Hey Dads!
August 18, 2024 – Who doesn’t like some bacon? Saturday morning, eggs, coffee and…bacon. So good. I once saw a t-shirt all about two of a dads’ favourite things: exercise and bacon. It had four lines written on it with only slight changes in each line. Follow along the lines with me:
Exercise… Eggsercise… Eggsaresides.
Eggs are sides…for bacon.
That’s my kind of eggsercise.
Some friends texted us a few weeks ago. They had some unexpected piglets show up from one of their pigs. Did we want any piglets? DID WE?!? Pigs are the logical next addition to our hens, ducks, and calves. But these piglets weren’t next door. They were almost next province. My patient wife and I loaded seven of our kids in the big van for a three-hour tour to collect the little squealers. But how do you transport piglets for three hours? I’m glad you asked.
If you’re smart you have some sort of enclosed cage-like structure. Maybe a dog kennel or a livestock trailer or something professional like that. If you’re me you use a couple of those jumbo storage totes from Costco. You’ve probably seen the black ones with the yellow lids or whatever the newest colour combo is. But how big is a 5-week-old piglet? It’s about the size of a small dog. So, if your bin doesn’t have a lid on it that little piglet is going to get out. We brought lids. We also made a Costco grocery stop on the way to pig-land so the van was jam packed with jumbo-size toilet paper and other bulk food items. Now all we had to do was grab the pigs, turn around and head for home. Only three hours away.
But you can’t just shove the little porkers in a bin with a lid on it for three hours in the middle of summer. They had nice straw in their bins for padding. They were like small luxury pork apartments. And we left the lids off slightly with lots of breathing room. Yep. So that was a mistake. Should have popped those lids on nice and tight.
We weren’t on the road long before I heard squealing from the back of the van. If you’ve ever tried to drive with kids screaming at you, you’ll understand a bit of what I was experiencing. Kids were shouting, “Dad! One of the pigs is out! She’s under the seat!” In addition to the kids’ screams there were also the pleasant sounds of a panicking piglet trying to manoeuvre her way under seats, around loads of Costco merchandise, and out of the van. My 12-year-old son, Sterling, rose to the occasion and jumped out of his seat to wrestle the little pink pile of squirming, squealing bacon. Piglet didn’t like that too much and the squeals rose to a fever pitch. I pulled the van over and he was able to wrangle her back to her luxury tote of comfort. We made sure the lid was more closed this time and everyone made it home as one happy family. Time flies, dad! Make every moment count! Even the squealy ones!
Jason Weening chases pigs with his 10 kids and one cute wife. Get his new dinosaur adventure novel for kids, Danger in the Jungle, on Amazon.
