Border Wall

Not exactly a wall, but if you are a pig a three foot tall fence may as well be a wall.

Over time I think we have gotten pretty relaxed about how we are keeping the pigs 'n poultry within the confines of our property. The ducks usually free-range every day and they are good about going into their house at the end of the day. Most of the chickens stay within their area, but there are days when a lot of the flock decide to see what kind of goodies they can find outside of their run.

Then we brought home the pigs. In the beginning nearly three years ago we had kept Rex & Fiona within their paddock and they were happy to just hang out in their area. Every now and then they would get to free range which was a treat for them. 

Then last year - the year of the pandemic - Fiona had her first successful litter of piglets and she was confined to a different area and Rex was still in their original area.  After a few weeks we would let her have a break from the piglets and let her out into the field where she happily grazed away at the fresh grass. Then after a while we let her babies join her. Soon that became the norm. Letting her graze on her own and then letting the piglets out. Eventually we let Rex rejoin the fam in the new area. 

THEN

It became an all day thing. Grazing and wandering our small farm all they wanted. At first when the junior swine were still fairly young, we weren't terribly concerned about where they would graze. They usually stuck close to momma because they weren't 100% weaned yet. 

Fast forward to January 2021. Mr. Victor, from Fiona's 2020 litter, has turned into a repeat offender by knocking down the temporary fence to graze just on the other side of the fence. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but now their are some new junior swine who are keen to follow their daddy out and about. This is unacceptable. 

After a week of what feels like constantly chasing him back to the safe side of the fence we had enough. With a trip to Home Depot we were ready to start making the fence more of a permanent thing instead of the premier1 fence that we had been using since last summer. It was fine until now. I'm not sure what was going through his brain to help him get into trouble in no time flat. The funny thing is that the last time we had to chase him AND the turkey girls back he saw Tom marching out their and ran back. He knows what side his butter is toasted on. 

For the time being we have Big Momma, Big Daddy, the junior swine and all of the babies confined to an area right outside of their little house. The fortunate thing is that they adapt pretty quickly and they are happy to be in their space toward the back of the property. It is temporary, but they don't know that. 

Looks good from the road

Eighty feet of fence installed

The beginning of the long stretch toward the church next door

Just about a week ago we started the fence project and have finished the first stage of it. The first part is along the road on the garden side of our property - it went fairly quick. The post went in pretty easy because the ground is fairly soft from all of the rain that we have had in the past couple of weeks. For once we are thankful for our Pacific NW winters. The next section might require a little more effort. The fence will be next to the path that goes in front of our house. That path is asphalt and I'm not sure how much of the yard has grown over the path if it has at all. All I know is that the first post that I attempted to start was extremely hard. The post is five feet tall and I can't work up enough force to get the post to even pierce the ground. So, I'll be leaving the next stage of post install for Tom to do. Not gonna lie, it was hard. I'm usually okay with hard work, but this wasn't going to happen for me. 

OH WELL.

Once the fence is set in front of the house we'll just use the step in posts to go toward the back of the property as far as 18 posts will go at least. A couple of hot wires should keep the swine from crossing over to the rest of the field. The ducks will still be able to go underneath the wire, but they aren't the problem right now.

So much to do and all sorts of time! Farm life is the best life!!