Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The pig barn
Grayed 1940's wood. One large round stone step at its side entrance, a person-sized small wooden door with dark green roofing-type material affixed to it (or maybe that green siding was only on the shop - hmmm). The handles were a six-inch-ish long piece of wood, maybe a few inches across and thick, hammered onto the door itself, but with space so you could rotate/use as a latch. And maybe baling wire strung in and out of holes in the door and the wall next to it, then twisted and untwisted to open. It opened into a dark warehouse of sorts with a very low slanted roof, where you stepped onto a narrow cement floor, with on your left, a waist-height loose grain bin, a couple of feet long, built up against the wall, and at your right elbow, the waist-high top rail of a pig pen. There were maybe four inside/outside pig pens, one after the other as you walked in, your walk area widening to maybe ten feet after passing the grain bin, with usually a huge mother/sow inside her 8' x 8' square space, maybe nursing her babies, and there was a low pig-used opening on the south side of each indoor pen leading out into another square fenced-in area set aside for that pen. Grandad had as many as four nursing sows at a time with their offspring, and he always admonished, "Quiet - I don't want you to make noise and scare them and make them crush the babies."
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The cousins and I enjoyed chasing squealing baby pigs and trying to catch them..much to Grandad's displeasure!!
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