And Then There Were Two

So, as I mentioned in the last post the Craigslist ad was posted and we got a response! Through a series of emails, a time was set up to meet on Thursday (June 4th) for Shauna to come and pick up the boys. I left work promptly at noon to make it home and changed before she was to show up. Shortly after I arrived home I received a text from her, she and her husband were on their way and would be arriving by 1230. Perfect!

All of the piggies were lounging and sleeping in their favorite spot by the table near the cherry tree when Shauna and Josh arrived. We spent some time chatting and getting to know them a bit. They already have one AGH which they plan to have slaughtered sometime this fall. They are hoping to grow out a couple of the boys for meat and I believe she said she wanted to breed them as well. They currently have all boys so I am guessing that they will be waiting for a gilt/sow in the future. Either way, the boys are in a really good place now and they will serve out a new purpose on their farm in Longview. 

Then came time to round up the kids and get them caught! The first couple were easy, especially since they were napping. Quite a rude awakening! Soon, there were three in the crate/cage, but after a quick look at who was left, I had discovered that Bridgette was grabbed and almost went away with the boys. So she was removed and #3 was picked up and was placed with his brothers. The last one had time to figure out that this was not a good thing and he started to run around. To his house to the yard into the field...he really tried to not get caught. He was a slippery little stinker! In a few minutes they were all rounded up squealing all the way into the cage. Poor babies looking a little downcast. 

After some more visiting and enough time for the boys to settle down Shauna & Josh left to take the boys to their new home. 

Then there were two:

 Victor & Bridgette were a little unsettled for a while. They spent most of the afternoon hanging out near Rex since we let Rex out to check things out. Fiona was happy to leave Rex with the kids and went off to do her own thing. Once meal time rolled around, they were back to normal, but better. No more chaos during meal time, just the two of them to share one big ol' bowl of tasty food - well, tasty for them at least.

We knew what the plan would be from the beginning, we certainly couldn't keep all six of the baby hogs. That would be way too much. There is already enough poo with Rex & Fiona! Add the poo of the growing pigs and oh my goodness...poo EVERYWHERE! Of course it's good for the grass and whatever is around, but too much!

I would be lying if I said that I was okay with them being gone. I missed them, more than I thought I would. Spending almost 10 weeks with the piggies gave us a lot of time to bond with them and to handle them as much as possible. Which worked out great. The next morning I sent Shauna a text to check in and see how things went overnight. She was pleased to have them with her and they did great! This news made my day! This really put my mind at ease knowing that they did well and these photos helped as well:

New digs for the pigs!

New pasture, same piggy behavior

Before they left Josh had mentioned that they created a new house for these little hogs which looks great. Certainly nicer than the Pallet shelter that Tom put together for Rex & Fiona. As you can see in the second photo, one of the boys was already in the belly rub position. 

It's a blessing to have found someone who just love the boys as much as we did. I am hopeful that they will be well taken care of and will be able to thrive. In my mind, this was a perfect match that worked out for us and for the Juve's. When Fiona has her next litter I will have at least one person who will want to buy. No rush Fiona, we are all enjoying the first litter of piggies. 

Farm Life Best Life...when pigs are born, raised and go to a new home. 

One Month

Late afternoon on March 28th, Fiona farrowed 8 itty-bitty piglets. Her first litter was only 5, so the prospect of 8 had me a little anxious. Of course, the first litter did not survive (sadness), but this one was successful and all 8 survived the first night. The next night a couple of the piglets were squished by momma and we were left with 6. 

March 28, 2020 - first family foto

Now here we are one month later and those little soda can sized piglets are now the size of a two-liter bottle of some fizzy beverage. Out of the whole bunch we have one female - Little Fiona. She is our keeper along with one of the boys who is a little gimpy.

Over the past month these little dudes have been the best distraction during this COVID19 crisis. The Governor put the two week stay at home order the evening of March 23rd, so to have these littles arrive 5 days later was, and continues to be a welcome distraction. The stay home order until May 4th just extended my stay on the farm with lots of opportunities to play with the piglets.

On the Monday that Tom found that two of the piglets had been squished we had to come up with a new arrangement for the piglets. Fortunately I had been in contact with Farmer Jason at Cascade Meadows Farm and he said that a creep would help to keep the piglets safe at night.

