2026 Hog Hunt Day 4 - Pre-Smoking Pigs

In the strange, terrible wilderness that is my brain, I woke up in the morning thinking about Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper.  The grasshopper spends all summer singing and playing, seemingly whiling away his days.  The ant works hard all summer, storing food for the winter.  In the fall, the grasshopper begs the ant for food.  The ant snuffs at the grasshopper's laziness and says, "No."

The lesson of this is that hard work now pays off later.  Having grown up in a fairly strict Calvinist family, this was a constant lesson.

There are alternative interpretations that the ant is heartless.

This week I'm a grasshopper ... er ... wait ...  I'm bringing home free range pork, so I'm an ant?  Hmmmm...

And I think there needs to be a third insect, since working for the future and living for today are both important.  So maybe we should all be beetles.

After an early morning putzing around the lodge, Rick, Claude and I went out to feed stands.  It was a good time and as usual, almost all the stands were hit.

Back at the lodge, Bob from New Jersey came in.  We talked a bit; he had never hunted hogs before, but had done several other adventurous hunts.  Then it was time to head out for the afternoon.  Denis' back was hurting him to the point he opted to stay home.

Claude and I were dropped off by Kyle's house.  I was in a plastic porta-potty blind behind the small house.  I was pretty sure I had been at this spot twice - I clearly recall once when in a world-famous blind when it was raining sweet gum pods on me and another when two deer came walking down the 2-track right beside me.  I also seem to recall once when pigs came into the field, but stayed far away and never actual came to the corn?  But I was unable to find if that was this stand or I'm thinking of something totally different.

This time was very different.  There had been a controlled burn and it was still smoldering making the area very smokey.  Right behind me was a small spot that was doing more than smoldering as one time I saw flames.  A brief shower did come through, but it was minor enough that it did nothing to the smoldering.  The smell was a bit much, but I guess I didn't have to worry too much about human odor.  Although when the wind blew in the wrong direction it got 100% annoying.  I didn't like it ... at all...

But I toughed it out and figured any pigs that might come in would be already pre-smoked and ready to eat.  I did wonder if I was going to have to invest in an ozone generator when I got home; this is something I've thought about anyway.

There were turkeys in the area when I first got there.  They milled around for a while, but only came into the corn very briefly.

Sadly that was the only animals I saw all night.  Other than the smoke, at least the stand and seat were quite comfortable.

Back at the lodge, I walked down to Denis' house where he and Claude graciously fed me mule deer roast.

The weather is forecast to turn colder which will hopefully bump animal movement up a bit.