What did you do this weekend? I went to a swine auction in Fallon, NV. I literally could end this post right there. That sentence alone is enough to give you a good enough laugh for the day. But you just know my San Francisco self has something more to say. And it starts with the nose. This was my first view of a swine auction. Call it a hog or pig auction if you want. It’s all the same to me.
What you don’t get from the picture above… is the smell. Oh my lord! It’s like walking into a wall of cobwebs. It literally makes you recoil at first contact. I live on a ranch. Cow and horse manure are common place in my world. Pig shit is another story! It’s like no other smell I’ve ever smelled. It literally assaults your nose. It stopped my feet in their tracks. It made my brain wonder if I could really enter this room. Fortunately, like other smells, it passed… but not 100 percent. You know how Thanksgiving dinner smells so good when you walk in the door, but after 30 minutes you can’t really smell it anymore? Well pig shit stays with you. It never completely dissipates…. but at least it did enough to get me in the door.
The day was quickly made better with these little guys.
Some were just 16 pounds… others were about 70.
Several 4-H clubs from northern Nevada attended this auction. The kids buy their pigs in a real auction type of sale.
Then the dads had the fun of putting the purchased pigs into the trailer. Oh this video makes me laugh. Keep an eye on the pigs right hind leg… priceless!
Once loaded up, the pigs were taken home and will be raised by the kids until the Nevada Junior Livestock Show in May.
Last year, our kids raised lambs. We made the jump to pigs this year because… well, I have no idea why. But for the time being, our family has now grown by 8 feet… 8 little pig feet.
3 months. 