The best thing EVER! It was a quick training period to get them into a routine a day or two. Soon, we would go in and see that they were all sleeping in the creep under the heat lamp.  For the first several days we took turns going out to check on them to make sure they were where they needed to be. Only a couple of times they decided to be with momma.

Actually, there were several mornings after we quit checking on them that a couple of them - and sometimes all of them would be sleeping with Fiona, which is fine, but they needed to stay in the creep while Fiona got out to eat her first breakfast. They would hop over to the creep once I came in and settle down and fall right back to sleep. Perfect!

That routine lasted almost three weeks. Now they are little bruisers and they darn well do what they please. Sleeping while Fiona goes outside - no longer a thing. EVERYONE goes out! It's no use fighting what they want to do. They are getting big enough after all.

Also, over the past couple of weeks they have become very affectionate with us and will come up and rub their little bodies on our ankles and then plop down. Then the belly rubs start and soon they are sleeping. Of course they nap and will hop up as soon as they hear something and then they are all action.

All in all, the piglets have been a blast! Everyday is a new adventure and watching them explore the world around them is priceless. Discovering the ducks and the chickens all the way to a couple of them "meeting" Rex. Earlier today one of them tried to nurse and was nudging Rex in the belly in hopes that there would be milk.

If I knew that piglets would bring so much joy I would have gotten them long ago! Well, maybe not, but still. Maybe we would have had pigs earlier while starting up our farm. The reality is that we got them at just the right time. They make me smile and fill my heart with joy. People are interested in them and we welcome visitors - while still practicing physical distancing. Well, mostly anyway.

What will happen in the next few weeks...we'll see how weaning goes when they are about 8 weeks old. I'll need to contact Farmer Jason to find out how the weaning process is to happen, but that is for another day. Once they are weaned we'll be listing 4 of the boys for sale. I want to enjoy as much time with them as possible which is why being home now has been so good!

Farm Life is the Best Life...

with piglets!

It Finally Happened!

The moment that we have been waiting for since we brought home Rex & Fiona!

When the first litter didn't make it, it really was a learning experience, and we were better prepared this time around. Also, we spent the past couple of months thinking, "Is she or isn't she?"

January 18 and March 18

For the longest time I was just being hopeful. Then I thought maybe she was getting fat - that was really a thought. It was a thought that was unwarranted because she and Rex had been getting the same exact diet. She would have had to be sick to get THAT big. So, yeah she was definitely great with piglets!

The week before Fiona farrowed I got a message from Farmer Jason of Cascade Meadows Farm. His assessment from a photo that I had posted on Instagram was that Fiona looked to be about a week away from having piglets. He suggest that we separate her from Rex. At first Tom thought he would get Rex over to the other side of the old structure that will one day become the Pig Palace. Then I had the idea that the room that we had already talked about using as Fiona's farrowing room actually be used for that purpose. We have an extra fence that won't be needed for another couple of weeks. Perfect solution!

March 28, 2020

For the week leading up to her actually having the piglets she seemed to be enjoying not having to share food. Plus having a king size room all to herself was just a bonus!

This time around we were ready for her to have piglets and learned even more so this time around. Having her separated meant we didn't have to deal with Rex. Also, we had powdered Colostrum available to give the babies a boost before they were able to nurse properly at the milk bar.

Around dinner time on March 28th, Fiona started to act a little off. Not her regular I want to rub my head on you or push you over because of food type of behavior. Once I figured out what was going on the first piglet came about 5 minutes after I was getting the idea in my head. Oh, hey - that's like confirmation right there!

Tom had been putting a couple of tarps over the part of the shelter where Fiona was housed - good thing too! Anyway...

The whole process was about two and a half hours and at the end of it there were eight piglets. The first five were fairly good sized and the last three were smaller with the last one being the smallest. Fiona did so well and she was so good natured throughout the entire process. She let us "help" her while she was laboring and we didn't feel like we would be in any kind of danger otherwise. Fiona is a very sweet and chill sow. It's almost like she understands that we were there to help her.

