On the Farm

The animals are keeping us busy. About two weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, I was home alone.  A rare occurrence.  Olivia was at a friends’ house, John was on his way home from an appointment, and I had 15 minutes before I had to pick Elliott up from practice. It was beautiful outside, so I grabbed my book and went out to sit on the front porch to read. Ruddie was laying on the grass enjoying the warmth from the sun.  As I read, I heard a snort. Then I heard a second snort and I jumped up and looked over my shoulder and there they were.  Our two pigs were walking across the yard like it was an everyday occurrence. By the time I put my book down and ran down the stairs, I had to get them out of my flower bed. I managed to get them around the corner of the house. 

They started to rut while Ruddie persistently tried to get under the belly of the larger pig. I had to get him out of the way so put him in his kennel. He is so good, all I had to do was say “let’s go” and he ran to his kennel.  As they flung sod around, I ran into the house to call John, tell him what was going on and find out how long it would be before he would arrive home.  I stood in our yard, watching them tear up our lawn while waiting for John to pull in the driveway.  When he finally arrived, he went over to the shed to get some feed. After all, it was dinner time.  In the meantime, I ran to the garage and grabbed an apple. The larger pig loved it. So I ran back to the garage and took two apples.  I held them in front of their snouts and lead them toward their “hog hotel”. They followed, taking their time until we were about three-quarters of the way along the lower pond.  They saw their shed and ran to it. John was there and together we got them through the opened fence.  Once inside, I held the fence in place while John went to get materials to repair the opening.

 

Last Sunday, John was up early to go to work.  After feeding Ruddie, he let him out. Ruddie barked, he seldom barks, so I got out of bed to tell John. I wasn’t sure if he heard the bark.  We both thought he might have found the bear in the field as we have one wandering the hillside.  We both went out on the back deck and John called for Ruddie.  He finally came but stopped half-way on the back hill, sat down and would not look at us.  John walked up to get him and said “Oh no”.  Thinking the worse, I said “what?”  He told me that Ruddie met a porcupine.  It was 3:47 am! John brought him into the house, I sat with him and talked to calm him down while John looked for a specific pair of pliers.  That seemed to take forever and then he wanted to take a picture of Ruddie (and he still would not look at John). 

We pulled 16 quills out of his face within a few minutes.  Ruddie got rather nasty near the end so John had to hold him alone to remove all the quills.  What an experience to go through. Let’s hope he learns from this and turns away if he ever encounters a porcupine again.   

Last weekend we had no adventures with the animals.  They must be content!