All last week Percy was sick. He said it was a fuerte, fuerte gripe (a very bad cold). Yesterday was his first day back.
First off, he had a list of supplies needed to complete projects around the farm. One of the first projects will be replacing some metal and getting the barn in the dry.
The front section of the barn roofing lifts up in sheets whenever a wind storm blows in. The purlins are rotten and broken in numerous places and will need to be replaced.
While we were thinking about the beginning of the day, a neighbor lady walked into the yard, leading a pig on a rope. “I need to use your pig because mine is ready to be bred.”
We have the only male pig in the area. So, we set to introducing the pigs. The lady staked her pig in our yard and left her there until the evening.
The lecheros came over and said they were missing three pigs and wondered if we’d seen them. Of course, we see them all the time. They’re forevermore in our yard, but no, they weren’t at the moment.
“Can you check in the goat pen? They like to go in there to eat the goat feed,” he told us. That wasn’t news to us, but it did make me feel a moment’s indignation to know he knew they were stealing food from us.
The pigs weren’t there. “If we find them, I want to tie them up,” he said. There’s a novel idea, and one I have no hope of seeing implemented.
I told him that was a good idea.
“So, do you know where they are,” he asked.
Ah! He thinks I did something with his pigs that are always over in my yard, destroying our stuff. I admit to having entertained the thought a few times while repairing fence they tore down. I told him I had no idea where they were.
By evening, they still hadn’t found the Three Little Pigs. Perhaps they’d gone off into the wide, wide world to make their fortune and were met by a Big Bad Wolf.
Anyhoo, Percy and I went to town to collect stuff. We ordered the metal and such things from Rafael. Then we went up the street to order the boards we needed.
Yes, they had the wood we needed. Well, they actually needed to cut them from a large beam. Yes, they could do it now.
So, we stood and waited over an hour for now to happen. Percy wanted to pick the wood out himself and refused to take any but the best and straightest pieces. “Esperamos no más, jefe. We’ll just wait.”
Rafael would deliver the stuff later. Back home we went. It was after 1:00, so we took lunch. In the afternoon, Percy prepped the roof and began on another project. We’re putting up a shelter to keep the baby goats in at night separate from the does.
The neighbor lady returned and took her pig away, hopefully bred. She was very pleased. Percy seemed affronted that they asked for our pig’s service, but I hope it helps them think of us as friendly neighbors.
What was your Tuesday like?
Juan David 