Pigs might fly…
I may have mentioned once or twice about my aversion to pigs. And chooks. No? Well, it’s true. It’s not that I have anything against them per se but I have my own brand of farming going on here, and I know two things for sure.
1. I am not meant to be a chook (poultry) farmer. We live near a river which means stick-fast fleas are rife – I helped dip chooks when I was a kid – foul business. (Boom-boom). I love eggs, but I love NOT having to tend chooks more. (My parents do a sterling job providing fabulous fresh eggs. )
2. I am not meant to be a pig farmer. I am frightened stiff of wild pigs – the numbers of which are escalating in this area. Wild pigs can attack – they are big and black and hairy and they bite…SCARY. And, how can I put this nicely… pig farming on any scale can be a whiffy business.
My husband comes from a pig-farming background. While he doesn’t enjoy wild pigs at all, he does love piglets. And pork. He tried to convince me to take a baby piglet he’d picked up from the paddock one day (wet umbilical cord in place)… thinking he’d win me over with it’s cuteness. I refused to even GLANCE at it. Gross.
They this week, I visited my cousin. (She frames my photos for me – locals can see some of the results at the local doctor’s surgery.)
She is more gullible open-minded than I. Her husband brought home TWO piglets. And convinced her to keep them, promising great pork roasts.
The piglets now run with the chooks. Literally…
Funny little things. I’m not being ignorant or calling them names, by the way.
Their names are Thing One and Thing Two.
And I HAVE to admit…
They ARE kinda cute…
In a trit-trotty, busy, just outa-reach, curly-tailed kinda way.
And then tip-toe trailing after a visiting child, almost makes you want to go:
“Awwwwwww…”
They seem almost sweet, chasing Em around, hoping for some dinner.
But then she let slip that they nip a little. To hurry her up. And then I remembered they will most likely grow into one of these porcine monsters. Have you SEEN the ivories on these things?
*shudder*
Which brings me back to their names. Understanding the need to seperate the cute factor from reality…
I think Bacon and Rind would be better, don’t you?
😉
BB
25 Comments
Jayne
Roast and Crackling are beaut names, too 😉
Jayne´s last blog post ..I haz more, much more, from where the previous dribble came from
Lynda M O
My favorite meal with a piggy aboard is Sausage Gravy and Biscuits. I could call the cute little piggies G and B with no provocation… thinking about making a white sauce with bright red droplets of hot sauce… Mmmmm.
Thanks for sharing your family, ranch, and animals with the innertubes.
Sal
Love this post! I do love hand-raising the little things although will not bottle feed them anymore after I found out how clever and faithful they really are. …a little black piglet called Pinky used to follow me on the horse and try and come mustering too. He could have been a dog. My husband didn’t think we needed an extra in our team of working dogs though 🙁 So now only do them if they are old enough to feed themselves. Have only just put our very own Porky and Bacon in the freezer. Cute pics, they make me smile! 🙂
Hippomanic Jen
They are cute, and bring a reminiscing smile to my face of a tiny piglet won in a “catch the greasy pig” competition who was raised with a litter of puppies. Our friend who had done the catching wasn’t happy when we nicknamed it “Pork Chop” – but after so many years I can’t remember his/her real name…
debby
Not sure what has happened to your blog, but I don’t see pigs. Flying or otherwise. I see your last blog post with a whole new name.
debby´s last blog post ..Backwards
Bush Babe
Hmmmm. SOMETHING weird is going on… *grabs hammer*
jeanie
ha ha – how apt after I sent you that email that this is your post…
jeanie´s last blog post ..Aaaaah insomnia…
KAddy
Well worth the wait – thanks BB
Margie from New York
Whenever I think of pigs in Australia, I remember that movie the Thorn Birds and how Meggie’s brother was killed by the big wild pig. So I don’t blame you for not wanting them around. Bacon & Rind sound good to me!
Kelly
Pork is my favorite meat. I’ve no desire to have pigs, though. And we don’t name our livestock that might end up in our freezer!
Now when my husband use to grow chickens (in another life) it was on the commercial level with the big houses, etc. I live in a part of the world where it’s not unusual to get behind a semi-rig loaded down with cages and cages of chickens headed to the processing plant.
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Steph
Jimmy and Dean are good names!
JENNY TALIA
I seem to recall a certain lady jumping out of her skin when her husband brought one of these baby pigs home and put it in a box. In her kitchen!
