Rooters
The pigs have been set free to roam around their new home. So far, in the three days they’ve been out, they haven’t ventured more than 50 feet from their shelter. I guess they’re like me in that respect.
They’re a lot fun to watch, though not as entertaining as the chickens. They root around through the grass and weeds, stopping occasionally to eat a tasty bit of greenery. Their loves include doughnuts (I bought them a whole “welcome to your new home” dozen), bread, green beans, egg shells, banana pudding, scrambled eggs, grapes, and potatoes.
And bagels. Boy, do they like the bagels. I got the smaller one to take a blueberry bagel from my hand yesterday afternoon, and it was pretty damn hilarious watching him run around to get away from the bigger one so he could eat in peace. They pretty much ended up sharing it.
I like to stand out back and oink at them. Sometimes they oink back, sometimes they don’t. My goal with the oinking and watching and hand-feeding is to get them used to my presence, so they’re no longer scared of me. That should minimize the chance of a bad shot when the time comes, because I’ll be able to do it from a foot away instead of twenty.
Contrary to what people may believe, I’m not getting attached to them. They’re cute right now, and enjoyable to watch, but their destination is the freezer, plain and simple. They aren’t pets (like, say, Frick is), they’re food. Tasty, tasty food, made even tastier by the knowledge that they’re treated so well.
To the naysayers: If you think saying “There’s no way you’ll be able to kill those pigs” does anything other than harden my resolve, you don’t know me too well. 
New chicks next week, woot!
Okay, I don’t have anything else to say, so here’s a picture of my cock and some more of the pigs.
Oh—as it turns out, the pigs are barrows (ball-less males) and not gilts (females).
What if you come home one day and you have a “Some Pig” spider web in the corner of the shelter?
Christine, it’ll be time to bust out the Sevin dust or Raid.
I can’t wait for the side-by-side comparison pictures when those oinkers are fully grown.
Yep, Susan, that’s when we all find out that big pigs are nothing like the cute little babies. They’re huge, smelly things that will eat a person if they get the chance. Fortunately, this person will be eating them first.
So, Fred - are pickled pigs feet on your future menu? Robyn needs to google up some recipes, ha! My father (German descent) thinks they are quite the delicacy. EEWWW.
When she was way younger than her now 16 years, my daughter went to a working farm (where G. Washington probably slept because it seems that the man slept in almost every house in my area!) and saw a pig. The farm hand working with Pig answered a few innocent questions from the other kids. MY kid then had to ask him “what part [of the Pig] does the bacon come from?”. His jaw dropped, no kid had ever asked that before!
Mmmmmmmmmm, bacon. Food of the Gods. and Goddesses.
If it’ll help, I’ll tell you every day “there’s no way you’re gonna be able to kill those pigs,” just to make sure your resolve is firm.
Don’t want questionable resolve when the time comes, you know.
Didn’t you say you were buying pigs who were ‘ringed’ (or some such thing) so they couldn’t root? Were these two too young to get ringed? Is Egg going to come by and ring them later? Are you now pro-rooter, anti-ringer? Inquiring minds want to know. (Why I want to know–no idea! I couldn’t care less about pig-raising, but somehow this stupid fact about ringing pigs has stuck in my head since you started writing about them and now I just *need* to know. Please.)
The pigs are adorable! Fred, I serioulsy doubt you will be able to kill those little guys much less eat them (when the time comes). Sitck to buying a pork chop now and then from the market!
I noticed that one of the pigs has “normal” piggy eyes, but the other one must be the Elijah Wood of the pig world. Interesting. They both have fairly straight tails. Do you think their tails will curl later in life?
Fred said:
March 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Christine, it’ll be time to bust out the Sevin dust or Raid.
Sevin dust? Raid? Fred will yell and dance, and Robyn will CRUSH the literate spider with her bare fist.
That is, if history repeats itself.
MMMmmmm…bacon….
Just a thought if you haven’t investigated it already….You mentioned that the pigs liked the donuts you gave them.
My friend raises cows and hogs and has a deal with a grocer and a bakery outlet that sells her all their out-of-date bread,muffins etc for next to nothing. Her animals are all fat and happy!
Although I have never raised pigs myself, my cousins, as well as an ex-boyfriend, have raised and shown pigs in 4-H club. They had to train the pigs to show in a ring, at slaughter weight. I just looked up “showing pigs” and “training pigs” on Google–there’s not much info out there, but you might find out more through your local 4-H. My point being, you don’t have to be afraid of going in their pen. I’m kinda concerned by how often you mention them possibly eating you, and it’s so different from how I’ve always heard pigs spoken of by my family. I thought the danger was only from pigs kept in larger groups and allowed to run wild, because my twelve-year-old cousin thought nothing of interacting with his pig. Even when the pig was more than twice his size, the pig minded the cane (you touch them or poke them lightly with the curved end of a cane to get them to move in the direction you want) because it had been treated like a dog and trained with treats. I don’t know if this is something you want to do because it would mean getting closer to an animal you intend to slaughter, but it would make it easier in case the pigs needed a vet or something. Or if you fell in the pen.
That’s some pig.
Like the pictures!
I have noticed that ‘movie pigs’ such as Babe and Wilbur etc are always clean… yet your pictures made me think perhaps that’s not true to reality.
Those pigs are totally eating yummier food than I have lately…oh and I am saving the word “barrow” to my list of insults, i’ve met a few of those lately.
I don’t know alot about pigs. Are you referring to the white faced pig as the one with “pig eyes”
all i can think of is, “squeal like a pig! c’mon! squeal like a pig!” from deliverance. Have you got your banjo yet?