My older daughter and I worked in the dark by the light of the silvery moon…..

…..to rescue the remaining/slippery piglets from the now submerged “new” pen…..

…..we had a Florida Water Snake bolt over our boots and a Black Racer scoot out of our way (or was it a Black Indigo?)…..

*****Confusing Snake Types*****

…..at least I hope they weren’t Cotton Mouths…..(FWS’s are the ones who mimic being poisonous Water Moccasins).

*****I’m Not Getting Close Enough To Find Out Which Is Which*****

*****(the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…..)*****

I swear by next rainy season…..I will have an appropriate/dry pig pen…..

We got even more rain…..non-stop…..all day…..rain…..

Even our new temporary digs for the pigs had no chance of remaining dry…..

The whole nature of pigs is to root and tear up the ground…..

…..which is exactly what Mama Pig has done to her new little pen…..

Well…..that along with hours and hours of constant rain has made the new sty into another quicksand/mud bog…..

I’ve tried to dig trenches on the downward-side of the pen to hopefully siphon off additional water & mud…..

But it’s not enough…..plus the ground’s so saturated…..

We’ve got the remaining (four) babies in a dog kennel…..where they can still see their mama…..but they are out of any mud…..

I’ve covered them with a tarp…..and because they are three weeks old…..they are now on sloppy/water-drenched pig food…..

…..they seem to love it…..

Because they have a wire bottom to their kennel…..they really can’t tear up the ground underneath the cage…..

…..so far it has been staying (moderately) mud-free…..

…..Mama Pig hasn’t helped…..

…..she was able to get ahold of a corner of the tarp…..(and for some unknown reason)…..she decided to pull the majority of the tarp into her pen and trample it under the mud…..

…..she and I don’t seem to be working as a cohesive unit right now…..

So my younger daughter and I played tug-o-war with the submerged/muddy tarp versus Mama Pig…..

We won…..

The piglets are covered once again and out of the rain…..

They have good appetites and are well-hydrated…..

…..Rejoice in the little things…..