Can you smell the bacon...

I guess it's time I came out to the closet. I got caught anyway last week, so what's the point? The one thing my dad was most afraid of hearing from one of his boys: "Dad, I wanna raise pigs" BOOM, there it is; the bombshell. Yup, there I was, at Orsheln's Farm and Home store last wed. buying hog panels, and who do I run into? My own parents... I was soooo embarrassed; what are the odds? I should have known to go to a store in a different city, or even a different state!

I know, I know. This probably is wholly unremarkable if you didn't grow up in the same household as me, but I gotta say it out loud: "I like pork!" This is despite my parents best efforts to keep kosher. Not really, actually the conversation went like this: (imagine a squeaky-voiced pre-pubescent little Dan'el speaking here) "why don't we eat pork, Daddy?" Dad: "We don't EAT pork because we don't RAISE pork. We EAT beef because we RAISE beef." Makes sense, I guess, but raising beef is a lot larger project for me to jump into, so for a much smaller amount of money, I can be pretty well set up with a little hog pen, and seeing how hogs are omnivores, much as humans are, only less picky, I can feed them all my zucchini, squash, pumpkins, okra, and table scraps etc, etc, that doesn't get eaten around here, since even the chickens can't keep up with me in the summer months.

I had planned on planting tall, covering grassing in front of my pig-pen, hoping that no one would notice it, but there is no point now. Anyway, the pen is nearly finished and here is a picture of it.

Everyone that I have talked to says that pigs are nearly impossible to keep in, so I tried for a piggy-proof fence, but we will just see I guess. I buried the bond-beam blocks halfway into the ground, then set the panels into the "well" of the block, then drove the T-post through the bottom of the block. I dunno... Its my own design, maybe it will, maybe it won't. ALL of my knowledge of swine came from books, which is the worst possible kind of knowledge, as it leads to a false sense of acumen.

I had one friend describe to me in great detail what he predicted would happen. He claimed that before my 2 pigs achieved 50 #'s that I would shoot them both after chasing them around the yard after they escaped, (he had spent some time chasing pigs as a youth, and claims knowledge of my general temperament...) which brings me to another point: I am interested in pig stories; if any of you have them; funny is good, but not required. I don't know very many people who have pigs, or had them growing up, but a lot of people had grandparents that had them, so if you have stories, just click on the "comments" button and share. (Dad, I wanna hear your sow/chicken story too!)

In other news around the Foster Farmlet/Soon-to-be-RANCHLET, construction of my shed is crawling along at a snail's pace, mostly due to inclimate weather, and perhaps, some slothfulness on my part. However, I am pleased that we got the south half of the roof on Saturday.

Here is a before shot:

and after Saturday:

But anyway, if you have pig stories, I would like to hear them... Can you smell the bacon? I know I can! Oh- and I asked Emma what she thought about butchering our pigs. Her response? "Kinda sad, but REALLY yummy!!" giggle...