This is the same lady that didn’t bat an eyelid over a monster snake living in her pantry.
x
JENNY TALIA´s last blog post ..conversations with Magoo
BB
Forgot you were here when he tried that. Yep. Not a fan of the wild pig, that’s fer sure!
ellie k
we have so many wild pigs here in florida and they do so much damage to farms, fence lines and lawns. they leave holes in fields that cows can break a leg in but they do taste very good if cooked right. if trapped young and raised to a nice weight they are very good to eat. you are right wild hogs can be very mean when cornered.
Margareta Osborn
Seriously funny 😀
debby
Pork and Beans?
I think that Jenny has a major point. You are very calm about a very large snake, but a nervous wreck about pigs. Seems odd, except for one thing: When I look into a pig’s eyes, it freaks me out a bit. Pigs have some wierd eyes. Cows look at you w/ kind eyes. Pigs look at you like the minute you let your guard down, you’re going to pay…
That being said, snakes still freak ME out even more.
debby´s last blog post ..Backwards
Veronica
Pancetta and ham.
Fiona
Loved your last post BB with your beautiful black bovines … we’re on the lookout for a little more rain also, hopefully not too far off.
Being a lover of both pigs and chooks, and proud owner of both, I also love this post. You really must get yourself some pigs … do it for the kids!
Fiona´s last blog post ..Legs Eleven
Gretchen in KS
Hubby raised two pigs before I met him, but in different years, so far as I can tell from the stories. They were Arnold and Sugar. I think it was Arnold who ran with their dogs (they had a breeding kennel at the time–Weimeraners and German Shepherds) and learned to point birds. I gather that a full-grown boar hog is hilarious when attempting to stand on point.
Sugar treed the propane delivery man, but only because he reached down to pet the “dog” at his knee before he looked, and was “magically” astride the propane tank after he looked but before he thought about it.
In the years since I joined the family, we’ve only had one pig. Her name was Breakfast (we also had a goose named Christmas, and a rooster named Dinner at the same time) and while she had the slightly rude tendency to try to drag visiting males off to her lair (females could expect a nip, not always very gentle, whether visiting or not) she was the final proof I needed that hubby cannot eat something he’s raised. Chickens are good for eggs, but we’ve only raised meat birds once, and have no plans to try it again. Now he says he wants calves… how long do those live? 😉
BB
Gretchen – that is hilarious. Calves live for quite some time if you get too attached to them! A neighbour had a pet bullock which grew bigger than a horse. It stayed after he sold the place (to my brother) and we had T-bones which hung over the plate by a good 5cm all round. BIG.
Your pig’s behaviour? Exactly why I am agin raising one here – pigs are FAR too smart. It’s why I picked another Great Dane – I prefer domesticated animals to be dumber than me.
🙂
BB
BB´s last blog post ..Pigs might fly…
Nancy in Iowa
Piglets are certainly cute, but my sister and I once had to dodge feral pigs in the North Georgia mountains when we were hiking. As soon as we spotted the prints we, and the dogs with us, did rapid U-turns!
connie
We can identify with the feral pig problem as we also have it here in Texas. They are destructive, scary and despicable. Our aged gelding that weighs in at a thousand pounds refuses to spend the night in the back pasture adjacent to the lake where the pigs like to hang out whenever not occupied in rooting up our lawn. Some of the boars can weigh almost as much as a horse and are fierce and “fanged.” The gelding is smart enough to know that! Shooting them means sitting up all night for weeks on end until they make an appearance, but more often than not they destroy and disappear before dawn.
Oh, and I had to tend my mothers chickens as a child too and have exactly your opinion of them. The only good things about pigs and chickens can be found at a restaurant serving breakfast.
ron
Today I get to talk about two former presidents who supposedly had some influence over the direction of this country at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. I’m talking about George W. Bush and our favorite playboy president Bill Clinton.
Jennifer
Bacon & Rind sound good to me! Whenever I think of pigs in Australia, I remember that movie the Thorn Birds and how Meggie’s brother was killed by the big wild pig. So I don’t blame you for not wanting them around.
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Helen G.
Love this post, B.B. My niece moved out to the country several years ago so she could have horses. First time I visited her she was showing me around, her horses, the rabbits and chickens they had gotten and asked if I knew they had bought a calf to raise for beef and she had named it. I told her you shouldn’t name things you were going to eat as it made it more difficult to kill it and butcher it… She looked at me and said, “Aunt Helen, we call him hamburger!”.
Kids nowadays…
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