Piggies!!!

Well, today was the big day!!!  I woke up at 7:45 A.M. with the goal of picking up my niece at 9:00 A.M.  I needed to secure the livestock rack to the truck, coordinate with the sellers, clean the cab of my truck for my niece...and head west for pigs!

"Today is the day you have been working for!"  A text from Mom.  It's so true.  The "house" project has taken on a crazy twisted turn with a focus on pigs and the barn, and I love it.  So many hours of fencing, hours of repairing, digging, lifting, and on and on.  You're right, Mom, it's time.  And I love that the family is all behind it.  THIS is how a farmstead should be.

I called my niece to let her know I was coming.  Her sister answered and said, "Mom is kinda busy right now putting pig tails in her hair.  She wanted pig tails for picking up the pigs."  Ha!  Too cute!

I made a quick coffee stop, and then I headed to my niece's house.  She was ready to go!!!

I was ready to go!!!

The middle children ready for an adventure!

I told my sister I didn't really know what to expect, and that was the truth.  I didn't know if the pigs were big, little, spotted, pink, cute, or whatever.  And I was sooooo nervous about this not going well!  My niece was so looking forward to these pigs, and I had an underlying fear that they would be ugly, too big, and everything in between.

But off we headed!!!  I gave the envelope marked "PIGS" to my niece.  It contained $225.  And then we enjoyed an absolutely spectacular half-hour drive to the west.  To create more excitement, I gave her the mapping responsibilities.  I had her type in the address to my phone from a piece of paper, and then she gave me turn-by-turn directions.

I prepped her for the pigs.  "Keekers, I don't know what type of pigs these are.  If they are brown, blue, white, pink, purple, or whatever.  And I don't know if they are big or not."

"Uncle Dede, pigs can't be purple.  And I know because you told me that the pigs will be bigger.  They will be like high schoolers instead of babies."

Oh, the mind of a child.  I don't think she was as nervous as me!

"Uncle Dede, can you help me with something"?

"Sure, what's that"?

"Can you teach me left and right"?

ha!  THIS is why I love picking up pigs.  It's not JUST the pigs, it's little moments like this.  So I started to teach her the trick of making an "L" with your left hand, but she already knew that trick...to no avail.  So I tried something else.  "Ok, Keekers, I tell you what, THIS is left, and THIS is right.  It's very important, because you are in charge of directions!  If you give me a wrong turn, we might not make it to the piggies!"  And with that, the important of left and right was upon her shoulders!!!

Left, left, left, right, right, right.  We practiced with quizzing and just sheer repetition.  Left, right.

Then I taught her all about Mile Markers.  She had never ridden in the front of a vehicle before (in a truck with no back, you have to), so she was sooooo eager with all of the new perspective!  Quite a different view than from the back of a van.  "You have a lot of buttons up there."  Yup, this one is volume, this one is to tune the radio, this saves radio frequencies, this controls hot and cold..."

And then back to Mile Markers.  We were at 78 with a turn coming up at Mile Marker 68, so I taught her how the numbers go down.  So once we got to 68, we were even closer to the piggies!!!

Somewhere in those 10 miles, her fear came out.  "Uncle Dede, is it possible that they can sell those pigs to someone else before us"?  Awwwwww, my heart melted!!!  I have had this experience before with a motorcycle (even after calling the guy to tell him I was on the road coming to him, so I get it!), but I did my best to tell her that I thought we were good to go!  I had talked to the seller this morning, we had set up an appointment, and both the buyer and the seller were eager for the transaction.

How precious.

Once we got off the Interstate, the trip just got downright fun.  The phone showed us how many miles and minutes were left.  Once we hit 10 minutes out, she counted down the rest of the way.  And she even went into a countdown of tenths of a mile without even understanding what they were.  Just that the numbers were going down which meant the pigs were getting closer.

And then there was me.  With 0.9 miles to go, I was still nervous.  Were the pigs going to be ugly?  Were they going to be big?  Was the fun going to be lost because the pigs were way past the cute phase?  I wanted spotted.  And I had NO idea what I was getting!  I knew Duroc and Duroc Cross according to the phone call earlier in the week.  But crossed with what?!

