The last of the Crooked Acres jams and hot sauces have been made and are available at Crooked Acres. I used up every last habanero, and now there’s a wee bit of space in my freezer, thank god.
When the jams that I have in stock are gone, that’ll be it ’til at least mid-summer, when the habaneros start to come in again (though truth be told, I’m usually busy enough with canning and freezing in mid-summer that I may not get around to making more jams and hot sauces ’til early Fall). Just so you know!
Saturday morning, I slept in ’til almost 7, then got up and puttered around the house for a bit ’til it was time to head out for a very important date.
I made sure to dress appropriately.
We drove up into Northern Alabama, very close to the Tennessee state line, down a lazy country road, and I wished that we could find about 30 acres of land in the area.
(And then Fred reminded me that we’d probably go stir-crazy out in the middle of nowhere. We consider ourselves to live in the country right now, but it takes us about 10 minutes to get to Wal-Mart, the grocery store, Lowe’s, the co-op. We’re in a very convenient location!)
We thought it was going to take 45 minutes to get to our destination, but it really took more like 30. That was okay with the man we were going to meet, though – he was ready for us.
Fred had told him that we wanted two small pigs, so he’d penned up three smallish ones. I really liked the smallest one because it was little and cute, but Fred said that he thought it’d be best if we got two pigs at least close to the same size, so I said that was okay with me.
The pig man caught the two piglets we’d decided upon, and Fred held the carrier. The piglets did not care for being put into a carrier, for the record.
And then Fred and the pig man stood and talked and talked and talked, so I walked around and snapped some pictures.
I do not like these birds. They are weird-looking and obnoxious.
The pig man told Fred that he didn’t think he could have pigs if it wasn’t for this dog, who is apparently a very good herder. He also told Fred that he accidentally ran over the dog with his truck the other day – both tires went over the dog – and he thought for sure the dog was a goner, but the dog is just fine. He was moving okay as far as I could see!
We got home in no time, took the pigs out to meet George and Gracie, who did not much approve.
“What the -?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
Then we let them go in the pig yard, and they explored and explored and explored. Fred tried to get them to take a cookie out of his hand, but they weren’t much up for that. George and Gracie chased the pigs around (with the pigs in the pig yard and the dogs outside the pig yard), but eventually gave up once they realized they couldn’t actually get to the pigs.
Yesterday, Fred went out and with some coaxing, got the black pig to take a cookie from him. He informed me several times that he’s NEVER gotten a pig to take a cookie from him on only the second day before.
It’s only just begun, little pigs. You have no idea how many cookies are in your future!
The latest chicks are two weeks old, and the two born from eggs laid by either the Featherheads or the Rock Star (or some combination thereof) seem to be developing little baby mohawks.
I absolutely cannot wait to see what these babies look like when they’re grown up!
As more time goes by, Samba and Rumba spend more and more time venturing forth throughout the house. Rumba’s the more adventurous of the two, but Samba makes it downstairs all the time now, too. I wish they didn’t get nervous and run back upstairs if I run into their general direction, like they think they’re in trouble. I am perfectly fine with having them explore the house!
They know the routine of bedtime, that’s for sure. Every night after we turn the TV off and go upstairs, the kittens run up ahead of me, and then run into the foster room when they see me coming. Sometimes they need to be coaxed into the foster room with the use of the laser light (Samba, especially, loves the laser light!), but most of the time they just run into the room and wait for me to shut the door.
I let them out first thing in the morning, as soon as I get up, and they’re always waiting for me to open the door.
Samba caught sight of herself in the mirror on my closet door the other day:
More kitten pics over at Love&Hisses.
Outside Mama, glaring malevolently. She will mess you UP.
Previously
2008: No entry.
2007: Seriously, I might be a bit lackadaisical in my housekeeping, but I wouldn’t let CAT POO sit around on the floor, let alone let it show up in a picture!
Previously
2006: Second of all, we both hate our voices and to release them forth into the world would be a cruelty beyond measure.
2005: Impromptu day off.
2004: I’m going to save a fortune on tampons, that’s for sure.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: Damn that Sam’s.
2000: Heartless bastard.
All of your animals are so gorgeous!
