Presenting Precious Potbelly Piglets

Today, the long awaited blessed event came to pass.

Wilburta had her piglets.

It was an all-day "thing."

We pulled up our chairs and enjoyed the show, just like good rednecks should.

Let me tell you this...I know for a fact I shall never cease to be amazed by God's perfect, creative, miraculous design for LIFE.  See those piglet toenails?  They have this wet rubbery texture so that they don't break through the sac while they're inside their momma.  Isn't that amazing?

Furthermore, they can literally find the teat for nursing within less than 2 minutes of being born.  Wilburta knew what to do.  The piglets knew what to do.  The instincts they are equipped with are amazing.

Now, keeping them all alive once they're born and beginning to thrive is another matter.  Wilburta had 6 piglets altogether.  One died shortly after it was born and the other was born dead.  And then  a couple hours after they were born, Wilburta laid on one, suffocating it.  So we have 3 little pigs.  A black one and 2 pinks.  They are stinkin' adorable!  (Hmmm...I'm thinking "stinkin'" is an appropriate adjective for a piglet!)

The plan, since Wilburta is not a princess (seeing as she can't feel the piglets under her when she lays down), is that we will keep the piglets separate from her, except for feeding times every couple hours.  For feedings, we'll deliver them to her and wait for them to finish, then take them back to their cozy little spot where no one will lay on them.  I have a feeling we will be tired soon.  And we will look for another way to keep these little cuties alive.  But for now, we don't know what other options there are.  We will read and research and ask around.  Until then, we'll be tired...and tied to the house and pigyard.  So much for our orthodontist appointment tomorrow in Lexington.  I can hear my conversation with the receptionist now.  "Hello?  Yes, I need to reschedule my sons' appointments.  Yeah, we just had piglets.  Can you schedule us for, oh, about 6 weeks from now, when they're weaned?"

What Happened to July?

What Happened to JULY???  Oh, I remember...

 We spent it cuddling kittens,

 growing a garden,

 taking smiling boys and girls to a MULTITUDE of doctors' appointments,

 fostering sibling love,

 catching pigs that figured out how to escape their pens,

 waiting for baby bunnies to be born,

 playing with best friends,

 pampering pregnant piggies,

 (and the piggy baby daddy),

 finding new kitten dens,

 watching baby chicks hatch,

 admiring handsome drakes,

 looking for the 100th time at the cute kittens,

 helping Wilburta decide if a water-birth is for her,

 watching baby ducklings turn into teen-age ducklings,

 hatching MORE ducklings,

 nursing poor Patches' broken leg,

 keeping chicks warm and fed,

 keeping pigs' mud holes filled,

and just generally enjoying farm life.  But, now it's August, time for our family to settle back into a school-time routine.  While I love the laid-back pace of summer time, I'm also the first to admit that I love the routine even more.

Hot Summer Days...

You know it's hot outside when your pig is doing this...

Here's the momma and her ducklings! She's so protective. We've seen her take on the peacock and one of the dogs, as well as a few of the chickens. It's fun to watch her walking them across the yard from one spot to another. Kind of reminds me of what it was like taking all the kids shopping with me when they were all little. Well, minus the predatory peacocks.

Cats napping on the porch in the warm sunny spots...

My girl reading in the garden...yes I realize the grass around the raised beds is growing nearly as high as the corn!  I'm working on convincing my guys to weedeat!

Our Day--In Pictures!

This afternoon, we discovered this bunch of cuties out taking a stroll discovering the world for the very first time.

That's one momma who has all her ducks in a row!  I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

Is that a handful of cuteness or what?

I spent most of my day off and on, doing this.  Of course I had my "muscles" (a.k.a. "sons") move all the furniture for me!

John Wesley made manicotti for us all for dinner.  That boy's gonna make a fine husband some day!  Of course, he's had a fine example!

While John Wesley was cooking and the other boys and I were doctoring the rug, it was storming outside.  Jared was sitting near his window in his bedroom, playing with his cars.  He started yelling, "Mommy!!  Mommy!!" So, I went to his room and he said, "I just saw a whole tree fall down!"  Indeed he did!  

And thankfully none of my precious people (or any of our menagerie) were in the way when it fell!  'Cause it was evidently a pretty heavy tree.  It made quite a wrinkle in our van! 

Winston and Wilburta are checking out the damage to their digs.  Wilburta's cute pregnant tummy is getting BIG! 

Thankfully, Checkers, Cody's cat was still willing to give me a nuzzle, even though she's been kicked out of the house for bad behavior.  (Thus the Rug Doctor.) 

Farm-y News...

Yesterday, Harold took John Wesley to an ENT appointment while I took MaKenzie to a physical therapy appointment.  After our appointment, I got groceries.  After their appointment, they got a new goat.  She's pretty, but she doesn't have a name yet.  "Spot" is too obvious, and we can't all quite come to an agreement about anything else yet.

The garden is coming along nicely.  Much better than last year already.  Hopefully our heirloom tomatoes will take off and we'll have enough that I can can some.  We'll see...

 The corn's coming up.  We haven't grown corn in YEARS.  I didn't remember how fast it shoots up!

John Wesley did most of the planning and planting this year.  He does his research about what kinds of plants he wants to get and which he wants to grow from seed.  This year he's done a lot of reading about soil composition and what to add to make it just right.  (This was "for pleasure" reading.  Nothing to do with his school work.  I think I might have a farmer on my hands.)

Broccoli coming in. 

I had to take this picture because the fresh green color was too pretty to pass up.

As we walked through the garden this morning, I found myself humming the old hymn, "I come to the garden alone (although I really wasn't alone) while the dew is still on the roses (well, technically, in our garden, it's still on the broccoli and strawberries instead) but you get the point.

We have new ducklings.  They hatched yesterday.  The momma made her nest under a big old woodpile, so it's dark under there, but I lightened the picture a bit and you can just make out the duckling's little face if you look at the point of the arrow.  We're not sure how many there are yet.

In other, unrelated news, something DIED under our house or in our ductwork or in one of our closets or SOMEWHERE in the vicinity of our living room.  It's not pleasant, and we can't find the source.  I guess we'll have to wait until it's done stinking.  I wonder how long that takes?  Will home owner's insurance pay for a hotel room until whatever it is quits smelling up my house?  Maybe we'll move into the camper.