Earmuff-less in a world of mandrakes

I’m cozy and tucked away in my pink trailer now but I still feel a bit shaken. Just minutes ago I was being charged at by an angry mother pig with a squealing piglet squirming in my hand. It was high time for the three barrows to be castrated so yesterday we called the local hog farmer, Chris, to come give us a tutorial. While we were all biting our nails nervously, he arrived casually holding only a metal bowl, some clippers, and a blue bottle of disinfectant. After chatting for a few minutes we strolled over to the pig pens where Julie and her three piglets were napping. Here, we faced our biggest challenge: getting the piglets away from the mother without losing a limb.

So far out of all the farm animals I’ve been around I have come to a solid conclusion that pigs are definitely the scariest of all. With this in mind, I decided to let Hallie climb in with the 900lb charging sow and stayed outside the pen to receive the piglets as she began the long process of having to trap them one by one. Good thing she had already spent time working in the Swine Unit at Chico State, because she at least had an idea of how to handle the pigs (Who would have guessed it’s easiest to carry piglets by their hind legs?). But anyway, after a few narrow escapes from Julie, she managed to grab the piglets and hoist them quickly over the pen into our waiting arms.

With one hefty piglet shrieking and squirming in my grip, I was immediately reminded of the scene in Harry Potter when Harry, Ron and Hermione are working with the mandrakes in Professor Sprout’s class. If only I had had some earmuffs like they had in the movie…But no, life moved on without the earmuffs and Chris showed us effortlessly how to cut open the piglets. With two deep incisions, he reached in and squeezed each testicle out until they slithered out of the hole he had cut. After all three had been castrated, we lifted the barrows back in with their mother who sniffed them all over carefully.

Now, my friends, we must part ways. It is weird to be back in my street clothes but here I am, wearing normal jeans and the one nice sweater I brought with me. I am about to drive home for the weekend -- so until Monday, adieu!