Pregnant Pig - Day Two

And so it begins… The watching, the waiting, the worrying, and the work! As soon as school excused for the day, the texts and calls started. "Pig?" was the first text, and as simple as it was, I knew how much emotion was behind it. RB had sent it and it meant that he wanted to go see his pig. 4H has become such an important part of his life and all of our lives. These animals are our everything! They teach us so much and for the next 28 weeks we will live, sleep, and breathe these animals, they will consume our waking thoughts and our nightly dreams, we will do nothing before they are cared for, and we will want nothing but the best for them.

As soon as I picked them all up from school, we headed home and the kids quickly cleared my fridge of any leftover veggies and my breadbox of all rolls before heading to the W house, where they did the same. RB and I grabbed a couple 25lb. bags of cracked 9 Grain that we thought Momma Pig would really enjoy, AJ grabbed the wheelbarrow, SS and RV loaded up the treats and Smalls grabbed a shovel. We loaded it all into my car and headed for the barn.

TABS was already at the barn, her bus has a stop at the corner of the street, so she headed right over. She opened the gate for us and we quietly entered the barn. I must admit, I don't think I have ever seen this group of kids being so reverent and quiet, especially Smalls! They were so respectful of Momma Pig, just another testament to how important this is to them. We quickly cleaned out her farrowing stall, tried to get her to eat some treats (I don't think she has ever had treats before!) and filled her food and water buckets. The kids sat down in the straw to do their homework, but Momma Pig was far too curious about them to settle down and relax while they did their homework. She startled them a couple of times, tasted SS's jacket and rooted around in the straw nervously before I sent them all out of the stall.

Momma Pig Snuggles Down

She finally calmed down and snuggled into the straw. Lying down, you could see the piglets move in her tummy and standing up you can see her underline starting to firm up and fill with milk. She doesn't have much longer. We may have babies before we thought! We will continue to check her morning and night, make her as comfortable and relaxed as possible, and prepare as best we can. I think we might be in for the ride of our lives here! Wish us luck!