Over the last couple of weeks we have had a large number of cars pull to the side of the road, get out of their cars, and come pet our pigs through the fence. (Insert me shaking my head.) Just, why? What makes someone feel like they can impede traffic (there is no shoulder) come on to my property, and pet my pigs? It’s so strange to me. We even had a few people ask, which we appreciated, if they could come take pictures and pet them. Three things I’ve realized through this: My little agh/kune kune pigs are cute. A large portion of people don’t realize pigs have hair, or come in different colors. And just because it’s on your property, someone’s curiosity will win out over their respect of said property. None of these people meant any harm and were truly just curious. What they don’t realize is pigs will bite, because they’re pigs and want to make sure you aren’t food. They also don’t realize that when they push their arms through my fence, those sweet little pigs soon learn that they too can push through the fence and they really want to see what’s on the other side of the fence, or road, or neighbor’s field.
This week alone I’ve had to wrangle my pigs more times than I can count, usually in the pouring rain and embarrassingly enough, in my pajamas and muck boots. It was actually pretty funny. I’m certain I looked like a crazy lady calling her pigs with kissy noises and pleading with them and cursing them under my breath. My hair all a mess, getting rained on, ripped a hole in my pants from one of the many fences I hopped, a wild look of desperation in my eyes and 4 pigs following me along in my neighbor’s field...then again in the road. Once time allowed, I moved them to another field that we’ve used for the pigs before. With the rain for months, the ground had softened and they promptly found the weak spots in the fence. Off I’m chasing them again, luckily on my own property. But again in a huge storm of hail and wind. And again, me cursing them under my breath while I corral them and mend fence. And proceeding to slip down a hill in the mud and landing square on my butt. Haha, oh boy. What a week.
It’s times like these that I question why we do this. Why did we decide to be homesteaders? What made us decide this was a good idea? We had no idea what we were doing or really what we had gotten ourselves into. And that brings me full circle to the people stopping on the side of the road to pet our hairy pigs. Because so many people have no idea where food comes from or what it even looks like. They actually don’t believe our pigs are pigs. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want our kids to grow up so removed from the world that they don’t know what a pig looks like. I want my kids to learn how to work hard. How to problem solve. How to push through when times are hard. How to be self sufficient. This Homestead Life is how we do that. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that. The times when I’m stuck in the storm and have to push through. It’s hard to see on the other side of your current predicament, but as a homesteader I think you have to keep your eye on the end game or you’d throw in the towel again and again.
