John F Dean

Helping others.  It gets my mind off of my problems.

Hi Timothy,

Kunes are “small pigs”. They have a pretty low keyed temperament. I have had full scale pig farmers tell me they are on a first name basis with their local ER.

Hi B,

Of course Rabies is always a concern.  The pig didn’t have a mark on her.   The raccoon was thoroughly stomped…I doubt if it knew what hit it.  You raise a good point, but having the remains of the raccoon tested didn’t occur to me.

Hi Jay,

What surprised me is that the attack appears to have taken place in early daylight hours.  I am suspecting this because the rooster was in the yard.

Hi John W,

We have Kunekunes.  I find them to be pretty calm in most circumstances.  Momma allows our shelter pup into her pen to babysit even her youngest piglets.  But, yes, I am pretty cautious when giving shots.  I have no doubt the the adults stay in their areas because I want them there….not because they can’t figure out yet another method of escape. But they do seem to need to have a valid reason for escape…such as danger, love, or supper being late.

My wife has multiple health issues. She fell in our back yard several months back. The boar (Reno) lifted the gate (even though I thought I had secured it with lag bolts so it couldn’t be lifted).  He then galloped across the yard to check on her.  Of course, she thought she was dead. It appears that, when you are laying on the ground, having  a boar come at you at full gallop can be impressive.  When he reached her, he only showed concern and was quite gentle in nudging her to move.

Tuesday morning I glanced out the window and saw my sow had gotten out.   She is generally well behaved, so I was in no hurry.  I downed my coffee and went outside. As I let her back into her pen, I noticed her piglets from last fall huddled in a corner as if there was danger.  I looked around and saw her foot prints in the snow going to the chickens.   Inside the chicken pen was the story:  A hen was gutted.  A rooster was crippled but alive. I ended his suffering.  And there was  a dead raccoon looking as if it had been run over by a Mack Truck.

I went back to the pigs and thanked Sassafras for her work.  I told her children they were safe …momma is a badass.

Driving with a lead foot.  Is the lead foot on the gas or the breaks?

Hi  Eric,

The older I get, the more I appreciate good socks, gloves, and hat.

There are many judgement issues in play here, but when driving on slick roads and approaching a stop sign where I know I will not be able to stop at, I turn slightly toward the edge of the road and use the snow on the side of the road to slow my vehicle.  Caution, the last time I lived in the north country was before cars were made of plastic.

Referring back to the post by Nicole, letters and words have been added to and dropped from the English language over the years.  One of the great ironies is that the letter J was not in the English language when the King James Bible was first written.  In a strict sense, James, John, Judas, and Jesus were never mentioned in the original King James Bible.   The sound we associate with the letter J was written as ii.  And, of course, standardized letters and spelling did not exist.   So, there are many additional challenges when trying to read older cursive documents.

See, I have used my Historical Linguistics class!