Hammity ham, wonderful ham

The Missouri Department of Conservations proposes ham for Thanksgiving:

In Missouri last week state wildlife officials publicly urged the nearly 500,000 licensed deer hunters to kill feral pigs too.

Feral hogs are often found in the remote, rugged portions of the state's Ozarks mountain range, where thick brush and timber make it hard to locate and kill the animals.

Adding to the problem is the rising occurrence of people illegally releasing hogs around the state for recreational hunting, says Rex Martensen, field program supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

More than 10,000 pigs freely roam across public land, primarily in the southern half of the state, he says.

Being located four miles to the Jayhawk side of southern Missouri, I can testify that they roam on private land as well. The lovely Rogue and I ran across a huge boar a while back - the thing was absolutely monstrous - that I would have gladly enjoyed for Thanksgiving if my better-armed next door neighbor hadn't gotten to it first.

It seems that his dog Chesty (who has no sense, even for a dog) decided to pick a fight with it as soon as it crossed onto the neighbor's property. While the pig was playing a game of volleydog, tossing Chesty into the air repeatedly, said neighbor dropped all 400 pounds of said pig with a well-placed 30.06 shot.

But he didn't eat it. About the same time, the phone company guys were moving a bunch of lines on our road, burying some, replacing poles on others. Neighbor traded the pig to the phone guys for some poles. Phone guys barbequed the boar at their company picnic that weekend.

I love rural America.