So I got a message from a woman I met at our vet.  She is one of the assistants there and I discovered while they were working on Basil, our dog, that she raises pigs.  It turns out that she is going to be switching her stock over to a new breed.  The message was asking if we were still interested in breeding pigs, would we be interested in buying her two young sows.  Now this was NOT what we were expecting to be doing on short notice – or at all this year, but Zina and I had decided when we got our first pigs last year, that keeping them was something we wanted to do.  Because pigs can have 10 – 13 pigs in a litter, it makes sense to sell some of them and keep a couple to raise for the freezer. The sale of the others pays for your own food.  Brilliant.

So we told the vet lady that yes we wanted them.  Oh YAY!, she replied.  She was very happy that they didn’t have to go to the processor.  Our trailer at the time was trapped behind a snow drift so they offered to bring them by. We set to the task of getting everything in order.  Cleaned the hut, got the water tank set back up, brought in fresh straw, ordered a ton of organic feed, fixed the feeder, and re-dug out the wallow.

So this morning, JAZ Farm got more livestock.  They are Hampshire crosses and are very docile and friendly.  While we were talking about them it was pretty clear that mom and the little daughter were pretty attached to them.  In fact, the husband had to tell them “no crying”.  I don’t think it worked.

Anywho, the little girl had named one of them “Sparkles”.  She is spotted so, who knows, maybe it looked like sparkles.  However, I was not going to be calling a 350 lb sow “Sparkles” for the next 8 years.  Zina said, that she had gotten a song from the movie, Cold Mountain, stuck in her head.  In the movie, the characters Ruby Thewz and Ada Monroe, live together on a homestead in the hills.  Ruby’s father shows up and sings a song called “Ruby with the eyes that Sparkle”.  So the names just appeared – Ruby (instead of Sparkles) and Ada.  It’s one of my favorite movies and the names will work fine for us.

So here are the latest girls.  They are our future Bacon Puppy manufacturers.  Welcome ladies!