Escapees, burn ban, Irish themes

Mama spent some time getting the Sequoia serviced yesterday and since I had her take it to a garage in Bowie she visited with Grandma and the Thaxton clan there. When she got home she found that the big pig was out of the pen. The pig did not seem interested is going anywhere, but we never have confidence that that is a permanent mindset. Case in point: since Mama left a gate open to the back yard Wednesday afternoon, when she and Grandpa worked on the yard, both Kira and Kobe decided to spend the night in the wild. I do not know if they were home before a fight broke out between Kobe and Sasha, but that was about 6:20 on Thursday morning. They were a mess and Kobe had made friends with a skunk sometime during the night. Anyway, back to the pig. Mama discovered that one of the pallets that makes up the enclosure had been forcefully lifted out of place by the pig and she was having a good time walking in and out of the pen at her leisure. Mama moved the palled back into its place – sort of – and the pig moved it back out. I anchored it again with screws once I was home but since the pig knows there is a big beautiful world out there fill of acorns and sun-warmed patches of grass covered ground she may not be satisfied with her little patch of fenced in dirt for very long.

After I fixed things back in place at the pen I gathered up all the trash bags full of old plastic feed sacks we had gathered in the barn and took them to the dump. I do not like to burn them because of the plastic residue it leaved behind; which then has to be bagged and taken to the dump. It was while I was talking to the guy that mans the little dump station that I found out that the burn ban issued several weeks ago, is now in effect until June.  There is a fine of $500 for the Class C misdemeanor for any type of burning outdoors during the ban. Mama had been after me to burn the trash we have in the burn barrel because one of the rats I recently dispatched was flavoring the aroma of the barrel. I had not obliged her to this point because I did not know it the bad had been lifted. It is a good thing I did not light it up. Harrold told me there were 180 citations issued since the bad was put into effect. Thankfully, I was not one of those. So, I accumulated all the trash we had set aside to burn, bagged it up and took it to the dump. It was an additional four bags worth of trash. The $1/bag charge was so much easier to pay than a $500 fine.

Mama will have visitors today. The families of the men working on the church are coming to the farm to see the animals. She always enjoys those kinds of visits. Both families have very young children so that will be the focus of Mama’s attention. After that we have been invited to Erin and Sam’s for a traditional Irish meal. Erin, whose maiden name is O’Conner (I think), has deep Irish roots. She wants to share a memory of her heritage with us. I am not sure what will be served but I am pretty confident that it will be at least corned beef and potatoes. When I suggested cabbage, her immediate facial expression gave a definite negative answer. I did not need the verbal confirmation that followed but the expressed disgust was funny on both counts. So, Mama, Victoria and I will spend the evening at their house. Mama is not overly thrilled (she does not like corned beef), but Luke, Gracie and Joseph are.

I got lucky today without even knowing it. I was told by the first person I saw at work that they could not pinch me because I was wearing something green.