January 14, 2021

Wow, just writing that date above this blog is a real eye opener. So much has happened since the holidays. Let me distract you with the latest news on our adventure farm. Bonnie has a boyfriend. Bonnie, as you recall is our 10 month old Blue Butt sow who this past year avoided a trip to the butcher’s by stealing our hearts. She is such a cool, sweet, pretty pig and we thought we would try our hand at small scale pig farming. Right. So in order to help Bonnie become a mommy we had a choice between setting up AI (artificial insemination) or natural breeding. Both options seemed daunting. A little over a week ago my daughter in law Promise and I were sitting at our kitchen table discussing this predicament and pulled out a calendar to plan for when we would need to get Bonnie bred. Pigs’ breeding cycles are every 21 days and I had a pretty good idea when Bonnie was last in heat when she was so squealy and running around like a banshee in her pen. Pig’s pregnancies last 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. So when we looked at wanting to have our new little piggies being born around Mother’s Day this year, we counted backwards and WOAH, we realized that she needed to be bred NOW. So, we went to the pig’s version of Match.com, Craigslist and put an ad in looking for a boar to breed our pig. We got 4 responses in 24 hours! Who would have thought? After interviewing the owners of Bonnie’s potential suitors, we decided on a fellow southerner Teo’s Blue Butt boar to breed our little girl. I had never seen a boar until Willy the Pig. Bonnie’s date arrived in a large livestock trailer at our farm. He is huge and I mean huge. He even has tusks. Teo and I went over the details of the contract to breed his boar to our sow, exchanged money and then backed up the trailer to Bonnie’s gate. Before Willy even unloaded, Bonnie was squealing and skipping around her run with more excitement than I have ever seen from her.

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It was such an event, our neighbours came over to see the sight. I guess we are all a little bored staying home all the time during this Covid pandemic, right? Bonnie and Willy have been together now for a week and they are still having a good time together.

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I am amazed the two of them can fit in Bonnie’s A-frame to sleep. Sort of like when my hubby and I have had to sleep on a twin bed together. Bonnie says that Willy snores, farts, grunts in his sleep and tries to eat her food. Even though she is small compared to the monstrous boar, she keeps him in his place.

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Having Willy the pig on our farm has caught the attention of not only my husband who cannot believe how much that pig can eat but also our alpacas who were initially shocked at their first sight of Bonnie’s boyfriend. Annie, our leading matriarch alpaca let out a high pitched call when she first saw him. Jesus and I first thought it was a screeching hawk when we heard the sound as we had never heard our alpacas make such a noise. It sounded like a guinea fowl.

After we spoke with Annie and calmed her down she and the rest of the Mama alpacas comforted their crias by snuzzling them and nursing them.

Willy the pig is going to stay on our farm with Bonnie for one month and then thankfully return to his hometown of Kiowa. Then hopefully in May sometime we will have pictures of darling little pink and blue piggies to show you. Something to look forward to.

I have to say that the extent of this pandemic and the effect it has had on our lives was more than we could have ever imagined and has been so overwhelming in every sense. It has eaten up a lot of our joy and it has at times literally scared us almost to death. But one day it will be over and we can pick up the pieces and get on with our new lives whatever they will look like. We need encouragement that it will be okay and we need to be comforted . This we can get from our Father in Heaven who promises us that He will never leave us and His plans for us are for good for those who are called according to His purposes. He has everything under control.

2 Corinthians 4-5

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.