After driving by the place by one drive, I backed up, and both of us were about as excited as we could get.  I received a text as to where to pull up, and without being ready for it, there they were!!!  Sooooo many little piggies in a cage on the back of a tractor!

"Keekers, look at the pigs!!!"

"Uncle Dede, help me get unbuckled!"  ha!  We were both eager to get out.  She had the most-real giggle I think I have ever heard.  Sheer joy.

I was THRILLED with the pigs.  They were the cutest little pigs you've ever seen!!!  They were a GORGEOUS reddish-brown and an absolutely perfect size.  There was a bigger black one, a medium-sized black one, and a Hampshire stripe in the mix, but most were pure Duroc.  And they were stunningly beautiful.  When I looked at Durocs earlier in the week online, I wasn't too in love with them.  They were kind of an ugly brown.

Well, these were a gorgeous red!!!

"I love them."  Keekers had staked her claim on the pigs.  The way she said that comment, too, I REALLY believe she loves them.  It wasn't a loose comment like, "Yeah, I love ice cream."  It was literally, "Yes, THESE are the babies I have been looking forward to for years.  I will do whatever it takes to take care of them."

Seeing her so excited made me even more excited.  She handed the woman the envelope, and we were the official owners of pigs!

"Keekers, we have pigs!!!"

Sheer joy!

The owners told me a little bit about a few.  She thinks that there might be a boar or two in there but isn't sure.  And then she pointed out the littlest of them all...the runt.  "She has been struggling.  We gave her a shot of penicillin this morning for the cold drive back.  We think she will make it, but we're not sure."  The husband chimed in.  "But if she does, she came from one of the biggest sows we have ever had in our operation."

Because my hay was wet, the sellers gave us a free straw bale and we loaded them all up into the truck.  With the cage on hydraulics and its sliding door and my swinging doors, it was quick work!  Less than 30 seconds!

"Keekers, we have pigs!!!"

We talked about the necessity of teaching youth the value of agriculture, and these two sellers were just about as tickled as me that I was passing it on to a younger generation.  I guess not too many young guys pull up with little girls to buy pigs.  We talked about my grandpa teaching ag and leading FFA for 30+ years and the value of organizations like that.  It was just a pleasant experience all-around.  The farm we bought them from wasn't much to look at, but that doesn't bother me one bit.

Oh, one more thing!  "The pigs have been raised inside most of their lives so far.  We throw dirt in there so they can get nutrients not found in feed, but they haven't really been outside."

PERFECT.  We are going to give these pigs a happy life!

The drive home was fun.  Keekers called Papa (my dad) to let him know we have pigs!  Then she called her mom to let her know.  She was just so excited.  So proud.  I took it a bit slow on the drive back, enough that she noticed!  "Are we going slower"?  ha!  The pigs were all huddled together up front in the bed of my truck, so I assumed it was freezing back there!  I tried to do 10 MPH less!

The pigs all huddled up front and slept on the short drive!

We spent a great deal of time trying to come up with names.  We tried to come up with reddish-orange names.  So we had Rusty, Sunrise, Copper, Cooper, Ember, Marina, Faith, and Kiayla.

Papa met us back at the farm, and we tried to figure out a way to unload the pigs easily.  There was none.  So we did the old-fashioned just lift them out way!  I tell you, these pigs are not light!  I took a couple of breaks in between, but the process went fairly smoothly.  They squeal like pigs when held like a baby, but if you hold them by their back legs they go silent!  ha!  So much to learn.

The pigs at their new home!

We closed off the barn so that all of the pigs would be in one stall.  That way Kiayla could hang out with them.  Well, that was no disappointment.  She spread the straw before the pigs were lifted over the wall.  And once the pigs were in, she was in there with them!!!  She took an extreme liking to the runt, even naming it after herself.  My sister would later say, "It's because it's so little."  Maybe my niece is already feeling those jokes at school?!  But that was hers.

She did everything to make sure these pigs had a comfy new home.

