What do you do if....?

Anthea warned me about Festus, our largest boar.  She said that they never went into his pen without first walling him off in a section, using another hog panel.  Festus was raised in a petting zoo.  As with all male livestock animals that are raised with too much human contact, he fails to have appropriate responses to humans.   Thus, when we bought Anthea's hogs a month or so ago, she warned us to be careful around Festus.  Note taken.

I should say - Festus (as with all our hogs) is an American Guinea Hog, a small, rare, heritage breed of hog.  I like them because they are not as big as more "modern" or  "improved" breeds, and because I do most chores around here, I like smaller animals that are a bit easier for a woman to handle.   But a boar, no matter how "small", can hurt you.   (This "small" boar probably weighs 400 lbs)

 

(Picture of Festus in his pen, taken last week a few days after the 6" rainfall, smallest pig behind him is Lily, larger sow is Keller)

After Anthea's warning, and knowing that I regularly go in with all the other pigs, Cliff made me promise that I would never go into that pen when he's not here.  I promised.  But - one day, I'd backed up to Festus's pen to unload some fruit & veggies I'd brought home for the hogs.  My tailgate was just about the same height as the hog panel.  It seemed mighty convenient, at the time.... for about a second and a half.  Then, Festus jumped up and put his feet in the back of my 4WD truck.  YIKES!  I started wondering what would happen if Festus got out.

So, every day as I go out to do chores, I ponder - what will I do if Festus is out?  I've never come up with a good answer, other than "get to the nearest food and dump some on the ground."  And then what?  I'm not sure.   I do NOT like being without a plan....I'm a planner.  It's just what I do.

I have a plan for what to do if there's a tornado.  I have a plan for what to do if there's no electricity.  I have a plan for what to do if there's no water (and got to practice that plan when our water was out for 5 days last week!).  I have a plan for what to do if the cows are out.  As a matter of fact, I have plan A, B, C, etc for most every situation.  I'm not a worrier... because I have a plan for most anything that can happen.  If you know you can handle something, what's there to worry about?   I have a plan for what to do if any of the other hogs are out.... but I have no good plan for what to do if I'm home alone and Festus gets out.

Well, this morning, I almost got to find out what I'd do.  We had a very heavy rain during the night (which followed 6" of rain a week ago), so there is a lot of mud this morning.  As I carried some food to Festus and his girls (Keller and Lily), something caught my eye.  The corner of their pen was almost completely open!!!

 They ( "they" meaning almost certainly Festus) had been forcing the panel out - and had broken all the wires holding the two panels to the t post except for one wire at the top of the cattle panel.  Both panels were forced out so far that it took every bit of my strength to bend them back even close to the post.  The opening was large enough that Lily could have walked right out - and one more good push would have let all three of them out.

I want to pause right here and offer public thanks to the Holy Spirit, who had to have been the one who prompted me to change my normal morning routine, so that I went out to feed the pigs an hour and a half earlier than usual.... and went to Festus's pen first, when he's always last.  I was likely just a couple of minutes from having all three pigs loose.

I fed the pigs in the dry spot farthest from the corner where I needed to work, so that they were distracted.   I wasn't strong enough to completely bend the panels back, but I finally managed to get them close - and I have about 57 lbs of wire holding that corner together.  Well, maybe not 57 lbs, but a lot.  :)

I didn't  pause to take pictures (and maybe not even to breathe) until I got the fence fixed....   In the picture below, the white line is where the bottom of the panel should be.  You can see (I think) where it ended up after I bent it back.  The point of the pink arrow is where it was when I went outside.

Yeah - I need a plan (or four) for what I'm going to do if I'm here alone and Festus gets out.