The News from Lewis Waite Farm – June 2007

Well, the inevitable happened today (Tuesday June 5). I finally did a full back flop in the muddiest part of the pig pen! I have skidded down muddy slopes. I have tripped and fallen to my knees. I have gone sliding and arms flailing down a slippery clay slope. As a skier for many years, I am pretty good at keeping my balance. But never until today did I have to undress from my muddy slimy jeans and jacket in the porch before I came inside. Luckily we live on a dead end road. Luckily it was raining and cold all day so I had long pants and a waterproof jacket. And luckily I was all done with my chores and I just had to put away the wheelbarrow and come inside.

Yesterday Runty, who is all grown up now, hurt his leg and is having some trouble hobbling along on one rear leg as he will not put any weight on his injury. In the muddiness of today, it seemed extra hard for him to hop. He is pretty big and would be difficult to move to a “hospital pen”. I have been feeding him right where I find him each am and pm since his accident (we didn’t see it) so this afternoon he was halfway back to the shed from his trip to the water from the spring laying in a muddy puddle in the rain. He looked a bit miserable but he was resting. He puts his head right into a feed bucket lying on its side that has his portion of corn and soybeans inside and I had a bucket of water ready for him too. He ate without stopping and a few youngster pigs came to see what was going on. I drained the puddle with a rock and the slope of the hill was a big help. Once he was done and had a drink, he started looking and moving like he wanted to get up and finish his journey back to the shed to go to bed. I hurried off to get some more feed and water for him when he got there. My shoes were covered in mud and one step completely submerged them as it had been raining all day. Parts of the pasture are grassy and parts where they travel each day, like the area from the shed to the water, are trampled bare. Their little cloven pair of toes can really pock up the turf and there are 21 of them in this pasture.

Anyway, I get back and he is right near the shed and I throw down some hay outside to make him a bed along the foundation. It is a big step up to the shed floor and their hay bed and he is determined to get there. He hops along the wall until he gets to the smallest jump up and gets his head and neck on the floor he gives a heave and doesn’t quite make it. So I reached down and grabbed his good leg (all muddy too) and gave a big shove when he did and up he went! He hobbled in and started making his bed! What a guy! The pigs stick their nose in the hay and fluff it and make windrows and then settle in nose first. Before he lay down I gave him some feed and water. In the shed the pigs are milling all around eating since we feed in the shed in the rain, and looking for something to investigate. So everyone wanted to see what was in the buckets. So I was slowly making my way to the outside, letting a few of them have a drink too when I reached the edge of the step! Four or five pigs crowding in on you can be intimidating, but they are friendly and I have never been bitten or treated badly by them, so I do not mind them being close around me – I just don’t like being pushed. Suddenly the crowd moved all at once with me in the middle of the pack on the edge of the shed and hollering on the way down, I plopped right in the mud, right on my butt, right side up! The pigs did all look a bit astonished at me laying there yelling at them “why did you push me so hard!” and I’m thinking ugh! What a mess – and then I start chuckling and yelling and then I got up out of there, pushed the wheelbarrow and my empty buckets to the barn and headed straight for the porch and then the shower! While I’m in the shower, Alan comes home yelling through the house – What happened? And we both had a good laugh! Doesn’t every movie with pigs in it have one of these scenes? That’s it for this month!

Spring on the Farm

Alan and Nancy Brown At the End of Lewis Hill Lane Town of Jackson Greenwich, NY 12834 phone (518) 692-9208 or 692-3120 | Email

Spring on the Farm