The pig stories just keep coming.....

Last night I had the kids by myself.  I had to do some shopping for two  funeral dinners so we went to Wal-Mart and ate out.  I’ve heard talking to your kids in the car is the best place.  I believe it.  I can usually get more information out of Cade then, than any other time.  Here was our conversation….

Cade:  The hernia pig was a little slow tonight but he was cold.  Since we only have 1 heat lamp now he wasn’t under it.

Me: What happened to the heat lamp?  Do we need to buy another one?

Cade: (panic on his face) you don’t know about the heat lamp? Dad didn’t tell you? (completely frustrated) Why doesn’t he tell you anything?  (completely resigned) Oh, I guess I know why he didn’t tell you….

All of that came from Cade’s mouth in a matter of seconds.  He went from panicked to frustrated to resigned in a short amount of time.  I was sitting there completely confused and had no idea what in the world was happening in the front seat of my van.

Me: (completely confused) What in the world are you talking about?

Cade:  The day we took the pig to the vet the pack-n-play flew out of the back of the truck and the heat lamp was in it.

I’m reeling from the fact the pack-n-play flew out of the truck and was imagining how bad that situation could’ve been if there had been another vehicle around.  I was trying to grasp that concept.

Me:  So what did dad say?  Was he concerned about it?

Cade:  Yeah, he said “I knew I shouldn’t have done that” 

I was thinking ok, Jay saw the error of his ways with the pack-n-play issue.  Cade is going to tell me Jay said he shouldn’t have done that….

Cade:  He said he knew he should’ve  put the heat lamp in the cab of the truck instead of in the pack-n-play

Me:  He was worried about the heat lamp?  Why didn’t you fold up the pack-n-play?

Cade:  The button is broken

So that explains why the fully assembled pack-n-play is still sitting in our front yard after Jay brought the pig home.  A friend from church stopped by  Wednesday night and asked if that was our babysitter when we are outside.  Nope…it’s just sitting in the yard.  When we got back last night I was going to try to bring it inside but it was dark and Charlie was howling and I was a little creeped out.  Again, yes we are the neighbors everyone would love to have.  At least tomorrow is Saturday.  Hopefully we will be able to get it in before the end of the weekend.  I asked Jay about it last night.  He still seemed to be more irritated by the loss of the $8 heat lamp.  I'm still focused on the pack-n-play issue.  We clearly weren't seeing eye-to-eye on what the problem was. 

 So to reacap if you're not following the story not only did the pigs almost burn down my house they could've caused a major problem on the highway because of a flying pack-n-play.  If I don't end up banning pigs at our house our insurance company will.   

And just so you don't think we sit around letting junk pile up in our yard...Jay got home late Tuesday night with the pig, after taking the kids to 4-H.  He took the kids to 4-H because I was working at the parsonage and Camryn caused me a heart attack by almost sticking a key in a wall outlet.    Jay just got everything unloaded, separated the pig and then it was 10 pm.  Thenext night the church friend came over at the same time we got home and then Jay was gone again last night to the area banquet.  Hobby Farming while Ag Teaching (at least if you are any kind of a good teacher)  means you just don't have a lot of extra time to deal with broken pack-n-play buttons.   And since Jay is a good teacher I know why the pack-n-play is still in the yard and I'm ok with it....mostly ok anyway.   

Christmas in February

Today was just like Christmas morning at our house.  Camryn, woke up in a great mood and came in our room carrying her Rudolph and Clarice.  These were her santa presents at Christmas and she was terrified of them.  So terrified that I have a video of her backing away from the tree right into my lap when she spotted them.  She wouldn't go near them that day or any day after that.  We moved them to her room and just let them sit.  I guess today was the day she decided she loved them.  What a funny little girl and how fitting she happened to be wearing Christmas jammies today.

Another Valentines Day

Well Valentines Day has come and gone and I still have yet to post Christmas 2013 pictures, or tell about my mom's surprise birthday party, or Lawson's 4th birthday or any of that other stuff.  Time just seems to get away from me anymore.  Actually it feels more like I move from one chaotic event to another.  I've actually for quite some time allowed myself to feel like somewhat of something....not quite a failure, but someone who can't seem to get their poop in a group.  The house is chaos.  The checkbook is chaos (2 people with debit cards means 1,000,000 transactions that need to be logged).  I forget to check backpacks.  I forget to refill my children's medications but it doesn't really matter because I will forget to give it to them even once I get it.  I serve way too many chicken nuggets for dinner or eat out because I'm so tired that I can't deal with frying hamburger and mixing it with Hamburger Helper.  The van looked like a typical mini-van on the inside for the longest time - the only thing keeping it from being completely disgusting was the lack of wood-paneled inserts on the door.  Even Cade has taken to telling me I look really tired because I have bags under my eyes. 