Those obnoxious birds are Guinea fowl, which I only know because I consumed two seasons of All Creatures Great & Small this weekend and there is at least one episode featuring the damn things and another in which they are never mentioned but you can hear them for pretty much the entire episode. I don’t understand how anyone puts up with the racket.
I like the little Oreo piggy!
Guinea’s are loud,obnoxious & they are dumb, dumb, dumb (just my opinion). But they do eat ticks and they like them. The pigs are cute! & they color coordinate!
Ooooh dark piggies this time!
Glad for your success in finding the piglets.
The pictures of your drive north brought back memories of the many times my late husband and I would go for long car rides in that region. He used to joke that cows had two legs shorter, since they had to adapt to standing on steep hillsides! LOL
Love the new piggies. The picture of George and Gracie running along the fence surprised me. I thought all they did was lay around in the sun proving gravity.
Our deck chipmunk has come out of hibernation. I don’t know what it means but I choose to believe it means only one more week of winter. Fingers crossed.
Dave and his buddies left from Grand Cayman on their delayed by hurricane guy vacation. So I am bachelor girl this week. Got wild last night and watched the Oscars. Woo Hoo!
Guinea fowl make really good watch birds. Nothing new can come on the place that they don’t let you know about it. Also, good tick control. Their good traits are offset by the fact that they are noisy. Not as bad as pea fowl but still.
oh, my! Those are the cutest little things! I soo could not eat them. As a kid, I had a pet pig named Curly. Then all of a sudden he was nowhere to be found. I asked Mom where he was and she asked if I remembered eating the Christmas ham. I was very sad. I loved my Curly.
I guess this would be a question for Friday but I was wondering how much you save by buying and raising pigs, chickens, etc? I can’t remember if you had a cow. If now, would you consider it? I’m sure you are seeing some savings by raising your own food including vegetables and fruits. But I’m also sure there are some costs involved beside your time. Have you begun to see any savings or is this more of a hobby but the savings in a bonus kind of thing?
Hi Robyn – I know you’ve said that you’ll never get geese, but have you ever seen Indian Runner Ducks? Our neighbor has them and they’re hilarious!
Those are some mighty cute piggies!
Have you gotton the house pictures yet? Now that you “know” what the cement pad was for, you think about building an XL pantry out there to store all your creations? I thought of you today when we went to Walmart. Hubby went to get a box of ammo for target shooting and our Walmart was sold out of most everything! Eek I thought, well if we are gonna be attacked, at least Fred and Robyn will be stocked up and could survive. 😉
Did Delmar ever get adopted? I know he got returned once, but is he still at the pet store or did he find a home?
I love Delmar, and if I wasn’t in Michigan and didn’t have a 19 year old cat that wouldn’t adapt too well to a new cat I’d take him right now.
If he’s still there, you could go get him and keep him for me until my cat goes to kitty heaven…you’d hardly notice one more right?
(kidding!)
Cute little piggies! 🙂 Have you named them yet? If not, might I suggest Martin and Lewis? Tom and Jerry? Sylvester and Tweety?
I digress…
I was at Target yesterday, and I thought of you. Why did I think of you, you ask? Well, I was in the grocery section grabbing a couple of boxes of Special K Vanilla Almond (which is a little slice of heaven, I tell ya), when I spied Tim Tams. And I thought, Robin loves Tim Tams! I must try them!
And so I did.
And I’ve come to the conclusion that you are a horrible, horrible woman and a terrible influence. I’m getting married in 20 days – my waistline CANNOT afford the addiction to the evil, chocolatey crack that is the Tim Tam.
[sigh]
Those suckers are really, really good.
I don’t know much about pigs but – why are they hairy? i’ve never seen hairy pigs here before… not here anyways!
Robyn, I know this gets asked every few months, and if I wasn’t so damned lazy I could do a search for it, but….. what camera do you guys have? It takes incredible shots.
My great-grandmother always kept Guinea’s on her place because they make so much freaking racket. You always know if someone is in the yard if you have some Guineas.
Did you take the scenery pictures with your Sony Cybershot DSCP200??? I’m looking for a smaller Sony camera… They are very excellent pictures!!! I love the one of the building and the water wheel!
Oh, nevermind! If only I would’ve checked the Friday questions first! SO sorry!