The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Porcine visitors

Pig in the garden

So far, our garden fence has been doing its job admirably. Sure, birds get in, and I'm pretty sure a squirrel has been invading to gnaw seeds out of my tomatoes. But the deer --- our area's major garden predators --- nibble right up to the fenceline then stop.

Imagine my surprise when I heard a strange, hoarse squealing coming from the direction of my broccoli and zinnias last weekend. I peered out the window...then yelled Mark's name so loud he thought someone was dying.

Small pig

The problem turned out to be an extra-small pig in our garden. I'm guessing it found its way in under the gate.

Luckily, I saw the pig before it could do much damage, and we chased it out to rejoin three other piglets roaming the road. A couple of hours later, a pickup truck cruised by then the livestock were gone. If they'd stayed around much longer, we would have had to beef up the bottom edges of our fence!



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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If that pig had stayed around much longer...you could have put an apple in his mouth and fired up the barbie! Eat or be eaten? Grins!
Comment by Tim Inman Sat Sep 1 08:30:32 2018
This reminds me of the year that all sorts of farm critters found their way into my yard, including that ready-to-slaughter hog on the run. He was massive and trying to eat the scraps I had threw in the chicken tractor, almost turning it over! He was very scary and very hard to run off. Good thing you had cute little piglets instead :)
Comment by Kayla Sat Sep 1 11:33:27 2018
It's looks like you had best fix the gate because there will be more, when you least expect it!
Comment by wewally Sat Sep 1 12:50:20 2018
Glad that is an escaped domestic pig and you don't have those invasive feral hogs further south!
Comment by Eric Sat Sep 8 09:58:36 2018





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