Once upon a time on a little homestead there was a farmer, she had a mix of critters, she had a milk goat, she had chickens and ducks, she had lovely flock of sheep and she had pasture pigs.

The farmer was blessed, and she knew that full size or a piggy pack of piglets while it was great to let them roam around, she was one of “those” farmers, the ones that are old fashioned and let the pigs roam around the pastures, dig in mud holes and be a pig..

The farmer knew that when it came time for babies to be born that Grandpa had always said, lock up your pigs, because if they are allowed near a birthing momma, they will eat the baby and maybe even the mom if they get the chance..

It was a grandpa story, one of those pearls of wisdom passed down with little to no proof to go with it, but the farmer knew that it was always better to be safe then sorry.

So when it came time for the sheep to have their wee lambs, the pigs were moved from the one part of the barn with access to a big pen for those few weeks.

But what the farmer didn’t “see” was that in that pen, there was slots that the wee babies could walk though, only big enough for a momma sheep to get her head though, not big enough for more then a piggy snout really.

The sheep flock liked the area by the pig pen, they were friends after all, it was a big run in with shelter from the wind on three sides but the sheep could lay in the warm sun, chew cud and let the lambs play..

The farmer called the sheep to come to do a head check, and a ewe came but her lamb was missing, the momma sheep was calling but no answer came, the farmer said.. did you lose your lamb, where did you leave it sleeping? The farmer started looking.. at the hay manger, in this stall or that stall, then the farmer remembered that they like to sleep in the lean to, and around to it did the farmer go..

Much to the farmers horror, what had happened was clear, the wee lamb had gone though the slot and the big pig had killed and was just about finished eating it, after the farmer stood stunned, and then (maybe just maybe the farmer threw up a little) tears ran down the farmers face at making such a mistake.

The farmer called all the sheep and lambs into the front of the barn and locked them up, and then the farmer put up new boards all along that pen. so that it would never ever happen again.

“the moral of the story, love your pasture pigs but don’t trust them around your baby livestock”