Hog mama?

I told you how great the state fair was; now I will tell you how bad it was.  Jay spent almost every waking hour in the swine barn watching the pig shows.  I enjoyed it myself, but boy, did he get the fever.  We had already added two pigs to our collection earlier this spring.  Madolyn showed Rick and Ruby at the 4H fair.  Ruby came home to hopefully have babies sometime, and Rick went to the slaughter house.  (In fact, we enjoyed some of Rick the other morning for breakfast.)  We brought a friend's gilt home to keep Ruby company and I thought that was perfect.  Jay disagreed.

While we watched the shows, Jay kept referring to me as a "hog mama," meaning I was going to be one of these ladies in the crowd whose kids were showing pigs and this was their life.  Hmm, I was happy being a horse, goat, cat, dog, rabbit (oh, we have one of those now), cat, dwarf hamster, one-pig and two human kids mama. 

Tuesday Jay and a friend went back to the state fair to the pig sale and purchased an "awesome" Duroc gilt. The friend also bought an "even-more-awesome" Duroc gilt.  Lane went along and he took the pig whip he purchased last weekend.  As they were loading them up, people commented on how good Lane handled the pigs.  Wonderful. This boy is ate up with the pigs.  He even skipped basketball open gym (which he loves) to work on pig pens.  We are so in trouble.  I guess it is the Bennett in him.  My grandma's family was deep into the swine and showing pigs.  Yeah me. 

So the shed that was built about ten years ago and was probably last clean about ten years ago is now spotless.  Why?  Not to store our truck or tractor or mower.  It is clean to build pig pens!  Yes, so now as you drive up to our house, you will be greeted by the sweet aroma only pigs can create.  I dearly love the smell of a horse barn, but pigs are a different story.  They stink.  I don't care what anyone says, a pig and their pen stinks.  Will this come wafting through to my bedroom?  Ahhh.  I am told pigs can average about ten pigs at farrowing time.  Oh my goodness, this means that very soon, we could have 20 piglets.  Then will I be a piglet and hog mama?  How bad will 20 piglets and two sows smell? 

I know I'm sounding snooty right now, aren't I?  I really did enjoy watching the pig shows, and I love it that Lane is passionate about something...I just didn't consider the fact that we would have more than two.  Will we soon be the Wilhoit Pork Palace?  I suppose as long as I don't have to mess with them, I'll be okay.  They kind of scare me when they get big and root around and attack my feet when I try to feed them.  And if you get a bunch of them squealing...oh my, it is awful! 

Here is something I learned recently so I am not totally ignorant when trying to follow pig talk (as long as I've got this right):  A gilt is a girl and a barrow is a boy (easy to remember with the same first letter).  A gilt becomes a sow when it has babies.  A boar is also a boy but one that has not been castrated or 'fixed'.  It took me forever to get that a castrated boy goat is a wether.  They should have made it a bether (am I genius or what?) or something easy to remember with the same first letter.  The buck is the boy goat not castrated, that's easy.

After watching the Fox and the Hound so many times, a couple of years ago the kids and Jay dubbed me big mama...then sometimes added the word "stinky" to it.  They really are terms of endearment, I know they love me...at least that is what I tell myself.  We are all about nicknames.  I'm not sure that hog mama is an improvement, although some may confuse me for a biker chic, as in a Harley "hog" mama which sounds a little tougher (I may not fit that part either).  I guess either way, I am a proud mama of whatever my family is into at the time...