Porgi and Bess

When will I learn, nothing is every easy. Bruce and I had decided (mostly I decided) that we need to raise more of our own meat for our consumption. We have been getting a little fowl lately dining mostly on chicken, duck, quail, imaging the suffering. This year swine and cattle will be added to our menagerie. There is so much to look into before committing to going swine; the cost, how long to raise them, who will eventually "salon" them. After many discussions with a previously chosen farm, the pig arrangements needed to be made; the date of pick up, the ages, weights, breeds and to alter or not to alter the boy pig. Finally I agreed to have the boy pig castrated, they offered to do it for me 5 days ahead of his pick up and he would be all "healed up" by time I arrived. The other pig would be a girl. So off I go in our farm truck, it’s a beautiful Friday afternoon, the day before my birthday, who wouldn't be excited about getting pigs for their birthday? I agree to meet the woman selling me the pigs at an intersection in Ma, and then follow her to the farm. The drive went well, traveling through the Berkshires, viewing small houses/farms out in the middle of nowhere obviously barely surviving. It was sort of shocking to see either beautiful homes or destitute houses and not much in-between.Finally I arrive at our meeting point, so far so good. I then follow my pig raisers back 2 miles into the mountains to a farm that I would have never been able to locate or find on my own. We traveled about 1/2 mile down a mud road (the term road is used loosely) that slips into the creek at the base of the mountain. Eventually we came upon a shack and what should be a barn, the woman tells me to drive down to the next house so I can turn my car around. The next "house" was interesting, the road ended there but I had enough room to turn around. Cats started darting out from under and around the house which was a very old cabin. Then a chained up beagle darted under the house and a little old lady came out the back door to see who was in her front yard. Smiling I waved, hoping she did not produce a shot gun from around the corner of the house, luckily she waved back. The front porch was lined with old furniture and chairs with stuffing coming out from all sides, crates and boxes and a rope holding thread warn laundry, blowing in the breeze between the porch supports. It all looked very tidy with order yet very old. This was the best part of my pig experience. With my truck turned around, I drove back to the mud pit in front of the first shack and barn. There we all exchanged greetings, there is a woman and two men, and I felt somewhat secure that maybe everything here isn't as scary as it looks. When will I learn, go with your first gut instinct. I unload the crates for the pigs and the fun began. I'm slowly looking around, I should have taken pictures but that would have been a little obvious. The pig people disappear into the "barn", it is to dark for me to really see what is going on. Suddenly there is tremendous squealing, and one of them hollers how he's "got one", I'm hoping it’s a pig. One of the men drags out of the dark recesses of this barn a male pig. He proceeds to choke the pig with bailing twine until it passes out at my feet, and then loads it into the crate to be loaded into my truck. Mean while I'm trying to stay calm, I'm not squeamish but jeese, I start yelling at the guy "if that pig dies, it will be on your doorstep", on the doorstep of what, their shack? Then from the dark depths of the barn one of them catches another pig but they are slightly more "gentle" with this pig. The woman is hollering at the guy to loosen the twine, pigs trashing, in the darkness…. Yes I'm actually experiencing this alone in the middle of no where with the cousins from the original Chain Saw Massacre story. When will I learn, nothing is ever what it seems to be.They seemed so nice; the phone conversations, when I met them at the intersection to follow them to the farm, what the heck? Quickly I write up a check, toss a dozen eggs at the women, thank them and jump into my truck. Ruhhh ruhhh ruhhh, the starter is struggling, my heart stops, I feel the panic slowly creeping up my chest, finally it the truck turns over. Very carefully I put the truck in gear and slowly drive off as fast as possible, through the mud, hoping the truck does not stall, become stuck or slide into creek. When I reach the main roads, I breath one huge sigh of relief, I'm on my way home and those poor pigs will be living in sunlight on a clean farm full of love, care and the respect they deserve.Only it's not over yet, when I arrive home after my 1 1/2 hour drive, carefully I back the truck up for pig unloading. While turning the truck off, I realize I need to be a little farther back towards the yard; I try to start it up and realize it is dead. I was one click away from being stuck in Deliverance with a load of pigs and crazy people. Now the fun begins, we have pigs and the neighbors show up to help us unload them into their new pen. We did not choke, dangle or carry them by two legs; we lifted the crates and gently place them into their new home. That’s when we noticed the junk hanging out under the boy pig, extra parts that didn't belong. Frantically I call back the freaks from whence they came ranting that there is extra bloody junk hanging out of my boy pigs parts! The Deliverance woman explains that this is from his "castration" that they did on 1 1/2 days ago and it would fall off in a few days. Wait, they were going to castrate him