Our next learning experience happened not the night of the piglets arrival, but Sunday night. I was feeling fairly confident that they would survive another night that I didn't think anything would happen when I went to bed Sunday night. Monday morning I was up early, but did not go out to check on Fiona and babies. Instead we just went about our routine and then Tom went out after we had our coffee and had discovered that two of the piglets had not survived the night. They had been squished. My sadness was not as acute as Tom's, as I was not the one who found them. That's not to say I wasn't sad. I was hopeful, but thankful that not all of them had died.

Afterwards, I posted on Instagram and then later Farmer Jason had sent a message and suggested that we build a structure called a "creep" for the piglets to go to in-between feedings. Tom pieced something together hung the heat lamps and then we started to train them to go there when they were not nursing. Here we are five days later and they are getting the hang of the routine. Let's face it, when there is heat involved where would you choose to go?

So during this COVID-19 craziness we have been pretty happy at home. Even though I do have to work, at least I can take a break and check on the littles throughout the day. Even being at home I can see how blessed we are. God has been good to us and continues to bless us with things that bring joy to our hearts. A joy that we have been able to share with a couple of friends. Who doesn't love a baby animal? I think piglets are the BEST!

While we continue to practice physical distancing our focus when I am not working will be on making this little piece of happiness the best it can be. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is a pretty good gig.

Farm life is the best life...

and PIGLETS!

April 4, 2020

Always Planning

My mind can't seem to rest. I'm always thinking of the next thing to do - whether the project is for the garden, chickens, ducks or pigs. Sometimes I think of other projects like for gifting (Christmas anyone?) or for Operation Christmas child - my latest idea is to crochet washcloths. We'll see how long that lasts.

So what am I thinking about right now? Well let's take a look...

Garden - A few weeks ago I decided that we should grow asparagus in one of the areas in the back yard. After some research I found that I will need a lot of space to plant 25 crowns. Oh, I plan to order from Territorial Seed company in Oregon. An order has 25 crowns. It's a good thing we like asparagus.

Hoop House #2. I'm hoping for a new and improved space to grow tomatoes and other veggies that like the hot temperatures. I already know where I would like it situated - just need to start building it.

Chickens - Well this is a little more involved area as I am also dreaming up the waterfowl situation. Let's start with the chickens I am dreaming about having an actual mobile flock to work different areas of the property. This flock would be for clean-up purposes (and eggs).

Along with this mini-flock I would like to include a pair of goslings to get the goose factor back on the farm. My hope is to having a breeding pair of Embden geese. We miss Mr. Lenny quite a bit and things are very different without him so we want to get the goose on the loose back.

The Chick Shaw MiniMe - this is a smaller version of the chick mobile that we built last year hence the name MiniMe. This will be for our mini flock of chickens and the geese (are you sensing the theme here?) This coop is 4' L x 4' W x 2' H. I've got wheels already - so that is one less thing to plan for later.

While we are on the subject of housing for the chickens, we have thought about building another chicken tractor. That way the ducks will still have something to live in and we'll have one for the meaties...

Freedom Rangers! Shooting for a June processing date so it's time to get the order in for a March pick-up in Tangent. It has been gratifying to go and pull out a chicken from the freezer. One that has been raised on pasture and contains no funky stuff. Truly happy chickens doing what chickens do eat bugs and grass and get to run free on pasture. Gotta get the calendar out and figure out the dates so I can get the poultry kit reserved. More meat into the freezer!

Pigs - We are hoping that Miss Fiona will farrow sometime in the next 6-8 months. Which means we need to keep an eye on what is happening with Fiona and Rex. We know that Rexy has shown interest in his partner. However we are not sure how far the interaction progressed...because there was something going on - if you get my meaning...hehe.

Next week we'll be heading to the farm where we purchased our pair 'o pigs and watch as the farmers process one of their hogs. This is a learning opportunity for us and I am looking forward to checking out how things are done.

There are so many other things that just go through my mind it can be a little crazy. What I need to do is set aside thoughts about the farm and focus on getting my Christmas projects done.

The year is almost over, but there is always some to dream about and plan for!

Farm Life is the BEST Life

2018 Mother Earth News Fair - Oregon

Oh yeah...it was a good day in Albany!

There were three seminars we agreed would be good to sit in on and one extra just in case we wanted to stay a little longer.

