My first blog ever.......

I thought that I should start my first 'blogging' with an 'excerpt' from my book (copyright (c) - Shandy Girl - 12-15-09):

Our two pigs, on the other hand, were another story. Coming from a Portuguese Maderian background on my father's (Gomes) side, our family loves to make the traditional dish of 'garlic pork' also known as 'Carne de Vinagre de Alhos' and 'Calvinadage' for Christmas. Therefore, dad purchased a pair of pigs to keep on the property in Santa Cruz to breed and produce piglets in time for this special Christmas dish. The pair of pigs were huge to begin with, but they soon grew to be even larger than anticipated. They were kept in a pen down by the river, which ran through the back of our property. On one occasion when the river started to overflow because of the torrential rains we were getting, my dad enlisted the help of six of his friends to 'rescue' the pigs from the river which was rising rapidly into the pig's pen. They strapped some ropes on the pigs, which were now weighing over 200 pounds each, and pulled them grunting and screaming into our downstairs bathroom. For two days, we had these pigs in our bathroom until the rain subsided and the river got back to it's original level. We then had to repeat the process in reverse, i.e. get these pigs back down to their pen at the river's edge. They were delighted to be back, especially because the floods had driven loads of 'blue mangrove' crabs into their pen and surrounding areas, thereby making a delicious and crunchy  'welcome home' meal for them. This ordeal took my parents several weeks to get the 'stink' out of our bathroom.