Pigs Of The Past...Terra Della Luna 4th of July Pig Roasts

I couldn't neglect showing some of our pigs from the past.

Emma Penelope Pig 2009 

Mmmm Pork!

Me and my Sister-In-Law 2009 

2010  Fred and Ethel

Pulling the pig from the pit after cooking 24+ hours 

The pit diggers and pig processors....they deserve a beer! 

Poooorrrrk! 

My hand made pig pinata! 

Too  much fun! 

2011  Hansel and Gretel

Six Little Piggies

My husband and I have raised pigs since we purchased our hobby farm in 2008. It all started because he wanted to do a Hawaiian style pig roast for the 4th of July. Of course I was game for the adventure.

No, I'm not kicking her...just keeping her from taking a bite of my leg!

Pigs are adorable when they are little. Timid and sweet and oh so cute. But what you need to remember, just like all animals, they get big. Big enough to take a bite out of you if you are not careful! Big enough to push you over when you enter the pen. And big enough to make a pretty good stink. Still, raising pigs is a worthwhile activity if you enjoy animals as we do and want to know where you food comes from.

Stretch!

This year my husband sent a text to tell me my fellow farmgirl and best friend Allie and her husband Jamin found a great deal and that we would have pigs when I got home that night. "Sounds good honey, can't wait!" I expected the usual two maybe three little pigs, but I got double that! SIX little piggies! What on earth are we going to do with that much bacon? Not to worry, he already has all but one sold....we shall see about that.

I know this will bother some people and others will applaud, but yes we do raise our pigs for the freezer. We've raised chickens for the freezer as well as turkeys, but I assure you my laying hens and turkeys (turkey eggs are wonderful!) have a home for life...no stew pot for my ladies. We served our home grown pork at the wedding last August, we've had four 4th of July pig roasts, and we've filled our freezer a few times. Every single one of our animals is treated with dignity and respect. We love them and we honor them for the nourishment they give our bodies. Yes, we name them. We give them toys, fresh water every day, lots of treats and we don't poison them with unnecessary meds to fatten them up, no antibiotics, no medicated feed.

See how happy they are?

My other farmgirl friends also raise their own meat. Emily raises sheep, Eli raises goats and Allie just purchased some land so she is doing meat chickens and pigs this year. Farmgirls understand the cycle of life and where food comes from, they all teach it to their children. Yet, I have other friends who inevitably ask me "how can you kill and eat something you have named and taken care of???"

I understand where they are coming from. I didn't grow up on a farm but farming has always been in my blood. Still ten years ago I might have asked the same question. However, the answer is simple. When we take these animals on we know they are going to be food. We are NOT eating our pets. We are raising our own food. There is a difference....a BIG difference. That is why my layers never make it to the pot. I've buried several of my hens on our property and shed many a tear at their deaths.

Check out that muddy pig smile!

Those of you who can't quite understand the farmgirl mentality of raising your own food should do a little bit of research on where your grocery store food comes from. Food Inc (http://www.takepart.com/foodinc) or Hungry For Change (http://www.hungryforchange.tv/) are a couple of good ones. Then visit a small hobby farm like ours and see the difference for yourselves. I know ignorance of how animals are treated can be bliss and it can be easier to digest your meat when you choose to believe that the shrink wrapped meat couldn't possibly come from a cute little animal. But I beg of you for your own health as well as the safety and humane treatment of the animals...do some research. I think you will find that we small hobby farmers are MUCH more humane and respectful than the grocery store chains.

One of my heroes in life is Temple Grandin. I'm sure most of you have heard of her. If you haven't do a Google search. This woman is utterly amazing. She is an advocate for the humane treatment of all livestock, food or otherwise. www.templegrandin.com

In the meantime, to all my friends who don't understand being a farmgirl I tell you... I hear you and I understand where you are coming from. All I ask is for you to do some research on your own. Then form your opinion. I think you will find that those of us who name our animals give them much better lives than those who do not. If you still disagree then I respect your views. Will you respect mine?

The laughing pig.

Farmgirls Honor The Women Who Shape Them

Honoring My Mother this Mother's Day

Mom and I at my High School Graduation

I think about my mother a lot between March and July...first there is her birthday (March 16th), my parents anniversary (April 1st) then of course Mother's Day, the day she died (July 1st) and the day she was buried (July 9th).

My mother was an amazing woman. Her capacity for compassion and empathy was tremendous. She could do anything and her strength (physical and emotional) was unparalleled. I would say that I'm just biased but if you knew her you would agree with everything I just said.

Davis Family Photo

My mother had a difficult life. I don't want to go into what she suffered, but I need to mention it because I believe her pain is what made her so sensitive to others. It made her real. Beautiful. Compassionate. Honest. Amazing. She had the biggest heart of anyone I have ever met. There wasn't a person alive she wouldn't give her last dime to if they needed it.

My mother was borderline genius. My dad and I used to rattle off numbers to her and she would add or multiply them in her head almost faster than we could punch them out on the calculator. She had a scholarship to School of Mines but didn't go because she had me instead. My mother rode Harley Davidson motorcycles. She learned when she was 6+ month pregnant with me. My grandma had a fit seeing my mom with her big belly out there learning to ride a motorcycle. Moody Blue was her baby. Aptly named because it was her "Magic Carpet Ride" (from the band Moody Blue). She drove diesel trucks for the Postal service, the first woman driver at the Denver BMC in the 70s. She was 5'5" and could rival any man. In fact she won the Truck Driving Rodeo in Las Vegas one year. I've got countless safe driver award pins from her many years with the Postal service. In her 40s she decided she had enough of driving truck and went back to school to get her accounting degree.

