The Day of Pigs
On the loose.
Hugo and I made a dash for the feed store and the the grocery store (which was not as successful as I remember – it has been so long since I was in the supermarket that they have changed everything around.) So I lost more than I found anything and of course Hugo is a label reader. Which is good of course.
I dropped him off at the farm with the bags then went back out to return the big car to town and on my arrival home I found the gate to the kunekune field OPEN (with huge harvesters in the field only feet away) and both pigs gone. Hugo found Tane in the field cleaning up after the harvest and I found Tima in the shed ripping bags of feed open as fast as she could! 
We got them both back under lock and key and after unpacking all the groceries, and tidying the kitchen I set about making Megan’s last dinner – Mama’s Lasagna with aubergine and tomatoes from the garden ( I snuck in a layer of pan fried kale and grated beetroot which was a divine, if surprising, addition), and a bechamel sauce made with my own cream and then of course the ricotta.
So I was happily constructing the Dinner singing to myself when Poppy burst through the screen doors. POPPY! Yes a Sow. A big pig. Wild eyed and Covered in cow shit (I could be nice and say cow manure but it does not have the same ring as cow shit and pigs LOVE to roll in it.) 
A pig coming INTO the Kitchen. I called (with some urgency) for Hugo again and we shepherded a very tired and confused pig in high and hysterical Heat back to the barn where Sheila slept oblivious. Much later I found where Poppy had gone through the field to the other side of the barn, picked the lock of one of the big barn doors, gone through the milking shed like a dose of salts, knocking over every bucket, heaved bales of hay aside and eventually escaped into the yard. I am so glad she has a fondness for the kitchen verandah because that is where she ended up. Of course now she and Sheila are locked down even tighter where they cannot possibly get out.
Poor Manu must have been hiding on the other side of his hill hoping he would not be discovered.
Poppy will go to the boar in January, we do not want piglets born into the freezing cold, it will kill them,and i do not have a warm room, so Poppy has to wait a few more months – though preferably not in my kitchen!
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
52 Comments on “The Day of Pigs”
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Oh Dear, pigs in the house. Not good! On a pig note, Brittany noticed the October pic on the calendar and asked if that was Sheila! “She’s a pretty big pig” – indeed! Thank goodness she slept through, and didn’t join in, the pig antics!
Hilarious! I did wonder if they were en route to Cuba 😉
Haha, did you mean to the Bay of Pigs, Mad Dog?
Funnily enough, yes 😉
Could have caused political problems. No?
Ha ha, maybe not – they love pork in Cuba 🙂
So in any case: Problems for the pigs indeed… They’d get in bad troubles and never ever would return home to the Farmy. Right? We all would suffer then… No pigs, no fun…. 😦
I can’t see Sheila going and she’d tip off the regulars. It would just be the poor Plonkers embarking on a trip to southern climes…
Oh my word. What an image! The vision of a large Hereford sow tastefully crusted with dried cowshit bursting into your kitchen in full hormonal snit is absolutely hysterical. She’s obviously a very intelligent girl, and she just wanted a visit with her Miss C. Unlike that porky great Tima, who has an unbelievable talent for discovering food of any kind. Love that photo of her – she has a smugly satisfied expression, as if to say “got my snacking done before you caught me!”
That is assuming the cowshit was dried . . .
Perhaps I was hoping she hadn’t come *directly* from her wallow to Celi’s clean and, um, differently-scented kitchen…
And tes .. the cow shit was not dried, it was FRESH!! c
Poppy the sow, how glorious. I guess she just wanted to socialise because you take such good care of her and Sheila. Celi, I admire you for working so hard. Have a great Wednesday. Mad Dog’s joke was awesome, “Day of Pigs.” Too funny because pork is very much loved in Cuba, actually.
Oh my. What a wonderful giggle I’ve had at this early hour. It’s like having a preschool of unruly toddlers running amok. And you are correct, manure would not have the same effect. Call a spade a spade. 🙂 Your tales always make my day. Have a good one too. 🙂
This is hysterically funny. What got into them? It’s as if a viral message whizzed around telling everyone porcine to go nuts on you!
They saw the cows playing ‘piggy-back’ last week and decided that this was their turn for some fun!
Just got to love these piggy girls and boys. Laugh. Laura
I don’t know where you find the strength to cope with all these ‘wild’ animals. What a good job Hugo was there.
I hope barriers remain intace from now on. The maize harvest is in full swing now with tractor/trailers constantly to-ing and fro-ing from dawn to well past dusk, but the field before my eyes remains lush and high.
Wow, what a crazy day!
You are certainly making a case for pigs. We should get two piglets soon and I’m not looking forward to pigs in my kitchen 🙂 They don’t get out much, do they?
