Spring Pigs

Today marked a milestone in our adventures in country living.  Sure, chickens are great, but every hipster in Seattle has got him or herself a backyard flock.  Shoot, any good flock of chickens just about comes with a pair of skinny jeans, some ironic facial hair, and a can of PBR.  But you know you are going beyond the trendy when you step into bona-fide livestock.  So that's what we did.  Time to dust off the Curriculum Vitae and add "Pig Farmer" to the list of life skills.

We picked up our four piglets today from new friend Pablo at Mountain View Family Ranch (www.mountainviewfamilyranch.com).  The pigs are being raised on the farm property that we have been rehabilitating with friends.  They get a very large paddock, deluxe all the way.  We had to do some work to make it right, including fence repair, gate replacement, and electric-fence installation.  We knew that the pigs would be ready for pick-up in early May and the day finally arrived.  We had some last-minute adjustments to make, but moved the four little ladies in late this morning.

There has been a lot of interest in this project as it picked up steam.  The four pigs we have are going to be divvied up between six or so families - when word started getting out, we could easily have bought ten or more, there was that much interest.  But we are keeping our first venture into pig-raising modest in scale.  It is a five-month investment, these cuties are slated for the chopping block in November.  That's the way of things, folks.  But they are going to get a lot of attention and love in the meantime, possibly even a trip to the fair.  Stay tuned for more farm updates as we all get settled into late spring routines here!