Welcome, piglets!

Every year, the time to pick up and transport piglets is a stressful time - the little guys scream their head off as we run holding them by one hind leg all the way from the car to the pig sty in the middle of the woods. This usually feels like a triathlon from hell (the last thing we want to do is stress out our little ones, but... how else can you transport them across 600 feet of meadow, through the narrow bridge of a pond and through the woods?) We have tried dog crates, but that was not any less pleasant for them (they were screaming the same way). However, this year, given that we are in a new location with lots more land and access to two wonderful barns (one 120 years old), things went quite differently. 


The farmer that sold us the pilets drove right up to the barn where we had placed the electric fence-training area. They remained calm as we lifted them off the trailer and lowered them straight into the new pen. By the time Charles came up to the barn with a fresh bale of hay, I was done moving them - no panting, no screaming, no dropped piglet to run after, no trauma. Done. I almost thought that perhaps farming is easier than what I have done till now due to the more efficiently designed facilities. And that is the case... to some extent. We went to sleep confident and calm - sure that the we could finally get a good night's sleep and just relax instead of worrying at every single noise (as it always happens the first few nights when we get piglets.) We high fived, hit the pillows, and fell sound asleep. 


And ... at 10pm the piglets were out and about! Fortunately it took only 10 min to get them back into the barn. That was a great reminder that you just better find your humility right away. Just because you feel you have learned to do one thing right, it does not mean you are doing all the other 3million things right!