Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

While the piglets have begun chowing on grass and weeds and even attacking the (organic) house slop (as Mark Kessenich’s attached photos demonstrate), they’re still weaning. They’re big enough now to suckle standing up while the sows are grazing, and they’ve become less discriminate, with Crystal’s piglets suckling Cherry and vice versa. One big happy family–but alas, it can’t last. The piglets need to be weaned from their mothers at six weeks and put onto pasture. Prior to that, a necessary rite of passage takes place, perhaps the first significant trauma of their little piggy lives.

Linda is worried that soon it might become difficult to tell which piglets belong to which litter. So in a few more weeks they’ll get plastic ear tags and names. Every year Linda and Mark choose a theme to name the animals that arrive on the farm. This helps them keep track of which was born when. Two years ago it was state capitals. Last year it was rivers–hence Crystal, Cherry, Churchill, and, less literally, Cong. This year they’ve chosen singers, a fairly wide open field, until you consider that the National Mulefoot Hog Association and Registry asks that owners name their pigs with a specific letter for the same reason. Two years ago it was “B.” Last year it was “C.” This year, of course, it’s “D.”

  • D. Boon
  • D, Mike
  • Damien Rice
  • Damon Locks
  • Danzig, Glenn
  • Darby Crash
  • Darryl Hall
  • Dave Grohl
  • David (Bowie, Gilmour, Grubbs, Lee Roth, Yow)
  • Davis Jr., Sammy
  • Davy Jones
  • Dee Snider
  • Dee Dee Ramone
  • Delbert McClinton
  • Dennis De Young
  • Desmond Dekker
  • Devendra Banhardt
  • Dino (Dean Martin)
  • Dion
  • Dio, Ronnie James
  • Dizzy Gillespie
  • Doe, John
  • Don Ho
  • Dock Boggs
  • Donovan
  • Donny Osmond
  • Dr. Dre
  • Duke Ellington
  • Durante, Jimmy
  • Dwight Yoakam
  • Dylan