Swineherding with Sasquatch

Heading down Shakedown Street to do evening chores tonight we were viciously attacked by this snake.

Why can't I load the picture?

That was ridiculous. I shouldn't have to use my laptop to post a picture. I'll need to figure that out in the App.

The wife has been researching the culprit and Google AI is saying it's an Oregon Racer:

"Juvenile racers look radically different from their adult counterparts. While adults grow into a solid, sleek olive, gray, or blue-green color with a solid yellow or cream belly, babies emerge with a highly contrasting pattern of dark brown or grayish saddles and spots. This camouflage pattern helps them blend into forest floor debris, pinecones, and leaf litter. They gradually lose these spots and darken into their uniform adult coloration over their first two years of life."

A little over a week since the two piglets from the surprise farrowing were born, they have rejoined the herd at First Switchback. Everything appears to be copacetic this morning . . .

Checking in with the three day old piglets.

Once again, this is from last week. I'm still figuring out my workflow and post timing for my new social media app . . . I'm going to be an influencer in my own realm.

I was not prepared for this farrowing . . .

At breakfast a week ago I noticed this sow with a prolapse and went on a daring search and rescue search for her piglets.

I found the farrowing! Piggle farrowed on May 6, 2026. She gave birth to 12, three didn't make it past the first few hours. But the remaining nine include the mysterious death of The White Weaner and epic survival of the The Runt.

Which makes The Runt 12 weeks old as of today.

I went looking for The Runt's farrowing, but found this first and is does tangentially relate to The Runt. Once this weaner died, I became worried that the piglets might be sick so I watched them closely thinking The Runt would be the first to succumb to Axiom I.

The deadliest time for a piglet is the first 72 hours. If they make it past that, they usually survive, unless they get stepped on and crushed. But by the time they start weaning at six weeks, they're usually in the clear. Which makes this girls death odd; she was healthy, growing, and gorgeous (she was the pure white one from Piggle's litter).

I think these guys are about ten weeks old. The size difference between The Runt and the rest of the litter is staggering.

I am actually astounded that this little guy has made it this long. The littles have wanted me to bottle feed it, the wife has suggested putting it out of its misery, while I decided to just let pigs be pigs.

Nearly three weeks after a very successful farrowing, Piggle V and her 9 piglets are ready to rejoin the herd. She had gathered a few groupies on the wrong side of the fence. They gladly returned to the herd, but the piglets were much more skeptical.

Lucy has a lumpy head.

Lucy took a walk,

now Lucy's . . .

I swear I'm in the Twilight Zone.

I was told on good authority that Piggle farrowed last week while I was out of the state for Thanksgiving.

But this is what I found this morning . . .