"This Little Piggy Went To......"

This spring, Holley and I purchased three feeder pigs to raise and butcher this Fall. We put the rack on the truck head out to the western edge of Berks county to pick up our 40 pound, Gloucester Old Spot piglets. About an hour trip one way. We got the little guys loaded nicely in the bed of the truck and head back to our farm. Now, there is about a six inch gap between the top of the tailgate of the truck and the bottom of the rack gate on top of the truck bed. Within about a mile of leaving the farm where we purchased the pigs, Holley yelled "Stop!!" The little porkers were trying push the rack gate up with their snoots and hop out the back of the truck.

We didn't have anything to tie the rack gate down. We kept going. Holley would watch out the back window, yell "stop", I'd pull over, we push pig noses back down, and carry on. After about the fifth time, Holley suggested that she ride in the bed of the truck with them. I didn't think it was a good idea. The truck was a year out of inspection and still had snow tires on it which was illegal that time of year. I said "All we need now is to be pulled over by a cop and I would have to explain why my wife is riding in the bed of an un-inspected truck that has illegal snow tires with three little pigs and covered in pig dung." "Well officer, with all that pig dung on her, she can't very well ride in the cab now can she."

As it turns out, the pigs got motion sickness and settled down towards the front of the truck bed allowing Holley to face forward in the cab thus recovering from her own queasiness from staring out the rear window and getting back home without further excitement.

 If you want a dose of humility, Try raising livestock. It stands to reason that the animal's daily agenda will be different then yours. Most days your agenda prevails but some days the animal's agenda takes priority. One afternoon I was showing someone around our farm. We went into the barn where I had the pigs (or so I thought). They're helping turn the winter bedding so it would compost nicely. My agenda. When we came into the barn, there were no pigs. They had escaped and were happily grazing outside and bathing in the water troth. Their agenda.