The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good
What a beautiful weekend we had on the farm.

With the exception of one unfortunate incident (which I will talk about later),

the weekend was perfect in every way... perfect weather, fun guests.

This weekend was moving day for the piggies.

For the past several months, the pigs have spent their nights in a stall in the barn,

and for the daytime, I would walk them up to one of the goat pens.

In the past few weeks this has become increasingly difficult,

as these girls are quite willful and very very strong!

Most days they have their own agenda.

Several months ago we fenced in a portion of our orchard...

an area with dense undergrowth and mature trees.

We cut a hole into the back wall of the feed room that is attached to the horses' run-in-shed,

and built a ramp leading into this new little doorway.

I took fence boards and walled off the front entrance



 so that the horses can just "visit" the pigs through the fence.

Hubbs created a mud hole for the girls,

and we moved their wading pool into the enclosure, too.

With plenty to eat, plenty of shade, and a couple places to get wet and cool off,

we figured the pigs would be in "Hog Heaven."

We were right...

they love it!


We close them in their new little stall at night to sleep,
and open it back up for the day early in the morning.
The horses spend quite a bit of time visiting with the pigs,



as is evident by the amount of horse manure in that corner of their paddock each morning.

If you have come for your daily smile,
you might want to stop reading at this point....
the next part of my story will not make you smile!

The Bad and Ugly
Saturday afternoon (after returning from a visit to our duck pond)

 I was sitting on the front porch of our farmhouse,
visiting with farm guests when I heard a very loud truck drive down our road.

It was a truck very much in need of a muffler.
I listened as the truck stopped around what seemed to be the area of our duck pond.
Then "BOOM".... I heard a gunshot and the truck drove off loudly.
As soon as our guests left, I drove down to the pond
and found one of my ducks (and these are domesticated ducks, not wild)
dead....shot in the neck.


I cannot express how violated, how angry, how saddened
I feel by this horrible act of violence toward my innocent duck.
Needless to say, I have called the State Police and filed a report.
I will be spending a bit of time at the pond this week,
waiting for that truck to make an appearance...
at which time I will photograph its license plate
and send it to the police.
Luckily, our neighbors saw this vehicle, right before the incident;
so I know the make and model.

Please help me understand what makes certain individuals capable of such aggression.
I truly don't understand this.

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