Little Miss Piggies

Its been an adventure to say the least. We set up a pig run, enclosed with an electric fence, nice comfortable lodgings, good food, reinforced the run with ring lock fencing and set about finding some pigs....

I'd noticed a free range pig farm down pateena road, about 2km's from our place, and went there to enquire about purchasing some piglets. There was no-one home so i left a note in their letter box... After a few days with no repsonse, i went to a place in lilydale where we'd noticed some piglets when visiting the goat farm. The "man of the house" wasn't home so i left a card with his daughter.. That night the phone rang and old mate was pretty keen to sell me some pigs and we made a time to collect them..

I borrowed a trailer, and headed of to Lilydale to fetch me some pigs. Just as we were driving in to lilydale old mate phoned me to say he couldn't make it. When i told him we'd just driven all the way from Longford to Lilydale, he wondered why we were in Lilydale when he was at Longford.....

We made another time to collect the pigs (from down the road this time) When i got there we had to drive through about 4 paddocks to find us some free range piggies. When we found them, we hopped out and tried to catch some.... Anyone tried catching pigs in a paddock before with fences that don't hold them in? I sprinted for a good 15 minutes but finally snavelled two.. Loaded them into the trailer and set off home...

The pigs were safely deposited into their new lodgings and we sat down for our evening meal... Our neighbour (who had already told me that the pigs would run straight through the fence) knocked on our door to alert us to the fact that there were "Pigs Everywhere!!" I grabbed my net and set of after them...After about half hour i found them, but couldn't catch them. Went back home to fetch the trailer and try again. I saw the piggies at a neighbours across the road, parked the car and bolted after them... Another mad 15 minute sprint and a desperate lunge saw me net the smallest of the pigs. I chucked him under my arm and continued chasing the bigger piggy for a good half hour, jumping about 10 fences and making a few more desperate lunges. It was getting too hard to carry the little pig and run, so i brought him to the trailer, and set of with renewed enthusiasm to catch the other...

A fairly fast jog through about 5 undulating paddocks, jumping electric fences, stalking through ditches, avoiding mad cows with little calves, dodging irrigator spray and fresh cow paddies followed. The sun had set and daylight was fading fast when i had one last mad attempt to tackle the pig. I ran after him, slowly reducing the gap. When my legs were about to give up i was close enough for one last throw of the dice. I dove at full length, managed to touch the pig on his back which made him change direction, and i slowly skidded to a halt as the pig ran away..

Dejected but at the same time happy that i had retrieved one pig, i knocked on the neighbours door and told him what had happened. He said he'd keep an eye out for the grunter. The other neighbour phoned that night and ordered me to go to his place and collect some droppers and old roofing iron and make a proper pen (in a nice way)

The following morning the phone rang early, the neighbour had spotted my pig. I rushed over to where he had seen him but there was no pig in sight... Yesterday my sister in law headed of to work and nearly run over my pig (she's a mad driver ;-) (I know you're reading this) outside our place.. By the time I'd got my shoes on he'd disappeared. Last night as we were about to sit down for dinner, and as Christine was about to take Imogen to the doctor after she cracked her nose on the trampoline, a friend knocked on the door to say the pig was on the lane directly opposite our place. We watched the piggy come closer towards us, until a truck carrying dirt turned down the lane and chased him all the way down the drive and then he bolted across the paddock, out of sight..

This morning the phone rang, and the neighbour across the road told me his dogs had rounded up a little piggy and that he was safely penned up at his place.. I've just come back from collecting her, taking her home, making her fences higher, and hopefully they'll both be there when i get home tonight.....

So their names are Parma (ham) and Streaky (bacon, or lightning streak fast)