Don't you just LOVE those soft, feel-good stories about Christmas? Sitting around the fireplace with a hot cup of cocoa visiting with family and friends and telling all those passed-down family stories. I'm wondering if my family will remember this one in the years to come?
We were very blessed to have all our kids here for Christmas Day. Aaron had come in earlier in the week and Toby, Paige and Josh came in Christmas Eve.I'd made a couple of forays into the larger town to do some shopping the week before. I picked up a gift for a friend who lives down the road in the next small town. She has always been a part of my boys' Christmas...she'd brought them candy and popcorn every Christmas since they were in preschool.Being the oldest is 26 now and the youngest 22, I think she deserves a gift in return.After everyone FINALLY woke up and GOT up, Josh started the day off with a prayer then we opened what few gifts we'd gotten one another--we'd cut WAY down on the commercial aspect of Christmas. Our Christmas is all about being together and enjoying one another's company. My sister and her husband cameover for the usual large, stuff-til-you-can't-cram-another-morsel-into-your-mouth meal then we had to go put out round bales of hay in a couple different places. We took Josh with us and left the other kids there so that we wouldn't miss our friend who usually comes sometime on Christmas afternoon.
We loaded the trailer and head over to one of the cow pastures. We have hay from one of the last fields we'd cut so the hay strings had to be cut off the hay--they weren't 'rotted' enough. I had gotten off the tractor and had started cutting away at the hay strings while Leslie and Josh did likewise further down. I was on the bale furtherest from the truck when I noticed out of the corner of my eye some small movement on the ground about thirty feet from me. I looked over and had a hard time deciphering what I was seeing. A small hog ( a piglet, really) had risen from the ground and looked like she was stretching. I hollered at Josh who had been hog-hunting a couple of times already and gotten one hog already, ' Josh! There's a hog!" Naturally,they had trouble believing me and had to come around to the other side of the hay they were working on to see for themselves. She stood up as if to say,"I dare you!" There was nothing for Josh to do but take in after her.It's a guy thing...He'd decided he'd catch her and take her home. What he thought he was going to do with her once he got her home, I don't know--he was headed back to seminary in a week or so and Mom had no intention of tending to a pig in his absence! Josh takes in after her and SHE charges HIM! After a bit of hustle and bustle she turns and runs, though it's a somewhat lop-sided and seemingly aimless path she was traveling. As a concerned mother with the health of her child at the top of her priority list I hollered at him while he was galloping towards her, "Josh, leave it alone...don't touch it! You'll get swine brucellosis!!!!" Do you think that fazed him? About the time I got it out of my mouth he tackled her....now what? He decided--since we still hadmore feeding in another spot to do--that he would put her in a horse trailer that sits over there by the corral and come back for her later. I really don't need to say anything about the smell emanating from him after gettingin the truck, do I?
We drop the hay trailer since it's dark already and head on over to another place. We put out a few bales of hay, dump a couple buckets of range meal in the trough for the heifers in the front patch and start to head home. Josh takes the tractor and goes looking for No. 92 who is supposed to be about due to calve. She's not with the rest of the heifers.We start off for the gate but get stuck so have to wait for him to get back. After he pushes us out with the tractor and we make it up to the gate by the road, Leslie asks him if he found the heifer. Yes, she's having her calf right now. Leslie decides we need to go find her again and probably pull the calf as he suspects she's having trouble with it.We find her on the other side of the rent house up on the hill. Well, I don't have to tell you about getting a halter on her, running her to the corner of the fence so as to get hold of her, tying a cable to the calf's legs and trying to pull...leaving out the graphics let's just say they were unsuccessful in pulling the calf that was already showing and must have been dead for a good part of the day.We call in reinforcements and have the kids at home bring another truck anda come-along..plus a couple of lights. In the meantime, Josh goes back down the road and gets the tractor. By the time the other kids make it over there they've pulled the dead calf and the cow looks like she's about to join her calf in cow heaven...she's spent and is lying on the ground unable to holdup her head. They slap her around a bit (yes, sounds mean but it's effective sometimes) and eventually she's got her head up but when we leave she's still lying there. It was iffy at that time whether she would make it or not. (I'll spill the beans here and make everyone feel better--yes, she's doing okay now.)
Aaron, Leslie and I get in one truck with my telling Leslie to keep his arms and hands on HIS side of the truck and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!! The other three decide they will head over and get the pig and bring it home.We get to the edge of town headed home when Aaron's cell phone rings. Toby says that the clutch just went out on the truck they're driving...it crashed to the floor so he's pulled over by the railroad tracks. We turn around and go 'temp-fix it" so they can drive it. We have some empty tubs in the back of the truck and they decide that will do nicely to transport "Petunia" from pasture to home where she'll have a brand new large dog box to call her own.When Josh tried to get her she charges again but he manages to get her home and in the box. In the meantime, somewhere along the way, we discover that she's either been shot or been gored. There's a hole in her shoulder. That probably accounts for her being by herself instead of with the rest of the wild hogs. Toby goes and finds some nice, dry hay for the bottom of the box, Josh finds some scraps of food in the refrigerator and heats it up for her and they manage to put some water in for her. She's apparently not very appreciative of all the attention or the free food and water. Bless her heart...she's breathing heavily so you can imaging the outcome.
I look on the other side of the box on the picnic table on the back porch and what do I see? Wrapped gifts! We missed my friend!! For the second Christmas in a row!! (We'd had to go feed last Christmas afternoon,also..and missed her.) Well, I'd just gotten into the house when I saw that the light was blinking on the answering machine. It's my sister. "Debbie, that gift you had for Landen (one of her grandsons) isn't in the bag with the other two...give me a call when you get home." She has Christmas at her place Christmas night for her family after her kids spend Christmas Day with in-laws. I'm on the cell trying to call her when my two nieces walk in..they'd come over to get the gift. We stand outside discussing Petunia and one niece almost takes her home with her to add to her 'collection' of wild hogs but declines when she finds she's been injured. About 3:30 in the morning, Toby walks through where we are and says, "Well,the pig died." We are all devastated..you'd have thought she was a familypet of YEARS! :-)
Next day, Josh decides he'll cook her for the dogs...don't even let me get started on that adventure....but suffice to say that the glow of Rudolph's red nose was nothing compared to the glow coming from the pig pit..
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