one after having my arms turn to jello and my shoulder pulled from the socket yet again with the gas one. My 20V Yarkworks cordless trimmer and edger is a dream!!! It does a great job even in my long, somewhat wet grasses – a much more efficient job than the gas one. The lithium battery lasts a good hour at full power, and an hour is about all I can manage at a time so that works for me. It has automatic feed (no more “bumping”) with cartridge spools (no more “winding”), and I was able to get it well balanced for my short frame by installing the accessory handle below the midpoint instead of above as the diagram showed. Goodbye, back-breaking, arm-numbing Not-So-Featherlite gas trimmer!!!

As well as weedwhacking for an hour this morning, I finally did the “big clean” on the barn that I have been meaning to get to all week - washed all the pig dishes and containers and storage bins, cleaned the main part (feed area/hay storage) of the barn, completely cleaned the stalls right down to the bare floor and put new straw in the bed area, new shavings in the pee area, cleaned the small fenced potty area and put new shavings down, and raked the pig yard.

We had some awesome visitors, potential adopters who are busy planning how best to meet the needs of piggies at their hobby farm which is quickly becoming a forever home for rescued animals. They came bearing gifts – a bale of alfalfa, a big bag of peanuts, and a cash donation to Hearts on Noses. The piggies displayed their enthusiasm for the peanuts by raising their snouties high and showing how nicely they can “sit” for a treat. They will be very excited to get some alfalfa with their breakfast tomorrow.

The piggies spent two hours in the pasture while I carted old hay, piggy poop and shavings back and forth. They were very good – not straying too far, and coming whenever I called them. Returning to the barn, Scotch was a little perturbed to find I had taken all the old broken down straw and hay out and put down nice fresh straw – he does NOT like people messing with his bed! So he sulked out in the pig yard for a while, where much of the old straw and hay was now distributed over the muddiest, most slippery sections. But by dinner time he had gotten over it and was buried up to the snoutie in his fresh bed of straw.

I did a dump run, picked up some fruit and veggie trimmings from my friend Lou, spent another hour weedwhacking, chatted with a neighbour, and threw in a couple of loads of laundry. Not bad for one day.

I was already feeling very content with life when I went to close up the barn for the night and had one of those “awwwwwwwww” moments. With the sleeping stall full of nice fresh straw and the old hay all removed, it was pretty easy to see something was amiss when I went to close the barn door. I could see a big pile of pale straw in the feeding stall, between the water dish and the burlap flap of the piggy door. A closer inspection and three little piggie heads popped up.

In the past, I sometimes found hay/straw in the feeding stall. I always assumed the pigs just dragged it around accidentally when they went to get a drink. But today the truth came out.

I guess three of the babes figure they are big enough to have their “own” room now instead of sleeping with mama and papa. There they were, side-by-side-by-side on the piles of straw they must have carried from the other stall, looking out at the night sky through the gaps around the burlap.

Too bad it was too dark for a picture, and they were snuggled too deeply in straw for me to figure out just which three they were. But it sure put a smile on my face. Sleep well, little ones!


Napping in the pigyard

Scotch and Soda