Nelson family decorates lawn pig for all seasons

FAIRFIELD — Motorists who have driven on Highway 34 east of Fairfield must have seen a unique lawn ornament at the home of Jerry and Sandy Nelson.

The Nelsons, who live just east of the Bethesda Church between Fairfield and Lockridge, have a 600-pound concrete pig in their front yard. Sandy decorates the pig by putting costumes on it or putting props on it to celebrate a holiday or just to make a funny pun, and often both. She changes the “theme” of the pig’s wardrobe every month, and she’s been doing it continuously since about 1990.

Sandy said she gets a lot of her clothing and accessories for the pig from Goodwill. She tries to think of a clever phrase to post next to the pig, too. For instance, for March the pig is dressed like a leprechaun with a green top hat, and the sign behind it says “St. Porktric.” Sandy likes this kind of play on words. An earlier theme she chose had the pig in a kiddie pool next to a water slide, with the sign reading “Hog Daze of Summer.”

Sandy said she and Jerry acquired this pig figure in 1985, and for the first five years, she had it in the front yard behind a fence. One day, she hatched an idea to put a rain costume on the pig, because it had been an especially rainy year. She got a yellow rain suit and hat, and found some yellow children’s boots at Goodwill, which she cut so they would fit on the pig’s feet.

“After that, I started to dress it up for different holidays,” Sandy said. “People have started to give me suggestions, because after a while, you run out of stuff to do.”

Sandy said her favorite costumes over the years are the ones she gets to do during Christmas and Halloween.

“You can do a lot more with those two seasons,” she said.

Jerry and Sandy will celebrate 40 years of marriage later this year. The two are a blended family, and have four children between them, and 12 grandchildren. Sandy said the grandkids like helping to decorate the pig, too. Right after the COVID pandemic hit, when kids had to do some of their learning online, the grandkids gave Sandy an idea to decorate the pig like a student. She put a mask and a backpack on the pig, and placed an old computer monitor in front of it, with the sign behind reading “Back to School — Go Trojans.”

The pig doesn’t have a name, and in fact it’s not always male or female. Sandy said she often dresses it as a boy, but she has also dressed it as a girl when she thinks of a neat costume idea for it. For instance, one time she dressed it in a tutu and ballet slippers with the sign reading “Swine Lake.”

Sandy said she’s received a lot of compliments on the pig through the years. Curt Swarm, who writes the “Empty Nest” column for The Southeast Iowa Union, profiled the Nelsons and their pig about a decade ago, and more recently, Sandy received the prestigious honor of being named Wallaces Farmer’s 2019 “Master Farm Homemaker.” The nationally syndicated agricultural newspaper profiled the couple with a full-page write-up, including a photo of the pig, in their September 2019 issue.

Sandy and Jerry each grew up a farm with pigs, and they raised pigs later in life, too, and only stopped about eight or nine years ago when the work got to be too difficult. She said that was part of the inspiration behind getting a pig figurine to show off in the yard. And now everyone who travels between Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant has something to look forward to each time they pass the Nelsons’ house on the south side of the road.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com