What's an Herbfarm without thyme and swine?

How many times have you read a knockoff of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"? Well, here's another one: Carrie Van Dyck had some goats ... and sheep and pigs and cows and ducks and geese and chickens — and a lot of herbs.

Actually, she doesn't have them anymore. Well, she has two pigs, and the herbs.

With husband Ron Zimmerman, Van Dyck also has ownership of The Herbfarm restaurant (thus the herbs), noted in culinary circles throughout the country and just across the entry drive from Willows Lodge. Gone is the acreage the couple used to have when the restaurant and accompanying business, and animals, were located in Fall City years ago.

But there is still an herb garden. And now there are those pigs.

The pair, Basil and Borage, two Vietnamese potbelly pigs, reside in a sweet little complex on the grounds of the lodge. They replaced 385-pound Hamlette — a huge combo of porcine backgrounds — who came with the couple when they left the Fall City site. Hamlette died a couple of years ago.

Basil and Borage, gaping visitors remark, are not exactly something they would expect to find in the garden of a several-star establishment. Observe for a moment the area in which they reside and you will quickly notice that, once the pigs are spied, the gawking over Salvia officinalis (sage) stops — immediately.

Hey, "Borage can sit and Basil can twirl in either direction," Van Dyck says. "They're learning to play ball." (They bat with their snouts.)

"Most of the time, they heel, but not always. Sometimes they will actually trot [on leash], but that doesn't last too long. They get tired."

They are, after all, pigs.

Welcome to life down on the farm ... er, lodge.

— Terry Tazioli