She hopped in our feeder to scoop out a bucket of feed, and she carried it back to feed them.  I mean, she showed NO fear.  So much so that I wanted to teach her a little bit of healthy respect for the animals!  But she was just a joy to watch.

Dropping feed into the trough by hand.

Feeding the pigs.  She dropped some on one of the backs, so I told her to come inside the stall!

Such a hard worker.

She was so fun to watch.

Of course, with the feeding trough full, the pigs all fought over the feed.  The little run was pushed aside.  Kiayla wouldn't have it!!!  She literally yelled at the pigs and told them to move over for the runt so it could eat.  When they didn't listen, she PUSHED them out of the way!!!  I couldn't believe it!  I mean, she is here to make sure this runt makes it!!!  I love it.

Feeding time!

Food time!  Keekers protecting her runt from the others, telling them to stop pushing this one away!

The others were wiggling their tails, so Kiayla said she would help the runt wiggle his (he wasn't currently).  So cute.

Keekers shooed the others away so that her favorite little runt could eat!

I just stood there and watched my new pigs.  Seeing my niece enjoy them so much is hard to put into words.  And knowing what the last two weeks were for Pa and me as far as getting this place ready.  So much work, but so worth it.  I was watching little pigs eat of an old feeding trough that was rescued from underneath a huge pile of dirt in an old barn that needs a lot of love.  In that old barn were the pigs left over after others were chosen for show pigs.

It's almost like the Misfit Farm, and I love it.  I have always taken such a joy out of seeing the value in things that others don't, and so much of life (people) is all about that.  An old run-down barn seeing new livestock in it for the first time in likely years.  An old-trough finally doing again what it was created to do.  And the pigs that were passed over as not good enough now receiving the greatest love possible from a little girl.

Is this heaven?

Two happy kiddos.

Of course, pigs aren't made to be confined, so we let them loose to run outside.  And what a joy that was, too!!!  First, these pigs didn't want to go outside because of the huge step, so we had to create a little step-up for them.  But once outside, these pigs acted like pigs!!!

To go outside...or not!  Look at those cute little pork bottoms!

The pigs are out!

I have never seen a pig root before (I didn't know they even did this until one month ago), but it's one of the craziest acts to behold!  They literally stick their snout in the ground and just walk.  And the earth caves to their strength.  Absolutely incredible.  And they eat the entire time!  I have no idea what they are finding in there, but they keep chewing!

I love it.

(I'm probably going to regret not having ANY grass in my bottom pasture yet, but I also didn't want to wait to get pigs!!!  We needed spring pigs!).  The way these guys root, there is no way that grass is going to grow down there!

Beautiful pigs!

The Durocs have large flappy ears.  I'm learning so much!

And the more they eat outside, the less feed they eat!  Happy, healthy pigs!

The little guys out exploring their new pasture.

Dad and I set up the self-waterer tank, and it seems to work!  However, the caulk and roofing tar didn't set up fully (likely due to the colder temperatures), so I will have to re-caulk that one.  But the pigs found it within minutes and used it!  Smart pigs.

The waterer is up and running!  The pigs took to it so fast.

I checked the gates to make sure they are secure (I think they are!) as we all had a birthday party to go to, but the pigs are on their own now!  Welcome home, piggies!

All they do is eat!!!

A couple of side notes:  A few of the pigs cough every once in awhile...almost like a wheezing.  Dad thinks it means they have worms.  So I will have to add de-wormer to their water or feed.  And tonight at the birthday party, I was asked about coyotes.  I know I have them (I heard them a couple of nights ago), but these are outdoor pigs.  I'm slightly nervous about tomorrow (my sister even moreso), but there isn't much I can do!  One of the black pigs is actually pretty big, so hope he protects them!

Somehow she ended up with my camera.  She is so happy.

These pigs are in hog heaven.

I would say they are rather happy with their new home.

Is this one smiling?!

What a day.  A day of fruition.  All of the hard work, excitement, eagerness, and curiosity has come together.  Yes, THIS is the day we have all (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) been working for indeed.  And it was perfect.