The Three Little Pigs - Chapter 1

Our Three Little Pigs

Perhaps the newest story in our life will revive my writing skills... one can always hope. Meet the stars of our latest adventure! Sir dubbed them 'Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla' when we brought them home this past Saturday, but I think they're fast earning their own names already. When I'm doing the chores, they get called 'Boss, Rojo and Chip'.

Today I moved them from their stall in the barn out to their yard for some sunshine and grass and they had a blast digging and smacking to their hearts content. Once Freckles got over her initial fear of them, her natural guarding instincts took over, and she has decided they're her personal pets. She tried getting them to play with her, but that resulted in Boss and Rojo threatening to take her on in a wrestling match. In the end peace was established and Freckles took up her post in the pig pen to keep the newbies safe.

Guard Dog on Duty

About a month ago or so, we decided that since chickens had worked out so well for us over the past two years that we were probably ready to move on in our 'farming journey' and expand our horizons a little. Since Sir isn't as excited about my dream of a milk cow as I am, we settled on something a little less time-consuming and work-loaded and agreed on pigs instead. The first step was visiting the local livestock auction to observe and learn what our options might be. Almost every Saturday we'd watch the sales take note of the prices, condition and variety of what went through and then we'd go home and work on reconstructing our barnyard to include a pig pen. Finally one day we registered as buyers, but since we still had work to do to be completely ready, we set our bidding limit pretty low so we'd only end up buying if the pigs were ridiculously cheap. The first week we didn't even bid, the week after that the price exceeded our limit and we backed out of the bidding, the following week we couldn't make it to the sale and then there was last week.

We had plans for the evening, so to save time between the auction and when it would be time to go, we decided to take two vehicles to the sale. That way I could go home and get something done and Sir could run some errands after the auction. He took the two oldest kids and headed to the sale and I was going to join him with the rest of the gang once I finished making lunch and putting shoes on little people. Of course I was running late as usual, and even though I arrived at the auction two minutes before the sale was supposed to start, I could hear the bidding already in full swing. As I herded my little people in the door to the auction ring, I heard the auctioneer slam his hammer and say, "Sold! How many do you want?" and then I heard Sir's voice reply, "Two.". I rounded the corner with my sleeping infant in his car seat in one hand and my foot-dragging toddler in the other to find Sir motioning to me to go pick out two pigs. I plunked the carseat down, let go of the toddler and stepped up to the ring to make a selection on a heartbeat's notice. To buy myself time, I asked for gilts (female piglets) because I couldn't tell if the males were boars or barrows (gelded males) and the ringman ran his grease crayon down the back of the first gilt he found. As she scurried away, I realized she wasn't the healthiest looking piglet of the lot and tried to get him to change her for another, but I guess that was against the rules. The auctioneer said once they put a color on them, there was no switching, but I could choose a third pig for the same price if I wanted. Sir gave me a quick nod, and I picked out two other pigs tossing gender preference to the wind in favor of hardiest looking.

It turned out we got a second gilt and a barrow and once we got them home and in a warm stall with food and water they all looked great. I still have to weigh them so we can chart their progress, but they're smart little guys and have been adjusting and fitting into our barnyard menagerie quite well.