I've wondered what is wrong with me - why can I not seem to get it together and keep it together for longer than 5 minutes?  Then someone from church made the comment "adding that 2nd kid is rough."  Finally I felt somewhat vindicated and maybe not so much like a failure.  This was coming from seasoned parents who added their 2nd child only a couple of years after their 1st.  But they understood.  They talked about they could still do anything they wanted with #1, but when #2 came it was like someone put on the brakes.  And that is exactly how I feel.  I know this stage won't last forever.  Maybe my brain will come back and I will quit being so tired....of course then I will hit menopause and it will all start again.  Until then though I will no longer be working at the church parsonage with Camryn.  Someone stopped her from putting my keys in a wall outlet while I was staining the kitchen cabinets. I'm all done with that.  I tried to venture outside of my home bubble this week and that didn't work.  I will try again in another 6 months.

Part of last weeks chaos involved the dreaded Valentines Box.  I still remember typing the post with his first box and I said "1 down 6 more to go."  I knew that time would go fast, but I had no idea just how fast.  We just finished Cade's 7th box.  I might have been weepy if I wasn't so tired and busy trying to find a clean spot to take a picture of the box.  Thursday night I ran to Springfield to get treats and paint for my parsonage cabinet project and Jay stayed home and did a million other things.  Once I got home we finished the box.  And I'm proud to say Cade didn't touch one thing on it.  I learned in K a Valentines Box was not a fight I was willing to have with him.  We do plenty of things to make him responsible - gluing crap on a box is not something I see as life altering.  But I did laugh that night as I walked through our hall.  I could see Cade parked in front of the TV while also looking at Jay's back while he was hunched over our kitchen counter gluing legs on the box. 

This box ended up being a group effort for both me and Jay.  He did some, I did some, but he was the one responsible for the ear notch idea.  

And after these pictures Camryn ripped the pigs tail in two. 

Pig Update

Apparently the pigs are the only excitement around our house because that is all I've talked about for weeks.  And here is another update....

One of them is having hernia surgery right now.  Go ahead and laugh.  That's what everyone else does as soon as we tell them.  Just get it out of your system now.....

Ok, now that you are recovered I'd like to point out something.  We have 5 pigs - 2 black and white and 3 that are called Blue Butts.  Basically they are white with bluish gray spots on their butts.  This means that all three of the Blue Butts have had some sort of an issue because the other two saw the vet their first day alive.  One had the hurt shoulder and the other had its liver sticking out.  Also, this hernia pig is the only boy.  In the world of pigs you prefer boys for showing.  So what did we have? 4 girls and 1 boy.  Opposite of our cattle where you want girls and we always have boys.  Now we probably won't even be able to show the boy because the hernia is going to create a flap of skin on his belly.  I told Jay that when we were discussing getting married there was nothing ever brought up about nursing pigs back to health.  I see that he purposly left that out of the discussion. 

I did get a valentines card from Jay.  He bought it at the feed store.  It has a picture of a pig on it with a sign around it's neck that says I Love You.  The inside says "And I want to Hog you all to myself".  I thought it was pretty funny.  Then I noticed it was signed Jay, Cade, Camryn and The Litter.  I told Jay The Litter was a nice touch.  He had no idea that was on the card.  He signed his name and then gave it to Cade to sign his and Camryn's.  Cade took it upon himself to add the pigs.  Oh, I am living with a couple of jokesters.   

Clark, if that cat had nine lives he just used them all.....

I use a lot of references on this blog from Christmas Vacation.  Sorry - but humor me again.  Picture the scene where the cat chews on the Christmas tree lights.....now replace that scene with pigs instead of a cat.  Yup, that would be our life a week ago.

About 12:30 last Tuesday morning (the time of the last big snow) our smoke alarm started going off.  I jumped out of bed and headed to the hallway to check on the kids.  I knew immediately the smoke had something to do with the pigs in the garage.  Jay, who is a heavy sleeper, takes a little more time to get his bearings.  He made it into the hall and was trying to jump up and wave the smoke away from the detector.  I yelled at him to get to the garage.  About the time he hit the garage door Cade ran out of his room to hear Jay yell "Oh my gosh".  Cade screamed "the pigs."  I ran to the door and looked at Jay and Cade in the garage.  The smoke was so thick I couldn't see anything and I could see the electrical cords sparking and on fire.  For a few minutes I was sure the pigs were dead and we were going to loose the house.  I asked Jay if we needed to call the fire department.  He told me to wait a minute.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  I unlocked the front door in case I had to grab Camryn and make a getaway and I opened up some kitchen windows.  I also waved the smoke from the smoke detector and got that to quit going off. 

