We spent the last two days hauling 7 tons of hog fuel to keep the most traveled sheep paths and gate passages free from the mud buildup. But no paddock got as much attention as Big Pig's.
Here's a tip - when you consider bringing home a 500 pound pig, take a good look at their feet. So pretty, they are. But they create more mud in less time than any creature I know. Of course it is NW Oregon, so Rain is our companion and with Rain comes our other companion, Mud.
We had put a small area of hog fuel [nothing to do with hogs, it is a wood by product like mulch, and they used it to burn in hog burners - also nothing to do with hogs] into Lucy's area so she'd have a 10 foot area free from mud. She loved to lay there by her hut. But within one week of heavy rain there was about 6" of liquid mud. Besides her piggie feet being overloaded with wet mud - a bacteria risk - the farmer's feet [that would me moi] were getting mud soaked every time she entered the paddock to give fresh water. When you have a hole in your sock, and you sink down deep into cold mud which goes over the top of your Muck boot and travels down to that hole in your sock, you only have one thing on your mind - hog fuel.
It was a warm day, partially sunny, more like Spring than Fall. As hard as the work was of shoveling, raking and lifting 7 tons of hog fuel, the animals were about, and to see Lucy's big pig body sunning on her new and improved large hog fuel island, surround by mud unable to touch her, it made me happy.
