We have quite a story of thanksgiving to share with you all!
Last week a new mama pig gave birth to piglets. Our pigs live on pasture, so when it’s time to give birth they make a nest out of grass, straw, or leaves. We keep an eye on them, but generally they never need our assistance.
We always look forward to morning chores and finding a scenario like this.
But last week was a little different. The neighbor who farms just to the east of us drove into the yard holding a healthy newborn piglet. He had found it walking down the dirt path between our fields. Strange!?!
Daniel, Luke, and I rushed out to the pasture with the piglet. We found the mama pig and one more piglet but the mama wanted nothing to do with the babies. Usually we keep our distance from the mamas right after they give birth because they can be aggressive. As I held the squealing piglet, the mama just stood there. Usually a mama pig would be charging me if she heard her little one squealing. It was pretty obvious they were hungry and the mama pig was not taking care of them.
Luke found one more piglet in the nest while Daniel and I walked the surrounding area searching for others. Feeling confident we had all of the piglets, we brought all three of them up to the farm where we gave them a bottle of colostrum and made them a cozy bed of straw.
A couple of hours later, our new farmer Cole, found a yet another piglet in some bushes by our hay shed. WHAT?!? That little piglet had walked over a half of a mile!! We brought it inside with the others, gave it a bottle, and sent everyone outside to look for more piglets.
Much to our surprise, Cole and Luke came back in 5 minutes with another one! This scenario continued until we had a total of seven piglets!
As the story unfolded, I just keep thinking: this is so 2020.
▫ Had we ever bottle fed a piglet? No.
▫ Did we plan to bottle feed SEVEN piglets? Nope.
▫ Do we think we have extra time to add this to our schedule? No.
▫ Will we add this to our schedule? Yes, of course.
▫ Are we so, so thankful we found all seven piglets? Absolutely!
▫ Do we have seven healthy piglets? Yes!
▫ Are we learning something new and having a new experience? You bet.
▫ Are we all experiencing joy watching these cute little guys? Definitely.
So for the past week, Judy has been faithfully caring for The Seven Little Piglets of Jako Farm, bottle feeding each of them (watch the video!). We’ve decided they somehow knew Grandma Judy would care for them and they were just trying to find their way to her, even if it required a half mile walk!
As we all navigate a very unusual Thanksgiving, I hope you too can find stories or simple moments in your own life where you can recognize and experience thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Jako!
