Of all the weird, random stuff that seem to crop up in my life, this was an interesting one.
My hubbie?s family keeps animals like chickens and we had a couple of pigs. These are not pets. These are food. The chickens for eggs, and when the egg prices got up to $1 an egg in the store, it was amazing to have eggs on hand.
Sadly, one of the pigs didn?t make it. It had a broken leg which never healed and began causing it all sorts of problems. One day, it laid down the mud puddle and fell asleep, and didn?t wake up.
The other pig, we called the assault pig, because she would see you coming towards the back yard and charge the fence. Turns out, she was just super friendly, not aggressive. But when her sister died, she didn?t have anyone to keep her company, so she became the escape pig. She picked up the chain-link fence and wandered the yard, then went across the street to see what the neighbors had in their yards.
They herded her home. She escaped again.
It was becoming a daily ritual. So, the butcher was called and an appointment was made. She was going to be bacon.
Let me put out there that, while I do eat meat, if I had to hunt for my food, I would probably be vegetarian. Let me also apologize to my mom, who if she reads this will most likely disown me. She is a stout vegan for moral and ethical reasons.
The day came to take the pig to the butcher. She was big. Like 300 pounds big. This is not an animal that you can move around easily. She went where she wanted.
We went and got a horse trailer to load her into. Turns out, pigs don?t like stairs very much. Can?t say that I blame them, but hefting 300 pounds up a foot when your legs aren?t that long is almost impossible.
The guys thought that they could lure her into the trailer with pig food. Which is a funny thing, because pig food is tiny little pellets and she was huge.
Turns out, she was all about the food, but it wasn?t tasty enough to really get her attention. The guys set up a ramp to get her into the trailer and she wasn?t very fond of wandering up it.
A couple weeks back, I?d received a new cook book- B Dylan Hollis?s ?Baking Yesteryear.? If you don?t know who he is, look him up. He?s adorable. He makes recipes from the 1900?s to the 1980?s from vintage cook books he finds at garage sales and where ever. The cook book is a compilation of his favorites, complete with his wit in the descriptions. It?s great!
Getting a new cook book is always an adventure for me. I love perusing the recipes and trying out new things. When I received Dylan?s book, it was no different. I found a recipe that I wanted to try, it was a no-bake recipe, because I was born in the hottest month of the year and who really wants to turn the oven on when it?s 100-and stupid out?
So, I procured the ingredients and made Ambrosia Salad, also called ?food for the gods.? Hubby had some and decided it should be called coconut salad. Had too much coconut in it. It was good, but after one serving it was enough and it lived in the fridge for a few weeks.
I?d suggested passing it along to the pig a week prior and because we?re both forgetful, it was still in the fridge.
Trying to lure the pig into the trailer was proving impossible, then the thought hit me. She might enjoy the salad, and it might work better than pig pellets. Off I went to retrieve the salad.
I came back and she was still wandering around. Hubby had tried to put a lead on her, and she damned near pulled him off his feet. That was another brother?s idea. Not happening.
So, I put the salad under her nose. Oh boy, that got her attention. I was her new best friend. I went up one ramp, leading her up the other.
This point is interesting because in my auto immune blog, I explain how I've had a stroke. So, guys, let the unstable one lead the 300 LB pig into the horse trailer...
She stalled half way up, and I dumped the considerable amount of salad that was left into her feed dish, then put that in front of her.
Worked like a charm. She went the rest of the way into the trailer and happily munched away at the salad.
She might have been on her way to the other side, but at least she got something she really enjoyed before the end.
No, it doesn?t make up for anything, and it doesn?t ease my conscious, but I was able to be useful. I was amused by the episode because a few weeks back, I?d had a stroke and was still working on my stability. My thought was, "Let?s put the wobbly one in front of the 300-pound animal and she how she fairs."
It worked. Being useful is something I struggle with now because it feels like I can?t do much of anything anymore. So, thanks for the recipe, Dylan. It was tasty, and now I know how to get a pig?s attention.