Tag: pigs

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For the Sake of the Pig

Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

My husband’s work sent a Heavenly Ham to us, and with just the two of us and a ham heavier than a lab puppy, I wasn’t quite sure how to make it work before it spoiled. The life of the poor pig weighed heavily enough on my conscience that I set out to be a good steward of all the readying he did before giving his life for our sustenance. I dug up a bag of black eyed peas and carved the meat from the bone, mixing protein and fiber together. It’s in the crock pot today, and it will be ENOUGH to get us through winter Sunday dinners with cornbread.

Ham Haiku

we don’t eat much pork

but for the sake of the pig

we’ll have ham and beans

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A Saga in Six Days of Life When You Live on a Farm: Featuring Boo Radley and the Unexpected, Day 3

We have all kinds of animals trying to move in – here, a neighbor before he attempted to halter the leader of these two (it didn’t work)

Day 3:

In farming communities

not a week goes by

that some animal

doesn’t try to make

a break for it and

has to be herded

back to the home pasture

every new day brings

a Facebook Post –

pigs loose on Reidsboro Road

donkey running down Highway 362

goat with a red collar on Hollonville Drive

my favorite was the baby camel

someone reported

running down Concord Road

(the Sheriff’s Department went to

investigate and found it was

Nellie LaBerge’s Lllama)

you never know what you’ll

see in the country

but last week,

Wayne’s entire herd

of cows was loose

in the woods

between our farms

two bulls

among the herd

I was thinking

of lovely handbags

my husband was

thinking of

perfectly rounded cow

patties (dried cow poop)

(this isn’t out of the ordinary ~

just a few weeks ago we’d

had donkeys trying to

move onto the Johnson

Funny Farm

and my sister in law and

I joined in the chase

with other neighbors

to wrangle these two

asses and lead them

back home)

when Boo Radley

saw the herd of cows

eating his grass

the next day

he protected me

and our blades of grass

the black and white

bull turned tail and

ran into the woods

the milk and dark chocolate bull

stood its ground

Boo charged it

that’s when the brown bull

dropped its head

ready to charge

I felt surely in my

soul I was about to

witness Boo

being trampled

and killed

because

though he is small

he is tenacious

ten times the size

of that monstrous bull

in his inflated mind

Actual donkeys who tried to move onto the Johnson Funny Farm

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March Open Write Day 4, Slice of Life Challenge Day 19, Stafford Challenge Day 63

Special Thanks to Two Writing Teachers

Rex Muston of Iowa is our host today for the 4th day of the March Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. He inspires us to use our kitchen junk drawer to inspire poetry. You can read his full prompt here.

A kitchen junk drawer is second only as frightening to me as forgetting a piece of clothing and showing up at work for everyone to see all truth. It’s downright scary except for the drawer I did clean out last weekend. I still have one to go, and it’s the worst one. An invitation to explore those quirky drawer corners is fantastic! I love that even in the oddities, the junk, there are revelations of life and memories.  

Unbanded

One junk drawer
is empty
~the middle one~
but the one
on the edge
is chock-full
of random bits
and pieces

a years’ supply
of 9V batteries
for the
smoke alarms
we change
often
because
Boo Radley shivers
at the smell of
toaster heat and
smoke alarm chirps

plus the goat ball
banding tool
and bright orange
bands
as if the
whole horrid
thing
needed a
screaming
fluorescent
proclamation
across the farm

and a vintage
unfiltered
cigarette-
sized box of
Happy Family
ceramic pigs
from England

a mama
and twin
piglets
but no daddy
there was never
even a space
for his
unbanded
self

now
from the
Funny Farm
kitchen
windowsill
Mama smiles
with a sparkle-eye
bats her eyelashes
and thinks….

freedom!