Bring your Muck Boots.

Can you guess which of the muck boots belongs to "Miss Thing"? Just a wild guess which pair would only be seen on an eleven year old! YEP.. I am certain that you have guessed that the pretty pair belong to the fashion queen. Well, she is the fashion queen only in the pig stall. Today she wanted to wear a pair of shorts and a shirt that screamed "Hello, mom did NOT help me get dressed this morning!" BUT I love her!!! Yes I do!

You probably wonder the following question: Why do you need muck boots with two pigs who now own cement stalls with lighting and heat lamps? Would you please bear with me as I attempt to explain our $30.oo worth of muck boots for such a nice barn!

Where shall I start with this explanation that has been running through my mind since the day I took this photo? AND before I start.........mom, and mom H. in Arkansas....Please take no offense. I do realize the words I am about to write are the titles for things I wouldn't put in my hand much less my mouth but....................If you have never been around pigs then you have no idea about pig poop. Oh my stars................. Oh my goodness.............Oh my nose!!!

We have had chickens for several years. I have been around horses and cows for a long time. I have stepped in some serious "stuff". However, it is very obvious to me that whoever coined the word "Chickens&*%" had never stepped in pig poop! I understand that word is used by many middle schoolers to describe someone who runs away...it is a runny substance, but hello.........that word does not hold a candle to what our muck boots step in daily. You see, cows, horses, and chickens all eat natural stuff such as hay, grass, bugs and whatever else they find. Pigs.......they eat pig feed (which I have not read the ingredients list on the package yet) oats, some additives, and then they have a fondness for poop. Their poop. I am not sure if they actually eat it, but our two seem to have a fondness for cleaning off the poop scooper pitchfork.

Oh, and that isn't all. Go ahead, put your washable tennis shoes on, walk into the pig pen, feed, love, play, and then head to the house. You can smell yourself coming and going. Now, put those shoes under water and wash them. If you step in other forms of poop, it is easily cleaned off and the aroma is gone. Oh no, not pig poop. Of the 4 girls that I took to the movie....3 stepped into the stall with no muck boots. We washed shoes before going to the movies. Let me say that we should have kept the windows cracked, and nary a person sat within 5 rows in front of us. I washed my daughter's on Sunday, and the rubber sole is still "ode de pig crap!" I washed Miss Things shoes in the washer with all sorts of stuff and could still smell "ode de poo!"

As for the consistency? Chicken$&*@ may be runny, but pig poo has some real "stick-to-it-ness". It is super glue in barn yard fashion. That stuff hardens as fast as the red clay dirt we throw it on, and I don't think it dissinagrates. I think the sun turns it to a silly putty consistency. One lady told me that it will kill all the weeds around the barn. It will also kill the grass, flowers, trees, and air quality. If, just IF, it is that deadly, I wonder if companies which make ant killer would be interested in some new products. Maybe we should send it to the Gulf war? Do you have a serious enemy?

All I am saying is this............if you want to visit our pigs wear your muck boots. Like the saying goes: "The more you stir it up the more it stinks". No DUH!!!! No joking about "it's getting deep in here". It isn't deep out there..........it's just there. At the front of the stall waiting for you to step in it. The next time I hear the students use the "chicken" word, I will snicker before writing the referral. That's not an insult. Come meet the pigs......Come muck the barn! Bring your own muck boots because I ain't sharing!

And...this is my life and like this pig poo...I am sticking to it!