Piggyness of Pigs

if you follow my posts at all you know that i am a joel salatin devote .... he is an amazing farmer who runs Polyface Farms in the US.  He is a man committed to stewardship of this planet and a man who recognises our Creator God made it and the design of it .... for US.  including animals.  he often can be heard talking about the chickenness of the chicken or the piggyness of the pig .... eluding to the whole idea that we should respect all living animals for how God created them and what He created them for.

i reckon its a concept that once you get your head around what that means .... you will forever be changed about how you see the animals we live with.  that doesn't mean not to eat them .... it means to let them live their lives the way they were meant to be lived .... not cooped up in cement floors or row upon row of tiny cages, never seeing the light of day and living horrific and miserable lives.

anyway .... i digress.

i had the opportunity to go out and see a friend who had just gotten a couple of "weiners" .... these are piggies that have grown enough to be weened from the sow and are ready to be fattened for the dinner table.  but while they are growing they can perform a wonderful service, by beginning to till the soil, etc.  which is what our friends were going to use them for .... to reclaim an old are of their veggie patch.  it really was inspiring.  hubby still has to finish off the movable electric fence area where they will till the soil for the veggie patch reclaiming .... but even in their current quarters, you could see their piggy-ness coming through.

i saw them on their first day getting settled into their temporary digs.  they seemed a bit listless, so i suggested to my friend that pigs love mud .... why not spray them and get them wet?  so we did and oh my!  within 15 minutes they were charging about, having a blast and enjoying their piggy-ness.  gorgeous little animals.

i so enjoyed watching them dig around in the dirt.  one of my pet peeves is to see people who have pigs as pets with nose rings.  it is truly horrible to watch people put rings through pigs noses because they don't want them mucking around in the dirt.  guess what?  it is part of how God created them .... it is wrong to deny them of their innate piggyness.  what is one of the most intrinsic things that you do as a human?  imagine someone coming along and saying .... you don't get to do that anymore .... because i say so.  it's wrong .... it's just wrong!  so my heart was very happy to see these piggies with clumps of mud on their noses .... having fun .... because it is part of how they were created!  and their nose serves a huge purpose to us!  if we manage them properly then they can dig up old veggie patches (as in my friends case) and in general just be of great use to us .... and they are enjoying themselves as they do it!

seeing them in action was a real affirmation to me of how we want to use them on JustEarth.  we will probably fence in the OMG (organic market garden) area first up.  providing the appropriate mobile shelter while they dig up the earth and make it all mucky and full of good fertile "stuff" .... after that we'll put the chooks in the chook tractor over it just to spread it all out and then we'll be ready to till!  it's all about using the systems and animals the way they were made rather than making life too hard!  and at almost 51 .... i am very appreciative of that!  <g>

i will finish with another thot.  any animals we own will serve a purpose -- they are partnering with us in the work that we do.  one of the purposes that any animal we have will be to nourish our family.  so rest assured, any animal we have will have a great life .... and one bad day.

off to dream now .... about prosciutto, sausage, slabs of bacon ....... <sigh>