Seminar #1 - Making Bacon at Home with Karen Solomon

We had a little bit of a theme this year...anything pig/pork. So when I saw this on the schedule and that it was early - at 10am...that was incentive to get to Albany as early as possible. Our chosen route these days to avoid going through Portland is to go via I-205 and not deal with any nonsense that might slow traffic down. It's a little longer, but at least traffic keeps rolling. Anyway, we arrived with about half an hour to spare.

Just like most fairs there were a variety of vendors, so I wasn't terribly interested in checking those out except for Bob's Red Mill. I love to stop by and just pick up the goodies that they are giving away.  We made our way to the Real Food Stage and selected our seats.

Once the presentation started I felt like maybe this presentation would be a little slow. The speaker was inexperienced at Mother Earth News Fair and there were a couple of technical issues - mainly with her mic. Her talk was fairly brief, but full of all sorts of information that will help us with making bacon once we  have pork with which to make bacon out of.

While the talk was interesting I was glad it was over and looking to move on to the next presentation...

Seminar #2 - Homegrown Pork and Getting Ready for Backyard Pigs with Jeannette Beranger, The Livestock Conservancy

Jeannette Beranger is an excellent speaker and we have sat in on her presentations the past two years which both were about chickens.

So this talk was mainly about how to set up for pigs and we did pretty good with setting up for them. Especially with the few items that we actually had.

• Shelter - check - The shelter can be elaborate or fairly simple. We went with simple. Free pallets from a neighbor down the street and a tarp. Tom slapped the pallets together and put up a piece of garden fabric to use as a curtain of sorts. They basically need to be sheltered from rain and wind. During the few days we have had that were rainy, the did spend a good amount of time in their shelter. I'm guessing that they were sleeping and only emerging when it was time to eat or to relieve themselves.
• Water - check - Since we only have the two pigs right now we are able to get away with using a Rubber Feed pan that we picked up at Pioneer. Once there are more (babies) we'll have to revisit the waterer and explore our options.
• Protection - check - We are currently using the Pig QuikFence. It's a nice set up, not terribly different than the poultry netting. This netting is 30" high and should work until Fiona has piglets. At that time we'll have to figure out how to modify what we have or get the Hog Net which is 24" tall and has strands of wire along the bottom which are spaced two inches apart and would be perfect to keep piglets in. We have some time to consider what to do once Fiona does have her first litter.

There were other tips and what not, but these were the most important. She also went over the different breeds of pigs that would work well for a backyard situation. 

I always enjoy The Livestock Conservancy presentations. I hope that there will be more talks in the years to come.

Seminar #3 - Whole Animal Butchery with Meredith Leigh

We both were looking forward to this presentation! For this demo she was using a half a hog! What the What?! When I saw the carcass being prepared, I started to get excited and couldn't way for things to get started. 

Not only did we learn a lot of the lingo - Primal, Sub-Primals and Retail cuts we learned a lot about how home butchery is the best way to go as far as the animal goes. Every part of the animal will be used in one way or another weather it is for human consumption or for amending the gardens or feeding to the animals - mainly chickens. Even the feathers can be composted which goes right back to the earth.  Every part of the animal has a use and those parts need to be used!

The thing that really struck me is how as a consumer we look for a specific cut (steak, roast, etc) whether it is considered the "best" cut or a lesser cut. What is thought to be a great cut - tenderloin - is actually not that great. While the cooking of the tenderloin is easy, it actually does not have that great of flavor. So to just take something like the tenderloin out would be to take away from another cut of meat that is considered a better cut. So to butcher for a specific cut can be wasteful and some of the parts are useful for better cuts of meat are used for things like All Meat hotdogs. Anything to make a buck right?

What?! 

Oh man! If this isn't compelling enough I don't know what would be. 

I know, most people do what is natural...go to the store and peruse the meat cases that are filled with all those supposedly tasty cuts of meat and make a selection of those steaks, roasts etc and plop into your shopping cart. 

What is happening is people are buying meat that has been factory farmed...and that's another issue altogether which I touched on a couple of posts ago. 

My solution for part of our meat purchases is using Butcher Box which has been great! They partner with farms that raise pastured animals - win! However, just as before we are still consuming specialty cuts of beef and pork. So, in a way it's also a non-win. Soon enough we'll be able to fill our freezer with our own pork and even sooner we'll be harvesting our chicken. 

