Spring

With the final arrival of spring (at last), the piggallas suddenly are big girls.  In the last week they have claimed all the fenced yard as their own.  While they still go back to their shed to sleep and for protection from weather, and they still eat and rest in their smaller, previously penned area, they mostly roam at large.  I have taken down the "gate" as it no longer serves any purpose.  For awhile, I was letting them out on the weekends but penning them back up while I was at work.  Right about the time I decided that was really not necessary, they started breaking down their gate, which was never really much of a gate in the first place.

Funnily, in their area, that they completely rooted up, some flora are flourishing.  There are daffodils blooming, peonies popping, and the Rose of Sharon, which I was sure was a goner, is sprouting.  I am amazed that these, the prettiest of what is back there, survived (along with some weeds).  Here is a pic of the pigs among the daffodils.

You will have to look closely to see those daffies, and stay tuned for those peonies.

Tender and Yum-Yum have a new favorite spot.  It's right under the window in the kitchen.  It's a great window for them as it is only about a foot or so from the ground.  I made the mistake of opening the screen one day and feeding them some treat or other from there.  Now, I often find them camped out...waiting, and when they get impatient, grunting and squealing.  Here are Pigs at the Window.

Here is the warrior look.
I am William Wallace.
I am menacing.
I can, will, and have tried to climb in.
Feed me; I am ferocious.

Here is the no-guile look.
I am a pig.
I am cute.
You should feed me.

The piggallas just keep eating and growing.  I have not really increased their food supply, but grow they do.  With the extended daylight hours and recently arrived spring weather, we have been having some fine times hanging out in the pig yard, me sitting on an overturned washtub, the girls on their sides, waiting for me to rub their bellies.  It's all about quality girl time. Although, last Thursday night it snowed again, today we reached 85.

While I never seem to have my camera at the right moment, or the battery has died, I did get a few unusual pictures this week.  The last of the four is less than flattering, and I would not be happy if someone caught me from this angle.  On the other hand, you can't tell which pig it is, Tender or Yummy, so that makes it alright...right?

 This first photo, I really like.  I do not have much to say about it other than I thought it was a strange configuration for the pigs...one standing and the other practically right under her.  Nice gams, Yummy.

So, here is Tender after another mud bath.  She revels in them more than Yum-Yum does.  Anyway, they

had excavated yet another hole, but given the weather, instead of filling it back in with dirt, I filled it with water.  High times for Tender.  Post bath, Tender was both sunning herself and grabbing a snack. Yes, she is eating lying down.






                                                     

Okay, here they come.  These two photos do not do my beauties justice; however, each does give a good indication of the pigs' girth these days.
They are some pigs.

                                                                         THE END

Last week's spring break passed quickly and tomorrow is Thursday already.  My internet has been incredibly slow lately, so I have been unable to do much of anything, which is annoying.  Tonight, though, things are moving along so I am going to post my latest pig news.  Our weather has been abysmal.  Cold. Windy.  Still getting down into the 20s at night, even the low 20s. It's April.  It's terrible.  I haven't planted a seed, at least not outside, but the snow drops, crocus, and the daffodils have blossomed.  I saw the first traces of my bleeding heart, so the earth must be warming up, and we have had the occasional fine spring day.  This past Saturday was one such day.  The pictures below will show the fun we had.  I dumped a bucket of water into one of the holes the pigs had created through their rooting, and Tender especially thought that was one swell idea.

Although the bath was not so deep, Tender made a point of rolling around so as to cover as much of herself as she could.  I have to say, I was feeling a little jealous and reminiscent of a time at Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark, MA.  Anyway...

after she had had enough, I got both pigs to run with me to the other side of the yard.  I have not yet taken my ideal pig running picture, so I will continue to try to capture them in full gallop.  We did manage to trot to the garden where, finally, the pigs decided to do a little work.  For whatever reason, they stuck to the edge.

They dug pretty deep,

and I see now what those jowls are for,

but a pig must finally come up for air.

Not Spring Break

This week, we are on spring break.  It's a week earlier than I prefer, but who is going to complain about a week off?  Actually, we were supposed to go to school Monday and Tuesday to make up two snow days, so break was technically going to be from Wednesday to Friday, except the snow came again on Sunday into Monday. No school Monday.  No school Tuesday either.  We had our week off afterall. Works for me.

I can't say much about the piggallas this week.  They continue to grow and root.  They squeal like mad when I arrive with their food; otherwise, they are relatively quiet.  Most people do not even know they are there, which is fine with me.  I feel protective of them and harbor the craziest worries where they are concerned.  During the week, I do not spend as much time with the piggallas as I would like.  I feed/water them twice a day, police their yard every evening while they eat, give them fresh straw, fluff up their nest, and generally tidy the place up.  Weekends, I try to give them a little more attention.  So, on a pleasant Friday two weeks ago, I poured myself a glass of wine (in a Mason jar), climbed into the pen, sat on the overturned washtub, and drank my wine while enjoying the company of my pigs.  I snapped a self-portrait, but it will not make it to these pages.

With the snow and subsequent melting, the pig pen area is one major mud slide.  I won't mention how many times I have slipped and almost fallen. As temps warm up, and they continue to root--ay yi yi!  I cannot imagine it. Since I am home this week, and the weather may be improving, I will let them out into the yard at large.  If only I could get them into the garden where I want them to root.

As for pics, here are a few.  As you can see, the snow no longer daunts them.  They just push on through, which is why their yard looks like the mess it does.

They have recently made the connection among three major points in their life: me, their food, and the back door. They have never come in the house.  They do not really show any inclination towards coming in the house.  However, when they can roam at large, Tender especially likes to park herself right in front of the door.

