In a perfect world…..

…..the pig sty would have been fixed and up-graded years ago…..

In a perfect world…..

…..the local butchers (two of them) wouldn’t have gone out of business & closed down…..

In a perfect world…..

…..we would have moved the pigs out and butchered the home-grown/organic pork in a timely manner…..

But as we all know…..unfortunately…..this is not a perfect world…..

…..sigh…..

In my world…the pig sty is falling apart…..

…..the roof has fallen down…..

…..the pen’s too small…..

…..and the compartmentalized walls for the piglet-enclosure have been smashed down by the adults and never repaired and are currently non-existent…..

All of the remaining butchers (within a reasonable driving distance) have a back-log now…..

…..we do have an “appointment” on September 3rd…..but we have to get them there “on-the-hoof”…..

…..there is no longer any pick-up at your farm…

So…in the meantime…we have had an over-population of pigs…..

Which (in a perfect world) would be exactly what we wanted…and a good thing…..

…..but like I’ve said before….this is not a perfect world…..

With no roof…..the sty is far muddier than normal this summer…..

…..there is no roofed “nursery” remaining for baby pigs…..

…..and the necessary/big telephone pole posts (that are needed for renovations) are too heavy & unwieldy for my younger daughter and me to set in place safely——-so fixing things is beyond our capabilities…..

BUT………….in the meantime………….

…..we’ve had another litter of pigs…..

…..sigh…..

My daughters and I have tried to safeguard them and separate the sow and her babies (as best we could) from everyone else…..

…..but this is not a perfect world…..

Mama pig is indifferent and negligent towards her litter…..

…..there’s just too much mud…..

…..it’s the rainy season…..

I don’t have good feelings about the survival of this litter…..

…..you can only work as hard as you can and try your best…..

Mama Pig has to step up and keep her babies fed & safe…..

…..and…..in the end…..

…..as much as you think you are in control and can make everything right…..

…..you can’t…..

It’s up to Mama Pig now and the powers that be…..