Becky Bacon finds a home

Seems we now have a pig.  Was I planning on getting a pig?  I think not but here she is none the less. 

Okay, so it was my idea...what's new?  I just started thinking that we needed to get the garden tilled but we don't own a tiller.  What better way to get your ground worked and fertilized at the same time then to get a pig?  Not that my husband was complaining.  He had been trying to talk me into getting a pig for a year.

We looked around on Craigslist and found someone not far from us with hogs.  We loaded our twins up in our big, white pickup truck and took them to help us pick out a pig.  When we got there it was over 100 degrees and I was wishing we had waited until the cool of the evening to go.  We looked at the many pens of little, squealing piglets and I made the grand declaration "We'll take the first one you can catch."  Our seller appreciated that approach and I appreciated not having to climb in the pen and help my husband actually pick up the pig.  After all, I was wearing my new "work" boots (these boots had never yet seen any real work and had only been used to dress up my jeans).  They grabbed a little girl, if you want to call 50 lbs. of wiggling, screaming fury "little".  She was mad and spent the whole time we carried her to the trailer trying to bite us and wrench herself free. 

I was now beginning to question my decision, especially when my husband started saying things like, "I sure hope she doesn't gore us."  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating.  He did make me think when he started questioning if our fence would hold her and was I sure I wanted that smell so close to the house.  Yikes!  He could have brought that up BEFORE we bought the pig.  He eventually assured me that he would make sure everything was taken care of. 

I started throwing out names on the way home.  A vote was taken.  The winner was "Becky Bacon".  I liked the sound of it and it would also remind us that she was not a pet but an eventual food source.

Now the fun would begin.  We could not back our trailer to the pen so we would have to pick Becky up and carry her again.  I was just about to suggest that she could live in the trailer when my husband gathered our older kids to help him lift her.  My boots were saved again.  Someone (I will not mention names...but it possibly, could have been me) also had the bright idea that we needed to weigh her.  I ran in and grabbed the bathroom scale for my husband to stand on while he held the pig.  My husband is a 6 ft. Oklahoma farm boy but Becky almost got the best of him.  She wiggled, she screamed, she bit, yes, it was just like having toddlers again.  I was afraid for him but he handled her fine for the few minutes he had to stand there.

Finally, she could go into her pen.  We were all relieved to be able to shut the gate and watch her from a distance for awhile.  Our family scattered and went to get her food bowl and some hay for her to make a bed.  I walked back out to her pen in a couple of hours.  I was sweet talking her as I walked up but she suddenly charged at me.  It scared me until I remembered she couldn't get me.  I was beginning to think she held me personally responsible for her current situation.  It was almost like she knew I was the one who said, "Let's get a pig."

A few weeks have passed now.  Becky understands that when humans walk up it means it is time to eat and she sure loves to eat!  Our youngest daughter has got Becky to stand still for a quick pet.  She is still not "tame" but she is a lot of fun to watch.  Let's hope my bribing her with food has made her forgive and forget...mainly just forget!

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HGTV on a budget

I guess I am strange.  I have to live a house for awhile before I start changing paint and upgrading light fixtures.  Everyone else I know has painted, changed out carpet and started a major master bath remodel before the first moving box hits the door.

I have spent the last year thinking about what I want to fix-up but I have just now gotten motivated to do something.  Maybe that is because we have had major problems with this house.  (The septic, the foundation, water under the house, the a/c, plumbing, and on, and on, and on)  I was never so thankful for a home warranty in my life.  Now it feels like things are starting to be resolved.  I have been watching HGTV the last few weeks and have gotten motivated to start making some changes. 

My first project was removing the ugly wallpaper in the dining room.  It was just not my taste.  It was too busy and too country for me.  We picked out a baseboard rather then a true chair rail to use for two reasons: 1) it was cheaper 2) it was wider to match the space of the wallpaper we took down. The whole project cost about $40 and made a huge difference.  I just feel like it has a cleaner look and is more sophisticated now.

Maybe this speaks of the number of times we have moved in the last 20 years but I am always thinking, "If we had to sell this place quickly, what would help us sell?"  This led me to the next obvious project, upgrading our light fixtures.  Most the fixtures seem to be original to the house, which was built in 1995.  Polished brass was huge in the '90's but is a bit dated now.  I was looking to replace a couple of spotlight fixtures.  I found a style that would work and was looking at spending about $70.  My husband said, "What if we refinished them?  We would throw them out anyway."  What a brilliant man!  We bought a can of textured spray paint and tried it.  I think the fixtures look great and cost about $1 in paint.  Now they match the aged bronze in the kitchen.

I would really like to remodel our master bath but I think it will have to wait.  Our oldest daughter is getting married this spring so I think our money will be going in that direction for awhile.  For now, I will concentrate on smaller projects like retouching paint, replacing broken switch plates, and updating the light covers on the ceiling fans.  Maybe in a couple of years we can do some major work around here.  For now I feel very blessed to have a home and land so perfect for us.