Sunday, we decided it was time to get our sow, Yadi, from the birthing and breeding center a few miles south of our house. Her babies are at our house, eating as much as we can give them, and she is now re-bred for the next go-round. It was time for her to come 'home.' Ruby Sue has been in the former goat pen for a while now, and we thought she was ready for some company.
Madolyn was at volleyball practice, so Jay, Lane and I hooked up the trailer and headed out to load up Yadi. It has been raining a lot around here lately, but the ground was/is so dry, Jay thought he could back into this field and down the slope so we would be as close as possible to Yadi's pen. We're in a Ford F350 with four-wheel drive, surely we'll be okay. I get out and he backs down the slope...
And the tires start spinning. Crap. We haven't even gotten down close to the pen yet. So after trying to get it to move with the trailer still hooked up, he unhooks the trailer thinking that will alleviate some of the weight and he'll be able to at least move the truck onto drier land. That's a no-go. Tires were still spinning.
I call the homeowner (no one was around) and she's on her way to a visitation. She says we can borrow their truck if we need to. So after searching for a chain or something to use to pull the truck out and not finding anything, we load up in their truck and head home. I suggest that I drive my truck back (along with their truck) so that if something goes array, we are only tearing up our own vehicles. Good idea. We return to the scene of the...ruts.
We hook my Ford F150 to Jay's Ford F350 and start the show. No one is going anywhere...except Lane who is in a baby swing swinging and watching.
Back to the drawing board. Finally, Jay gets the idea to use a shovel to dig out some of the mud/dirt and put it on top and underneath the truck tires for traction. BINGO. He gets the truck out onto a drier path and we reattach the trailer. He takes the trailer back out to the road and backs it as far as he can in the driveway. We'll just have to walk Yadi to the trailer, which won't be nearly as easy, but being stuck isn't going to cut it either.
We get a bucket of feed, I grab a mop (yes, anything I can to gently tap the pig) and Jay lets her out of the pen. She takes off for the field we were just stuck in. I follow as Jay rewires the gate, so as not to let out the others, and get her turned around. Would you believe Yadi, the sow, walked straight up the path and into that trailer with little coercion? It was unbelievable. Apparently she had witnessed enough of our shenanigans to know better.
We let her out with Ruby Sue and they proceeded to have a big 'ole sow fight. In the end, Yadi won. Poor Ruby Sue is no longer queen of her castle. I hope they can become friends. This morning when I looked out, I couldn't see either of them...which means either they're loose (no way, not at our house:) or they're snuggled up tight snoozing. I am pretending it was the latter...because I didn't go out and check. I'll find out tonight when I pull up to the garage and Ruby Sue is begging for supper. She doesn't stray too far from the feed pan.
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