Week Ending January 30

It's been a little nutso around here and I'm finally sitting down at the computer so I can post something...

This week has been all about GUS!

Gus in his shelter

He decided to hop onto the riding mower.

He is a widower gander now that his partner Greta was taken by a predator nearly a month ago. I'm a little sad, but the change in Gus has been amazing. 

Before, when he had Greta, he was a JERK toward me. He would totally go after me and bite me and hit me with his wings. Greta wasn't much better, she only looked at me with disdain. He must have sensed her attitude and followed her lead. 

I'm trying to remember when we got them, I want to say the Spring of 2019. Which would be just about right since Lenny (my sweet Lenny) and his pal Sheldon were both victims of our ignorance and stupidity and were both taken by a predator in the night. 

ANYWAY...

When Tom went to Wilco and brought home a new pair of goslings I was pretty excited that we would have geese. Little did I know that they bonded with Tom and I was not welcome. It makes sense since he was home with them all the time while they were young and I was still working full time. So naturally, I was the outsider. I don't think there was a time that Gus would even tolerate my presence. He's funny that way. BUT now that he is a single, and I'm home all of the time...I'm not so bad. He really has accepted me as his momma...again, he's funny that way. 

So, this week I have been observing his Gus-Gus ways and he just wanders around with the chickens and the ducks and avoids the pigs as much as possible just poking around and check out stuff that appears new to him.

Week Ending January 14

This should do for a little while

So this week has been a full one! 

On Monday I got to spend a couple of hours with one of my besties. We had coffee and I drove us around to play some Pokemon. It was nice to connect with her after the holidays and stuff. We really don't see each other at church and Tom and I dropped out of the small group that we were a part of since 2014. It was time for a change :)

Tuesday was the last day that I left the house and saw other people. Because that was also the day that the little pigs decided to pay a visit to our neighbors behind us. That was the day that Animal Control came by and chatted with me about the pigs. 

So. Much. Fun.

The woman that I spoke with was super nice and she was impressed with the condition of the pigs 'n poultry. She mentioned that there are situations that the animals do not look good. Anyway, after a few minutes and talking about what needed to happen (electrified fence) she and her partner left and I felt pretty good about the visit because that is what we were going to do anyway. Hopefully the cranky neighbors behind us will be satisfied. 

Today the six girls broke out of the garden and were roaming all over the place. At one point they were no where to be seen. UH OH...I decided to check behind the old shed and hey - there were our pigs. Not farther than the neighbors driveway, but not close enough for me to see them while I was working out front. That accelerated my plan to move the fence - which I had hoped to do on the weekend. I spent  entire afternoon outside not finishing my original project because of the PIGS. In the end I got the fence all moved and energized. Fortunately, Tom was able to come home a little early and check the wire from the energizer to the fence for me. It wasn't hitting hot at all. 

It's been quite a day and I'm pooped. I'm also tired of all the pig poo...which I was mucking through all afternoon. 

I'm thankful that today was a nice day - no rain at all!

Week Ending January 7, 2022

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...

This is the face of our boar - Rex. This was during my time outside getting food ready for the pigs. Getting their food ready is a process because it's more than just getting the food (hog feed & alfalfa pellets) soaking in a bucket. I have to go around to the separate areas to retrieve their bowls and clean them. The most challenging area would where the six girls are confined - the garden. Because of all of the rain the garden is basically a giant mud pit. It's awful! The girls have a raised area where they can sleep and hang out during the day, but that's a story for a different day. 

So Rex is just a gentle giant. He is very patient (as far as pigs go) and will stand underneath the canopy without moving until his food is ready to be put down. He's a big boy, but we have been keeping him separated from the girls so he has the opportunity to walk around more than if he were confined. When he was confined he was happy to just sleep the day away in their house from the time breakfast is over until dinner is served. He was getting to be overly chunky. These days he spends some time grazing and walking around the property before settling down for an afternoon nap. 

It's a pretty good life for this big boy!

January 5, 2022

My goodness - I've tried to get a post done since Monday. Granted yesterday I spent most of the morning out running errands and then doing chores once I was home and after I ate my lunch.

ANYWAY...

So I think today is Wednesday. Being retired does that to a person. Every day is the same, but at the same time each day is different. 

As of the week of Thanksgiving my new "title" is Farm Manager. Not just a retired office worker from a local fire district. Farmer Tom is now Engineer Tom. Due to circumstances beyond our control he has gone back to work full-time and I'm doing my thing here at home. I did get a bit of a break since Tom was home all last week and I reverted back to my lazy days, doing whatever I like whenever I felt like it. I don't think that I cooked any meals all last week...good for me I guess.

This week has gone well though, I'm back into the swing of things with the animal feeding routine. That has gone REALLY well! Except when Mr. Rex decided to push the back of my leg and also ran his tusk on me. Good thing I was wearing my overalls! It still was a surprise and I scolded him for being a pig - hehe.

The one big thing that I've wanted to do is reconfigure the Premier1 fence along the west side of our house. Most of it is hog netting that we used to keep the swine on the house side of the fence and not in the field. It worked for a long time until Aunt Ethel had her litter of wild piggies. Over the past couple of months they have gone under the fencing just beyond the goose enclosure to graze in the field. I don't blame them, there is more yummy grass out there. However, now that Greta is gone (predator) I decided that Gus didn't need to be penned up all the time. So now he free ranges far way from his house, but he doesn't really move too far from behind the garage on the other side of the driveway. 

I digress...

This week I took down the damaged poultry netting around the goose area that Greta had destroyed and set it aside. Then I took the hog netting that we used to extend the goose area and continued it on toward the big shed. It was about 20 feet short, so I ended up using another fence that the piggies were just going underneath. After that was in place I decided that the other fence charger be put on that series of netting going all the way down to the path in front of our house. Yesterday I got everything all connected and plugged the fence energizer into the outlet in the pig barn and BAM we got a hot fence! Well, it wasn't turned on yet, but I remembered before I went in for the night. 

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to see the 5 littles grazing in the yard and not roaming the field. Someone may have gotten a zap on there nose...hmmmm.

That's a W for me!

We'll see, I can't celebrate too much, ANYTHING can happen! Piggies are tricky, but I'm on to them and I'm going to try to keep up with them. 

This first week of 2022 is starting out well :)

The littles, Big Daddy, Big Momma and Little Momma