A friend and I traveled to the flat lands last Saturday to take a look at the two pigs that were being raised there for me. Actually, the intention was to load them on the truck to take to slaughter, but the pigs had other ideas.

I soon was able to recall how difficult it is to get pigs to go anywhere they don’t want to go. The first pig walked up our ramp of boards and right onto the truck, at least he did so after being lured with a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and some leftover Chex Mix. Both contain salt, which is something pigs love. However, love it or not, the other pinched its toe in trying to climb the boards and decided not to try again.

This little piggy went “wee, wee, wee” all around the hog lot, but never even considered climbing the ramp. Meanwhile, the more aggressive one decided he no longer wanted to be on the truck. First he decided to put his feet up on top of my truck. That didn’t work out for him, so he tried one of my sides. That, too, failed. So, since I was in the way at the back of the truck, he decided to help me move quickly by hitting me with his snout under the arm and basically lifting me off the ground. At this point, I was very glad that he didn’t have tusks.

I might note here that the hog in question only weighted in at about 180 or so and I weigh about 210. However, he was more than able to push me out of the way. Thankfully, he headed back into the lot. So, that little piggy stayed home. I suddenly had a craving for roast beef just thinking about it.

I called another fellow with a livestock trailer who agreed to lend a hand in hauling the unruly piggies. A few days later, the piggies went to market. They were easily loaded via the larger and lower trailer. Then, they walked easily off the truck and right into the holding pen at the abattoir.

As of Saturday, they were neatly processed into little piggy parts and were ready to pick up sometime this week. Added to the quarter of a beef I bought, we’ll have lots of fresh, farm-raised organic meat to enjoy for months.

Realizing that meat isn’t all that great without vegetables, I decided to also try to get a garden started. Being the ambitious sort, I widened my garden by almost double the size this year.

Even so, I don’t plan to plant much more. Sure, I will plant a little more, but the key is spacing things out more. I learned last year that once the tomatoes turn into a confused jungle once the cucumbers climb into them. The potatoes and fallen tomatoes overtook the poor green peppers and the watermelons ended up in a weed patch. I’ve started researching old-world French gardening techniques that encourage planting certain things together. The organic gardening style also encourages planting some flowers in amongst the vegetables for various reasons.

I don’t know how deeply I will delve in this kind of gardening, which has been practiced for centuries, but I already have instituted some of the lessons into my layout. For instance, a chart is available telling anyone interested what plants make good ‘bedfellows’ and which don’t do well when placed side-by-side. Looking at that, I soon learned that my cucumbers really shouldn’t have been beside my tomatoes to start with. I’ll chalk that one up to experience.

I also downloaded some good information from N.C. State showing suggested planting times for all common garden plants. Using that information, I have my spring garden already set. Granted, I still need to find a few onion sets and things, but I hope my more widely spaced, better-planned garden will be easier to tend and more productive. Last year, parts of it got so overgrown I was afraid to walk through it for fear of stepping on a snake or one of my cannonball-sized watermelons. But this year, I’m going to do better. Of course, I also said that last year.

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