I checked on them again in the garage and Jay had the fire out.  It was a miracle, all the pigs were unhurt and the damage was just to their pen.  I was fully expecting to loose the garage.  Apparently they got a little wild and pulled down their heat lamp, which set the wood shavings on fire.  Jay figured it had probably been burning 10-15 minutes before the smoke alarm went off.  I'm still not sure how they survived all of the smoke that was in the garage.  They ended up back in the pack-n-play in our laundry room for the rest of the night.  Jay pulled out the burnt shavings and put the mangled smoking heat lamps in the dumpster and moved it several feet from the house.  I was up the rest of the night afraid something else would spark in the garage.  Jay spent his 1st snow day buying heat lamps, reconstructing their pen in the garage, and wiring up a more secure heat source for these pigs.

I've said for a while the lack of sleep the pigs caused at the beginning almost killed me.  Well, the pigs quitle literally almost killed us that night.  Thank goodness for a good smoke detector and the fact that being a mother has taught me to sleep like a cat.  Later that next night Cade asked if this was something we'd laugh about later?   Terry called us the Griswolds of the livestock world. 

But just to recap so you won't forget what these pigs have been though....
their mother stepped on two of them.  They were stitched up.  One fell off our kitchen counter the first night when we were doctoring it.  That is also the same one that got bandaged with an old burp rag and orange masking tape because I had no medical supplies.  Now they survived a fire.  There were flames in their wood chips by the time we found them.  You know in the last post when I said I thought we had about $1,000,000 invested in these pigs give or take?  Yeah, we quite seriously almost lost our house over the deal.  I know there must be a special place in heaven for wives who's husbands never give up....because using a ladder to hold up the heat lamps is 1,000x more safer than the broom and tricylce they were attached to. 

Wow

I think it has been two weeks since I last posted....and what a two weeks it has been!  I am completely exhausted!!!

I'll try to do a more detailed post later with all the funny things that have happened - because yes we can somewhat laugh about them now....a week a go we couldn't.

Bonnie had her babies a week ago.  We had 11 perfect little piggies.  Then she went nuts and killed and/or injured 8 of them.  After the carnage of early Friday morning we were left with 3 good pigs and 3 severly hurt ones.  Jay rushed the hurt ones to the vet that morning and two of those have survived a full week.  That brings our total up to 5 pigs....all living in a pack-n-play in our garage.  Which is acutally a step up from the first night that they spent in the kitchen.  The vets office called Monday morning to check on the injured pigs.  They seemed pretty surprised when I told them they were still alive and kicking.  Oh the things we will do for our children.  After Jay took the pigs to the vet I got the following message from him.....Cost at the vet $108, bag of milk starter for the pigs $70, keeping Cade happy priceless.  I'd say rough guess we've got about a $1,000,000 in these pigs - give or take a little.  Oh and we are getting up every three hours to feed the pigs.  Yeah, I'm pretty cranky so you might want to stay clear of me for another week or so.

Ind the midst of this Cade started not feeling good.  I won't go into the gory details on the blog but if you'd like to know what the problem was just email me or text me.  It actually is a good thing to know about because we were completely clueless.  I took him to the doctor Monday afternoon and I could tell the doctor's whole attitude was different than when we are normally there.  He said "you are going to have to take him straight to the ER."  At the ER we were ushered in and Cade was prepped for emergency surgery as a precaution.  It turns out he just had an infection probably caused by his flu virus settling in a weird spot.  We had a tense few hours Monday evening.   Between driving the ER and telling Jay what to tell his mom in regards to caring for our piggies I was worn out.  I spent Tuesday at home with Cade and then again yesterday taking him to a follow up appointment.  He is doing fine now - but we won't mess around with something like that again.  So if you have a boy or know a boy just ask for the details.  It may help you at some point. 

Camryn is also not feeling good.  I believe she has woke up crying and yelling at us the last 5 mornings.  So by the time we take care of the pigs, remind Cade about his medicine and listen to her yell my nerves have been shot.  Then I walked into work today and heard about this propane disaster.  Thats all I need to follow Pigtastrophe of 2014 now we are dealing with the Propane Shortage of 2014.  I'm exhausted and listening to people tell me that when we call for propane today I may be paying $1,000 for what normally would cost $400-$500.  Yup - just what I needed. 

Oh someday I will look back on this crazy week and laugh and laugh....This is what I get for laying out our budget for the next 6 months and really working on that snowballing debt thing.  I really think God is working on me to just trust Him and not worry about things too far in the future.  Like the fact it seems we will always have a montly payment to Cox!!!

