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
The Kitchen's Garden 
52 responses to “The Day of Pigs”
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!