The Hog Whisperer!

Last night Tony and I couldn't quit laughing as we watched the hilarious movie "Four Christmases!" I was totally surprised that Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Tim McGraw and Dwight Yoakam were in the movie and they were great. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves to laugh out loud.

This morning I decided not to walk the walk because my joints were a little sore. After breakfast Ben surprised us when he came over to drink some coffee with us before going outside to work with Tony. Then we had another nice surprise when Matt and Meghan came inside the trailer and drank some coffee with us, too. In no time flat the five of us were laughing and teasing each other. It would have been perfect if Lisa had been there but she was feeling a little bit under the weather.

Around ten-thirty I put on my new red hoodie sweatshirt and went outside to the pig pen to talk to Tony, Ben and Matt. They were building a portable pig chute because this afternoon Dr. Leifeste was coming out to trim our pigs feet. As I walked up Ben said, "I like your red hoodie, Nance. It's just like the one that Tony is wearing. When did you and Tony decide to start dressing alike?" We all laughed.

"Last week," I joked. "We want to be one of those cute couples that always dress alike, but today we are not totally dressed alike because I'm wearing my pink Justin Gypsies boots and..." The dogs started barking and we looked to see who was driving in.

"It's a red truck," Matt said. When Will pulled up he got out of his pickup to help the guys build the chute. As the five of us visited our dogs cranked up again so we looked to see who was driving in. "It's a red truck," Matt said, again.

"It's Paul," Tone said. "He is delivering some free dog food for our dogs. Let's go help him unload the truck." When Paul parked his red Tacoma at the feed barn we were there to greet him and to thank him for delivering the free food. Then we started unloading the dog food.

At first we pulled the heavy taped-up bags out of the bed of the truck and carried them inside to stack but there was too much coming-and-going traffic so Will jumped up on the truck bed and began slinging sacks to Ben who slung them to Matt and Tony. I wanted to keep helping, so I pulled a heavy sack out of the bed and then tried slinging it to Ben but my sack didn't go very far and Ben had to jump forward to catch it before it hit the ground. So I quit, because their unloading system was working efficiently without my "help."

After Paul left, the guys went back to working on the chute, so I went to thank and visit with our super volunteers: June and Ellen, while Jim was walking our dogs two at a time. After greetings I asked them if Eileen was out walking our dogs too and they shook their heads no. "You're kidding me? I can't believe this! What was her excuse this time for not coming out?" I wasn't really mad at Eileen—just deeply disappointed in her.

"She told us," June said, "that she is volunteering for some charity to help..."

"Yeah, right!" I said. "Blah, blah, blah. I bet she is out driving around Kerrville in that fancy smancy sportscar of hers and laying rubber at every signal light!" Then June, Ellen and I burst out laughing because Eileen we have just played a joke on you!

Yes! We got you, Eileen! June, Ellen and I decided to play a joke on you since we know that you read my blog! We spent ten minutes this morning thinking up what I should write tonight. We love you and that make believe conversation that I had with June and Ellen above never happened. Ellen and June actually put me up to it and I couldn't resist doing it. In fact, I am sitting here laughing about it right now as I type this.

At one-thirty Dr. Leifeste arrived and Ben, Will, T. and I went into the pig pen with him to help set things up. Ten minutes later Dr. Leifeste was trimming Little Ricky's feet as Ben helped hold him down in the squeeze-chute while Tony, Will and I tried to herd Babe, our gigantic white pig, into the chute. It took us over five minutes to finally get him to go into the chute.

Then Matt and Lisa arrived thank goodness! Matt had told us this morning before leaving that he would come back out to the rescue ranch at one-forty-five to help the guys with the pigs. When Lisa stopped her car Matt jumped out and ran to the pig pen. When Tony told him that we needed to round up the pigs Matt went to work and he was fantastic!

When Little Ricky was released from the squeeze-chute, Matt single-handedly herded and pushed Babe into the squeeze-chute which was not an easy task because Babe weighs over three hundred pounds and he did not want to get his nails done!

When Babe's unwanted manicure started Matt miraculously herded LaVerne and Shirley into the chute and we were amazed at Matt's herding skills. "Matt you are amazing with our pigs! You're officially our new "Hog Whisperer!" Everyone laughed including Matt then he went to roundup Arnold as Lisa and I watched by the fence.

"Are you feeling better, Lisa?" I asked. "Yes, I am feeling a little bit better. I have a sinus infection. That's all."

By three o'clock the pigs were happily sleeping in their barn with the chickens sitting on top of them. The guys were happy to be done with their work and I was happy because everyone was happy. It has been a fun day for me.

Thank you, Dr. Leifeste, Ben, Matt, Will, Tony, Meghan, Lisa, Ellen, June and Jim! And thank you Eileen for being a good sport! I love y'all!

Y'all have a great evening!