and have him healed by time I picked up the pigs, which I pointed out to her. She continued to assure me this was normal, he would be fine and she would keep in touch with me to make sure the pig was okay. Well between slitting him open, 1 1/2 days later strangling him, then dangling him by two legs to "load him up", I'm not buying this "he's okay thing". The pig did not look anywhere near okay, he actually looked very sick at this point. The next morning, the pig we now call Porgy did not get up or move. We called our local veterinarian for advice and he prescribed antibiotics for Porgy, he had a very bad infection in his nether not there any more region. If I had known this would be so dramatic for the pig and how filthy the farm was, I would never have agreed to the castration in the first place. Unknowingly I was under the impression this was a clean, farm that followed humane practices. I can not stress enough that people need to go see first hand where their meat is coming from. There are many farms like this, who supply farmers markets with their organic farm raised meat. Yes it may be a tiny bit better then those factory farms but not really. If you are going to pay for organic farm market meat, check out the farm supplier first, then see if you still want to eat that meat. You will be surprised. I have been unlucky enough to have seen many of these supposed humane, organic farms and that is why we are raising all our own meat from now on.Okay back to Porgy. I spent two days slowly hand feeding Porgy, mashing healthy food into this poor boys mouth before he could get back on his feet; let me tell you pigs have big teeth and very strong jaws. He is about 100 pounds of pig and could have bitten my hand off at any time he felt like it. By day three he finally ate on his own and started to walk around looking interested in his surroundings. Bess his girlfriend pig was by his side the whole time, I'm amazed at how social and dedicated they are to each other.Now another adventure slowly begins, Porgy and Bess start to check out their yard, which is our yard, the bird's yard, the dog's yard. Let the excavations begin! I have new roto-pigtilled garden spots all ready to plant, almost. Porgy's junk is healing, he's eating like a pig and our yard looks like a bulldozer gone wild episode. But that’s okay, we can replant, rake, fix the yard??? Ugh so now we have a fence starting at the barns, splitting the way back yard/field from our back front yard. We need to replant the immediate back yard this spring with field grass for the birds anyway so what the heck? You try to explain this to Bess who has turned out to be the "I can push my way under or through the fence once I find the weakest spot" pig. She is a sneaky little devil; I think she shares her ideas with Pumpkin. We are going on week two and she still has found a way to sneak in the immediate back yard on a daily basis. Porgy is happy where he is and just fine with the back field, unless he is separated from Bess. We have pig nose prints running down the house, on the back door and once I have seen the shadow of a big pig's ass going out my kitchen door as I was walking in from the dinning room. Pumpkin alerted me to that deal. No more leaving the doors open on a warm sunny afternoon. Pumpkin works hard following them around barking at their butts, keeping them in piggy line. As for Porgy and Bess, they totally ignore her.Week three, Bess still sneaks in, Pumpkin still walks around behind them barking, not as much though and Porgy's junk has still not fallen off yet? It is time to get out the big guns, now I have to call a big animal veterinarian, which does house calls. I call the local farm vet, explain the situation, the vet yells at me "Take him back", I yell back "That is not an option, we believe in only humane animal practices on our farm" the vet then yells "its gonna cost ya, someone is going to have to examine the pig", I yell back "well stupid that’s why I'm calling you". Literally this is what's happening, if any one knows our local big animal vet, you know what I mean. This is just the way it is; we went around for a while yelling back and forth, finally he say's "I might be able to make it later this afternoon". That’s all I need, a "might be able" commitment is as good as done, Porgy will be getting his junk checked and properly taken care of. At this point I can not take one more day of this drama, hence where their names "Porgy and Bess" came from. Normally we do not name our eatables but this has been a special exception to the rules. The next ones will be called pork and chop, keeping it simple and to the point.The vet arrives a little after 5pm; we corral Porgy into his pig pen, Bess waited outside happily munching on a bowl of grains and treats. Porgy goes down for a little nap time, now the fun begins. Once again, luckily I'm not squeamish, as for Bruce I was waiting for him to pass out on top of Porgy. After assisting the vet with his surgery on (that’s all the detail I dare to give) we are now sure he will be fine, healthy and continue to thrive humanely on our farm. We still have keep watch over him and make sure continues to he heal properly. Our vet's comments in-between the yelling was; how filthy the farm had to be where the pig was kept and how they didn't know what they were doing when they "cut" him. Then while the vet drove away when all was done, he yelled at me where to get our pigs from now; sigh, yes I had already reserved pigs from this recommended farm.You would think I'd have a nervous tick by now….next the cows are coming.