Any escape is human error, Ii can trace them straight back to me every time.. however REMEMBER to keep your piglets in a lock up area until the learn the POWER of the BUCKET or in Poppys case a kitchen bowl.. c
We’re laughing here but oh dear, what a lot of extra work for you all 😦 GLad you had that delicious sounding lasagne to fortify you at the end of it all!
Made me chuckle this am! Cow shit indeed. Lots of mischief!
That’s the greatest story today… a piggie free-for-all. But the greatest line today didn’t involve the piggies… and it is (drum roll) “…and, of course, Hugo is a label reader.” I could feel you trying not to tap your toe and sigh….and was cracking up here before pigs were even mentioned. Sounds like a great day in the neighbourhood. hehehehe
Hope you’ve recovered from that crazy day and things go a little more smoothly today. ~ Mame 🙂
I thought that, too! Reminding yourself “It’s a good thing.”
Me too, that line jumped right out at me and I thought, oh there’s a woman working at being patient 🙂
Whoa! That Hop and Pop is too much!!!! Talk about a wild and crazy pig!!! Well, the good thing is that you only have two more months to go through these rages with her, and then it’s preggie time again, thank goodness!!! 🙂
Those crazy pigs! 😀 I’m always reminded of that Robert Munsch children’s book called Pigs when I read about your guys!
Poor Poppy, trying to solve an urgent problem. I knew a dog that loved rolling in shit, any kind of poop. It was horrible!!
What a crazy day you had.
Cow shit is the only way to describe it. I have a peg on my nose… Oh wait now! It is the smell from the farmers round about at their muck spreading. Hormones> Who would have them?
oh my goodness……too funny and the images provoked are just hilarious!
This is one for the books. In the Trib this morning is an article about China’s genetically altered pigs who top out at 39 pounds. Maybe I should cut it out and send it to Poppy to read…..her the riot act! And those rascals T&T too.
You had quite a day!
I laughed, too, but mostly sympathized because of all the time it takes from an already busy and tiring day! Still, I think the very funniest line is the ‘now she and Sheila are locked down even tighter where they cannot possibly get out.’ If Poppy gets a chance to read that, she’ll take it as a challenge and stop at nothing to do it again and let all the others out with her!
HAHAHA! Do you ever wish your life was less of an adventure? Nah, me neither!
This made me laugh out loud! Tima ripping open the seed bags, hahahaha!! Oh and dear Poppy!Poopy Poppy.
Hilarious. Good thing you were wise enough to not keep the goats.
romper room days!
Herding cats, hah… amateurs! Never a dull moment with those pigs.
I hate it when they change the supermarket and I can just put my hand to the items I want, plus I too am a label reader and they tend to be like a train wreck I can’t ignore… look at what’s in this! even if I’d never buy it.
Oh, what a busy time you’ve had with the pigs – similar like little kids, isn’t it? Here, there, everywhere you have to check all around you… Phew! It’s kinda carousel!
A pig in the kitchen! It’ll be normal when you cook something porky… And with cow shit. No. What does Poppy think? She has no education at all, has she? – I wonder if cow shit has some healing stuff in, so that’s why pigs love it so much… Oh, poor Celi, what a mess. She could have run out to the street also, what a thought…. – But all is well now, because all is locked up tight. Have a nice evening! Mmmmmh, that Lasagna……
Oh that is too funny – of course they’re not MY pigs on the lam! i can imagine the fun you had trying to get Tima AWAY from the feed bags.
I haven’t checked in on you in a while and I can see things are just as exciting and fun as ever! Next time you need to take a camera shot before you kick her out of the kitchen. That would have been QUITE a calendar shot! ha
There’s an exciting day for y’all!
Oh my! You don’t have any trouble knowing when Poppy is in heat! Maybe Tima is eating for two–or ten. What an appetite! It’s never “just another day” on the farmy, is it? Always something to mess with Miss C’s organized schedule.
Oh boy, I couldn’t imagine a pig bursting into my kitchen .. That lasagna sounds heavenly
What wild pigs!
Love the title….love the whole post:)
That Poppy! Storming into your kitchen is one thing, but coming in while wearing her own special mud pack is entirely different. I’m sure I’d have a good laugh if it happened to me — but it would be at least a few weeks later. 🙂
A pig in the kitchen is one thing, but I admit it was reading about that open gate earlier in the post that made me gasp out loud. Crikey. Pigs with a Death Wish. So glad you rounded them up before anything bad could happen.
Oh my – a person just can’t make up the “fun” that happens on a farm! Thank you for sharing this laugh with us … although, I am sure laughter might not have been the first response. Also, I agree, “cow shit” is the most spot-on vocabulary for that function of cows….
My first time here – fascinating! My childhood was spent across the highway from a dairy farm, and I occasionally helped bring the cows in for milking. Thanks for visiting my blog today!
Welcome Dianna.. I bet that was something you never forgot. Helping with the cows.. c