Mom and Moody Blue

On Daddy's bike, check out the ape hangers

Mom at work (truck is in background)

My mother had a wild side too. Her nickname was "Crazy Lady". My dad affectionately gave her this name from a movie with Jack Nicholson where he was out in the yard screaming "Crazy Lady, Crazy Lady". I never saw the movie, but I think Jack was talking about his wife. Push my mother into a corner or try to hurt her or her family and she would put you in your place before you knew what had happened. She backed down to no one when they were in the wrong and she ALWAYS defended the underdog. As I said my mother was a tiny 5'5" 105 lbs and my dad weighed in at 6'6" 260 lbs. One day he dared her to pop him in the nose. She refused but he wouldn't let up so she did. And she broke it. Needless to say he never dared her to pop him again. Lesson learned....never mess with a feisty woman regardless of her size. I'm told I am just like my mother and I take that as the highest compliment. 

My mother loved animals. She would rescue anything that needed her. When my dad met her, he walked into her parents house to a 6 foot dining room table filled with jars and cups and bowls full of guppies. They just kept breeding and she couldn't bring herself to throw them out or flush them. She had a Shetland Pony named Chester as a girl. And she had dogs, always a dog. She was terrified of snakes though. In elementary school her teacher had a classroom snake. Everyone was supposed to take turns feeding it but my mother didn't want to. The teacher thew it on her desk and scarred my mom for life. Until her death, she would freeze like a statue in the presence of a snake. I inherited the same fear. She loved butterflies, sitting by the water (any water), nature, peanuts in her Pepsi, Budweiser Beer, spaghetti, turquoise and silver jewelry and anything Native American. 

 So pretty, even when she doesn't want to pose for my camera

My mother taught me many things. But I am most grateful for the gift she gave me of caring about others. Of trying to put myself in their shoes and not judge. Of always helping when you can. Of being generous and kind, but of being strong enough to stand up for my rights and the rights of others. Of not being afraid to do what is right. Of speaking the truth. Of not being afraid to bring issues out into the open so they can be resolved. I wish more people knew these things....the world would be a better place. 

My mother wasn't afraid to be herself!

My mother was taken from us far too soon at 50. She suffered silently for a very long time with cancer. I think she knew she had it but was afraid to know for sure. My dad had to force her to go to the doctor and by then she was stage 4 with bile duct cancer. It had spread through her whole body. I found out about her cancer when I called her for Mother's Day in 2005. She had only a few chemo treatments and she died July 1st 2005. I was with her when she went. I told her it was OK for her to go and I held her hand. There is a song by Jamie O'neal called "Somebody's Hero". That's my mother. She's MY hero. I love her so much and still 9 years later I cry constantly this time of the year. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her or see something that reminds me of her or something she would like. I have a lump in my throat as I write this. I will never get over losing her. Now, Mother's Day is the worst day of the year for me. Not only did I find out about her cancer on MD, I lost her and I lost my own baby September 2005, just 3 months after losing my mom. 

Not long after she died I had a dream about her. She came back to tell me she was OK and happy. She was up in Heaven with 5 acres of land filled with wildflowers. She had a little cottage right in the middle. Chester and all her dogs and cats were there with her and she was happy. But she also told me, and this makes me smile every single time because it's exactly something she would say, "But Heaven is hard work Jamie! You have to tend all those acres." She said that with the biggest smile on her face I have ever seen. She didn't mind the hard work one bit! She never did. 

I remind myself of the gifts she gave me and the things she taught me. I have a piece of her in me. So when someone tells me I am just like her, I glow. It makes me proud to be like such an amazing woman. 

Wedding. April 1, 1973

In 2006 I chaired the first NW Denver Relay for Life in her honor. We raised over $7,000 at that first event. I'm going to school to be an elementary school teacher (also later in life like her with her accounting degree) to honor both her (my mother loved children, but she only had me) and my amazing Grandmother who was a school teacher in a one room school house in Chadron Nebraska. My Grandma late in life worked at an elementary school in Henderson Colorado with troubled kids. She told me countless times...."Jamie, those kids just need someone to care. If you listen to them they light up!" I guess I know where my mom got her big heart. I'm starting a charity in my mother's honor. She is the character in a children's book I've written for kids with terminal cancer. Her name is Miss Jan and I've created a rag doll in her likeness. Once the book is published, both the book and doll will go to any child (or adult for that matter) facing cancer. No one should have to face this evil disease, but if they do I hope Miss Jan can offer some comfort during the difficult journey. 

Miss Jan All Dressed Up

Anyway, next week is Mother's Day. I know I'll be heartbroken. I lost my Grandmother to cancer last year too and I really miss having a mother figure. But I also know they are in me and with me. I can hear them giving me advice. I can see them in the flowers from their garden that are now in mine. They float around my head with the butterflies that dance around me in the Spring. They sing with the birds at my window. They are all over my home in the little things I keep around that belonged to them. My Grandmother's salt and pepper shakers, my Mother's antique tin collection. And I see them too staring back at me from the mirror. But mostly I feel them in my heart and I think of them all the time. This post has been a tribute to the women who have shaped me. I love and honor them. Janet Lea Davis and Ila Mae Russell. I love you both and I miss you. Happy Mother's Day!

The last picture I have of my mother. She got to put her feet in the ocean before she died.