Pig Parable

It has been a real slog lately.  All of the snow and subsequent rain left the pig pen a quagmire.  The porkers pushed all of the straw to the side of the pleasure dome collapsing the roof.  Filthy little beasts.  The original hog panel enclosure was sufficient for two animals but the third really multiples how quickly an area is reduced to muck and deep mud.

Mud raking

Petunia, Marigold and Piggy seemed unfazed by their filthy hovel and the general malaise brought about by winter.  They are growing at a good clip albeit at different rates.  Both girls are thriving and gaining girth around their bellies and sides.  Piggy is lower to the ground and at times seems a step slower but is certainly within striking distance of his kin.

The pen area has been doubled merely by adding two panels.  The panels incidentally can be a real challenge to transport because they are sixteen feet long and four feet high.  It is a good thing that they are flexible as I was able to bend them into the pack of the pickup truck I had rented.

Set boundaries

Moving the pen is to higher ground is not overly difficult but one can get mired in the muck.  The pigs were thrilled to be on solid sod again.  They squealed and oinked as they moved onto greener pasture.  The chickens also benefit by pecking around the trenches of unearthed sod looking for leftover bugs.

After the pen was moved, the three little pigs were given a healthy ration of grain and fed kitchen scraps consisting of some leeks, eggs shells and an aborted pizza.

The pizza was a spectacular failure a few days nights before.  If you have ever made pizza you know that there is a moment of truth when you have your pie loaded on your peel and try to slide it onto the pizza stone.  In our case, the peel was short of flour or corn meal because when I tried to shimmy the pizza off, it sputtered and a couple shreds of cheese flew off but that was it.  I tried again and the pizza did a NBA-esque step fake where all of the sauce and cheese went in one direction and the dough remained fixed to the peel.  The dough was dumped unceremoniously on top of the gooey mess with the hope that the whole fiasco could be salvaged into a calzone of sorts. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

In the end, the pizza turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.  It looked like baby Voldemort at the beginning of the heaven-like Kings Cross station scene with Harry Potter and Dumbledore.  Rather than waste it, the pizza that must not be named was given to the pigs and a riot ensued.

Hog wild

Out of the gates, Petunia tried to monopolize the pizza fetus by boxing out the other pigs and standing in the trough.  She seemed to be the clear front runner.  Marigold would not stand for this and put her snout underneath Petunia's hind legs and upended Petunia on her head.  At this point, the girls started to scrap and nudge for better position.  During the ensuing melee, Piggy who had been waiting in the wings, snuck in and grabbed the pizza abomination and ran off with it but not before Thomas the Cock pecked out a juicy strand of cheesy goodness.

He who remains above the fray gets the last laugh.

In the end, Piggy made out like the bandit that he is.  The two other pigs were overly cocky with their large reserves of fat and muscle to notice the pig of lessor stature steal away with the prize amid all of the mud flinging.