Through the course of time we’ve had many opportunities to care for God’s creatures. Not only have we raised a herd of cows, heifers and calves, but also a flock of chickens, a litter of puppies and a drove of pigs. (Yes, a group of pigs is referred to as a drove. I learn something new every day!)
Along with our domesticated animals, we feed the wildlife that live adjacent to our farm. They take what they can get where they can get it. Turkeys, deer, sand hill cranes and coyotes have been known to graze on our land.
The cows come and go, and are replenished by our youngstock as we feed and nurture them to take the older cows’ place in the milking line one day. Twice daily the cows must be milked, and they all need to be fed, cleaned and, under the watchful eye of my husband, tended to. No animal slips under the radar if he can help it.
We have two new pigs and they are growing by leaps and bounds. This is the second year in a row that we’ve raised pigs. We did have a couple many years ago and found we missed the thick, tasty bacon, succulent pork chops and tender roasts. The hams were also full of flavor and nothing beats breakfast porky links made from home-grown pigs. I told my husband, our last pigs were always smiling, that’s why the meat tasted so good. They were happy pigs!
This year I named our current set of swine Pork and Bean. Bean has a splattering of dark dots across his back and over his rear end, so that was quite fitting I thought. They are a pair, and oh do they love the fresh milk they get whenever we have some available. When we don’t have a cow that’s just given birth and so don’t have that surplus of fresh milk to offer our pigs, I bring them plain water in the buckets.
They hear the handles clattering and figure they’re going to be getting that delicious milk. When I pour water instead, they look up at me and make a fuss, squealing in a higher octave. It’s just hilarious. They literally inhale that milk but they stick their snout in and out of the water and let me know loud and clear, they are ticked off!
The gate that we get in and out of their pen had to be barricaded with a board to prevent them from squeezing between the bars. One day I figured they were fat enough and couldn’t escape so I thought I’d give them a little better view of the world and take down the board. I left for the day and daughter took over my chores that night, which included feeding the pigs. She found they had escaped from their pen and were running around the cow yard. She and her dad were chasing pigs while I was gone. The little buggers had squeezed their substantial bodies through the small openings of the gate! Needless to say, husband and daughter were not pleased with me.
There for a while I was completely in charge of a flock of chickens. I had asked for help and advice from a number of willing participants and eventually obtained six laying hens. Through the course of their time on our farm, I wrote about some of their adventures. Alas, when they stopped producing eggs, I could not justify their existence. I found my affection for them was directly related to their production. In time, they were given to some friends who made, among other things, some good homemade chicken soup.
Many years ago our Diamond produced for us a litter of the most delightful, pure-bred, sun shiny yellow miniatures of her. These puppies made us laugh out loud and were simply enchanting. Once I saw a picture of a person overrun by a litter of puppies and a caption said merely, “Anti-depressant.” Oh how true! One cannot be kissed by nine fluffy-yellow loves and feel down.
We ended up selling all of them, and leaving our farm one-by-one, it was hard for us to say goodbye. But every family we saw them off to showed extreme care and tenderness. One family even brought a blanket to rub Diamond with so that her puppy could smell momma when they took the pup home. We remember that time in our lives with fondness.
As I’m exercising in the morning, (Rise-Up with Jennifer Brindley-Webster, channel 378, Direct TV, 8-8:30am) I look out our big window and see a flock of turkeys that includes hens, jakes, toms and babies (or poults) all milling around in our alfalfa field.
Two big sand hill cranes squawk at me when I’m taking feed out of the silage bags like they’re scolding ME for stealing THEIR breakfast. Really?
I’ve chased numerous deer off the bags on any given morning, but mostly during the winter when their food choices become scarce.
Herds of cows, flocks of chickens, litters of puppies, droves of pigs and throw in a variety of wildlife — we’ve had the opportunity to care for many of God’s creatures here on our farm.
(“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” Genesis 1:26-28)
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