Pigwifery

It is a good thing that I’m typing this and not saying it.  I’m not sure how to say the term Midwifery.  Is it Mid Wife e ree or is it Mid Wiff e ree?  I’m not sure.  But since we aren’t delivering a human baby I think putting pig on the front of the word is fitting…..because Jay is studying up on his Pigwifery skills right now.  Bonnie is due January 15. 

Yes, hopefully in a few days we will be adding a litter of piglets to the ole homestead.  Yay….I think.  Camryn will love it and Cade and Jay are so excited they are about to pop.  Baby pigs are very cute so I am looking forward to that but otherwise I’m on the fence about the whole thing.  Mostly because I’m surrounded by dreamers and I am known to my family as the worrier/dream crusher/negative ninny.  Actually I think the proper term is called a realist but whatever.  So while the others are counting their show pigs before they are hatched I’m over here hoping that they get here alive and the weather doesn’t return to what it was like at the beginning of the week. 

I wish I had a camera that would’ve documented every step of this blessed event.  For some that might be boring, for those who know Jay you would have enjoyed seeing this whole thing unfold.  It all started back in July at the Gala pig show.  Jay admits to sucking up to a man who owns some really good pigs during the show by agreeing to help with it.  That meant that when Cade and Clyde came of the ring Jay was busy with the show.  I had Camryn because she was in her “no one but mom” phase and pig who didn’t want to have his picture taken.  I also found out later, after explaining to Jay how mad the picture lady got, that she specifically told them NOT TO FEED THE PIG PRIOR TO THE SHOW.  What did Jay and Cade do?  They fed the pig.  I probably didn’t help the lady’s temperament either when I tried to stick a bawling, squaling Camryn in the picture to.  We were not on that lady’s Christmas list that night.  I told Jay never again!!!  I’m sure by next year he won’t remember my threat.  At least maybe he will remember TO NOT FEED THE PIG though. 

My 15 minutes of extreme stress sweating paid off though and this guy agreed to breed Bonnie.  When I went to the Joyce Meyer Conference in September Jay snuck Bonnie to this guys house.  He purposely didn’t tell me because I’d worry about how we’d get Cade to practice.  He took care of the whole thing and told me after the fact that it all went wonderfully.  Then at one of Cade’s games the mother that helped Jay out with Cade told me a different story.  When he picked Cade up she said Jay looked like a wreck and Camryn had screamed the whole way back to Miller. 

I lost count of the number of days Bonnie spent at that guys house locked in a trailer waiting to come into heat.  I was afraid we had another animal with a bad reproductive system….that tends to happen to us with animals and humans.  Finally though the guy called and said he had AI’d her and we could come get her. 

Then the days of trying to decide if she was bred started.  Since this was Jay’s first go around he wasn’t sure what to look for.  He read and got advice but with most things, it’s hard to know what you are looking at without much experience.  Bonnie’s bottom was the most watched and talked about thing in our family this fall.  Then sometime in November another ag teacher came over to borrow something.  Jay got his opinion on Bonnie – this guy didn’t think Bonnie was bred.  We were all pretty disappointed. 

Then Jay started hunting up someone who could ultrasound a pig.  Apparently in Oklahoma that is common but in SW Mo it isn’t.  Jay finally talked to someone who told him a regular vet should be able to do it with the same equipment that you use on a cow, you just use it on the outside.  Jay talked our vet into ultrasounding Bonnie.  Jay set the appointment with the vet and nothing was going to keep him from getting Bonnie checked.  And the $25 fee paid off.  It confirmed Bonnie was pregnant.  They couldn’t tell how many pigs were in there so that part will still be a surprise. 

Then the Bonnie watching really started.  I started seeing things on Facebook and the internet where Jay was liking and researching pigs. He’s been looking at pictures and reading about pig delivery.  He even made it to where Bonnie couldn’t jump down from her house anymore because he was afraid she’d shake the pigs loose.  I told him when I was in labor with Cade he told me to go ahead and go to work but he was worried about Bonnie?  His response “I knew you’d be ok but I’m not sure about Bonnie.”  It is a good thing we have the type of relationship where we can kid each other like that.  Can you imagine how some people might have taken that comment?

We are finally nearing the end…or maybe it is the beginning of this pig adventure.  We are thinking about leaving Cade at home that day to watch Bonnie.  We will have to have someone else on call though because I know Cade.  The first sign of something coming out will absolutely freak him out.  I can already hear the panic in his voice because he would be so worried about Bonnie and the babies.  If we left him completely alone while Bonnie was having them I’m afraid we’d come home and find Cade had a stroke…..and I’m partly serious about that.  I know what he would do because it is what I would do.   

Hopefully in a few days Facebook and the blog will be filled with cute pictures of velvety baby pigs.  And hopefully all of our nerves survive.  I think pictures of these pigs might be pretty close to pictures of our kids for Jay.