First day of school, football and a pig tale

School has started!

Much to Chyann's irritation we got a few pictures outside the school on Thursday.

Upon entering the busy halls of school most every kid and teacher we passed asked about Colton - How is he, where is he, tell him to call me, etc... Which was nice. Made me wish he were back in High School though..

Caden had his first football practice too. Holy shit was it a hot day. About 91* with high humidity and the BUGS were ferocious! Caden made the mistake of guzzling some water right before practice started and felt sick to his stomach for a bit, but made it through.

Let me tell you a pork story.

Once upon a time there were two pink pigs. They lived in a cute pig house with a nice yard where they could root to their hearts content. Unfortunately these pink pigs were unaware that the glorious sun could turn their delicate pink backs into pork rinds on the hoof and became RED pigs from sunburn. In an attempt to protect their delicate red backs from more sunburn they were confined to the pig house until healed. Upon release from the pig house they began to root in earnest - possibly thinking in their little pig brain that they'd better get in as much rooting as possible in case they were confined to the pig house again. Coupled with the sunburn, which is really not a big deal, but add the stress of continually rooting and you will get pig exhaustion which equals pneumonia.

Yes, the porkers got pneumonia from rooting until exhaustion over took them.

Another trip to the vet and we came home armed with needles and antibiotics.

You would not believe, even when ailing with pneumonia, how strong pigs are and how their screams make your ears want to bleed.

Alas, all is well and the porkers are on the road to recovery.

Moral of this story: Consider using sunblock on pink pigs in the future as recently suggested by a gentle reader or return them to the barn with cement floors if they start the continual rutting again. (If you are wondering about the tire in there? The pigs play with it - kind of like a border collie with a ball.)

A question posed by the Hubby about the pigs getting pneumonia from continual rutting is: What do pigs do in the wild? My answer is domestic pigs and wild pigs are two completely different species now days. Consider that the domestic pig has been raised on concrete floors in huge barns for generations now and the switch to shut off the rooting reflex is either defective or been bread out since they cannot root on concrete.

Why we've only just now had this problem with the pigs we raise? Who knows, especially since we've gotten our pigs from the same breeder for about five years now.

Enjoy your weekend. I'll be here canning away :)