Let me in!

For next week, I must try to get a picture of them running and jumping.  Believe it or not, Yummy took a leap to get at one of those Trader Joe's peanut butter dog biscuits.  I swear to you she had all four of those cloven feet off the ground.

My goal for this break is to rest and relax at home.  My favorite form of relaxation is reading. My current selection is Bleak House by Charles Dickens.  I am only on about page 280 of 800+ pages, yet I feel like I have figured out the plot.  Esther, the orphan, is Jane Eyre and Mr. Jarndyce is Mr. Rochester and Lady Dedlock is Esther's mother.  I could be wrong...don't tell me, and  I do not yet know how Jarndyce and Jarndyce will resolve, but do I want to read 520 more pages to find out?  In the course of reading Bleak House, which I took home from school last summer, I have started and finished many other books, fiction and non.  I told myself I would finish this tome once and for all this spring break, but I am already losing steam.  Running a marathon might be easier. All I can say is stay tuned...

Weekend Revelry

 The girly-girls have been extremely busy in their yard, as evident from Yummy's face.  Rooting is a euphemism from my perspective.  What the pigs do is more like excavating.  Below is a picture from when they first arrived.  They are relatively small still, and innocuous.  Notice the verdant yard.  Although the angle is different and the now spot would be the foreground of that Rose of Sharon tree, the difference is obvious.  I am wondering if I need to feed the pigs more or if this is just what they do when the ground gets soft with spring.  Judging from their stomachs, they do not yet need an increase in their food supply.

THEN

NOW

We passed a quiet weekend.  Saturday was pleasant with temperatures in the low 60s.  We all played in the yard for awhile, but the ground is still too wet to do much from a gardening perspective.  I could not get the piggallas to do in the garden what they are doing in their own yard, but I wish I could.

Sunday was miserable.  Temps were back in the 30s and rain came and went.  Everyone stayed indoors most of the day.  Dot and I did not even go for our walk.  It's rare that we miss a day, but neither one of us seemed inclined. While she slept, I indulged myself with this week's issue of The New Yorker and the Sunday Times. Pure revelry for me.  When the pigs did come out, they also indulged in pure revelry for them, which comes second only to eating.






                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                   
                                 
                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                   

Scenes from Behind

These two photos show how the girls jostle and shove as they eat.  They push off of each other as they try to best position themselves, both for optimum eating and food protection.  (More on that in a bit.) Yes, they each have their own little trough, but that does not matter.  At least once during feed time, they will exchange places, just to make sure the other one does not have more or something more delectable.

The other reason I took these pictures is to try to show what they are doing to the yard.  They are on the verge of uprooting a Rose of Sharon tree.  Look closely.  You can see the roots they have already exposed.

Now, for this week's major story.  The pig yard was infiltrated!  By a RAT.  I had my suspicions.  Earlier in the week, I had noticed that something had scratched its way under the gate to the pen.  I knew the pigs didn't do it because it was logistically impossible.  Besides, this was a definite burrow as opposed to a root.

Then, on Saturday, we spotted it.  Eating out of the trough.  Right next to the pigs.  So, yet another pig myth gets dispelled.  That would be the one about pigs being vehement rodent killers.  For a few days, this rat was in hog heaven. Now, he is in rat heaven.  Although I could have dubbed him Templeton and pretended I had my own little Charlotte's Web barnyard, I didn't.  I know that just like there is no such thing as one mouse or one flea, there is also no such thing as one rat. The sooner it was gone, the better.

Look at this formidable (not RADIANT) pig.  She will push like hell to keep her sister out of her food dish, even if that means standing in it, yet the rat was welcome.  Oh well, sorry Yummy.  We will have to find you a new friend...a cat perhaps?

So much for spring.  We had our most snow in two or three years between last night and today.  The snow started at 7:30 last night and did not stop until about 3:00 today.  It was amazing.  I would guess we had about 14 inches in all.  The piggallas survived just fine, but I did go out there at 4 this morning.  I got up because I thought I was having a heating issue.  Luckily, I was not.  Since I was up, I grabbed a shovel and a flashlight and figured I would go check on the girls. By then the snow was mighty deep for creatures with such short legs.  Although I think they could have plowed their way through the snow, I cleared a path and an area for them to eat and frolic.  They came busting out of their nest when they heard me, squealing and squawking, but they made their way back to bed when they realized I had no food.  They are quite vociferous now.  Perhaps they woke the neighbors.

 I love this picture of Tender, and I only got it by luck.  As you can see, one more second and I would have missed her completely.

Both girls enjoyed the snow just fine, although they were pleased with my clearing it for them.  As I said, their legs are pretty short.  When they wandered into uncharted areas, they became bogged down by their bellies dragging in the snow.  I tried not to laugh.

And, in the you have got to be kidding department:  When I went to feed them at around 7 this morning, I took an old bath towel with me.  After they ate, I toweled them off.  Although I do not think they minded being wet, I do think they liked the rub down.  Not sure what I was thinking.  Oh well.  They are bigger now.  When they were younger, they did shiver in the cold and wet.

One of today's treats is a newly discovered one.  The piggallas yammer for Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Dog Treats.  The ingredients seem harmless enough, so why not?  Dot isn't too happy about it though.  I like to give the pigs the squirrels because they are really too big for the dog, at least from my perspective.  So the pigs get the squirrels and Dot gets the shoes, the bones, the cats, and whatever else there might be...maybe fire hydrants?  I can't really remember.  They are delicious though.  I have tried a bite myself.

Finally a brief tribute to irony.  My husband spent last week wild boar hunting in Texas. He managed to bag one boar.  Here they are.  Hard to tell which one is the ham...