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Bacon + Garlic = Piglets?Over two months ago, we brought home a pregnant sow. The girls decided to name her Miss Bacon for we told them we might butcher her after she has her piglets. Therefore, the name was their way of having the right perspective on this hog so as to not become too attached. We even did a meat science study using her as the model as we visualized her ham parts, bacon area, tenderlins, pork chops, rib roast, rump roast and her many sources of lard. It is not unusual to find us commenting on what big hams she has.Shortly after Miss Bacon's arrival, I decided she needed a little bit of extra care. She actually looked very healthy despite the fact that she had been raised in a barn on a bed of sawdust and had never been outside or rooted up dirt the way the Good Lord intends pigs to be raised. The previous owners did handfeed her plenty of good vegetable scraps which we think contributed to her healthy appearance. After Miss Bacon had settled into her new home and enjoyed sunshine and was allowed to root up soil outside for the first time in her life, I thought it would be a good idea to give her some garlic. I love garlic, especially for medicinal purposes. All of our animals have had garlic at one time or another. It is so good for a number of things. Mostly I use it as a preventative. Even though Miss Bacon did not look wormy, since she was pregnant, I thought it would be good to give her garlic just as a precaution anyway. She ate it like a pig for a few days. Then one day one of our daughters ran inside to inform me that she thought Miss Bacon was in labor. She was lying on her side and grunting in the barn. Sure enough, it looked convincing. She did not get up and greet us or beg for scraps which told me something was definitely up. We brought in an old towel and waited and waited and waited. Eventually, we wandered outside to get some other things done and checked on her occasionally. A few times I checked on her, I heard Miss Bacon leak some gaseous emissions from her hindquarters and noticed an odd, quite pungent odor lingering in the barn. Still, she lay on her side grunting away. At that point I began to question the legitimacy, or should I say cause, of her labor. Perhaps she was not laboring to emit piglets, perhaps it was a labor of a different sort, a labor of emissions of a different kind, emissions of impurities of which garlic tends to draw out. Naturopaths call it a "colon cleansing". The next day, Miss Bacon was on her feet again, with no little piglets in tow. However, she acted as if she had been through labor for she was not her usual "bouncy", rooty self. She was not at all interested in any scraps I fed her. Of course, I was merciful and quit feeding garlic to her. After a long labor of colon cleansin', I'm sure the appetite would be affected to a certain degree. It was a few days before she recovered and began to eat like a pig again and a couple of weeks before she went into the bringing-forth-piglets-type of labor (more on that later). The Farmer's Wife 10:37 - 2006-Jul-6 - post comment
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Description Sharing our thoughts, events, ups and downs, as we restore a once profitable farm to its former greatness as a Christian agrarian family. Home User Profile Archives Friends Lighthouse Farm Our DVD's for homesteader's Homestead Series e-books Lighthouse Farm Podcasts No NAIS Recent Entries - Pig-headed or chicken-hearted???? - Health care - the way it used to be - The Egg Hog - Back in blogdom after chasing sheep - Ode to Winter 2007 - Chicken and Hog DVD's are now finished!! - Video clip of the birth of a piglet - News about Haitian friends!!!!! - Authentic AgricultureTM - Welcome! - A Peaceful Night in the Pasture - Big Sale at The Old Schoolhouse!! - Rendering Lard - Hog Butchering Time - John Ray - Founder of Biology - A Breath-taking Field Trip - Fat and Sassy - Real Men Eat Quiche - Green Tomato Recipes - Harvest - Two Cents Worth on Pinching Pennies... - Cockle burrs and stinging nettle a blessing? - Gourmet Meals At The Farm Table - Seeds Worth Saving - Sweet cartoon - Commercial rice supply has been contaminated - Spermicidal Corn - Agricultural Science Fiction Horror Flick or Truth? - SImple Entertainment - "Gardening is like a treasure hunt!" - Pigs don't stink - Diggin' For Gold!! - Rain - a Blessing or a Curse? - My Sheep Know My Voice - er - Chain Saw... - The Old Farm Dog - An Alarming Nightime Visitor - Farming Magazine - A Pig's Nest - Meager chicken harvest - Bacon + Garlic = Piglets? - A Rare July 4th Tribute to Farmers - Fencing in more pasture - Three months on our new place.... - Blood suckers in Minnesota :( - Miss Bacon and Rocky Mountain Oysters - Sheep without a shepherd - Haying with my man! - Mink solutions, anyone? - Goat meets pig... - I Smell a Skunk... - URGENT!! Please forward!!!! - Did Adam Smell Like That? - Minnesota!!!!! - Problem solved - God is good - The Rat Trap and One Happy Girl - New Podcast - Farm Restoration - The Beginning - An Honorable Gentleman Has Died - Why teach our children about agriculture? - Cheap, Safe Food??? - New NAIS links worth reading - Old Tractors Never Die - A Lawyer comments on Constitutional Rights and NAIS - Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks - Big Bellies and Big Bags - Hosting Haitians on the Homestead - Minnesota, Here We Come (after we sell our house) and "the Chip" - And God saw that it was good - Greetings |