This seminar was the best of the three and at some point I'll have to add Meredith Leigh's book to our library The Ethical Meat Handbook. 

Until then I'll be educating myself on factory farmed animals, the importance of whole animal consumption and learning how to butcher an animal myself.

After looking around at a couple of vendors and checking out the animals that were in one of the buildings we made our way out. Before heading home we visited the Historic Carousel and Museum that was featured on OPB a couple of months ago.

Each animal on this carousel is hand carved and painted by volunteers. People that had no experience or skill for carving were able to carve each of these with amazing skill. The story is pretty extensive, so it would be best to just go to the website HERE.

The next time we find ourselves in Albany we'll be going back to the carousel and taking a ride. At $2 per person that is cheap entertainment.

We have decided that attending both days of the fair would be the way to go. That way we could sit in on seminars that happen later in the day without feeling like we need to jet out of there at a certain time. 

For example, one of the last sessions at the 5 o'clock hour was Intro to Charcuterie with Meredith Leigh - now that would have been interesting to sit in on. Learning how to incorporate the parts of a pig that wouldn't normally be sold as a retail cut. Think Italian cold cuts aka Salumi.  The Sunday sessions included more Meredith Leigh presentations and another Karen Solomon session focusing on pickling. 

Next year we'll go both days...do AirBnB or the hotel next to the fairgrounds and do all things Mother Earth News "Bringing the magazine to life."

In other news: the swine have been with us for 3 months! The duo are doing well, growing a lot and getting older! Fiona is 5 months old and Mr. Rexy Pants is almost 5 months. They may reach breeding age in 3 more months at the earliest. If that is the case I'm not sure how we would know for sure that she is bred.

We still have some time so we'll just put those thoughts on hold for now.

It's has been a great day! We spent the day catching up on the things that we would normally do on Saturday and had a nice relaxing day at home. Next year I'll extend the weekend by a day maybe two to enjoy the weekend even more.

Farm Life is the Best Life!

Photo of the day:

I wanted a photo of the 4 girls...but Shell-Bell couldn't stand not being the center of attention.

Adjusting

Now that we have even more critters to look after we have been busy! Chores start early - as soon as it is light out which is currently around 5:30 AM. I'm up early, so it's not that huge of a shock, but it does make the morning go quickly. I've figured out a good routine though, we'll see how long it works out.

Just this week I have learned that I need to let the two hooligans out otherwise Mr. Lenny will fly over the fence. He hasn't done that before and maybe he didn't realize what exactly he was doing, but I HAVE to get them out before I start working my way around the pens. In fact, when he popped over the fence and landed he just stood there somewhat dumbfounded - as if he were asking why didn't Sheldon follow him. I'm not sure that Shelly could actually make it. He's a duck and all, but he rarely gets his little squatty body off the ground and mainly uses his wings to run faster when he is playing with Tom.

ANYWAY

Boys come out and off to feed the pigs - they are super easy! I distract them with some bread and then quickly dump some of their feed onto the ground. Once they finish their appetizer they happily start munching away on the feed which then turns into a little grazing at the same time.

Rex is on the left...then girly Fiona with her cute pink nose and feet!

Next on the list would be the Magpie Squad...

We are still unsure what is going thru Lenny's head when he looks at the girls.

The little Magpies are just over three weeks old and growing like crazy! They definitely know where the food comes from and will stand at the end of their little courtyard and scream at the top of their lungs until I get over there to feed them. These 7 ducklings can make a lot of noise! That's okay - they are super cute!

As they grow I am noticing that most of them are quite large, there is one runt in the group. So I am hopeful that they are all female, just as I requested. The only thing about that is how does anyone know for sure. Man, I hope they're mostly girls...Sheldon is already pretty spazzy, what if we have one or two more drakes to deal with?

OYE!

Also, I'm not sure if we'll be housing these littles with the rest of the flock when it comes to that point. They might need their own home. Oh My Goodness...Lenny and 8 ducks?! We'll figure that out later.

Then at last the main chicken pen. The Javas are still not roosting in the coop at night so they are free ranging when I finally get to them. This is actually perfect though. Because they are new to the flock they still get bullied by the big girls when it's food time. So they get to eat before the others are released. While they get to eat, the hooligans are out foraging  so the Javas have a chance to eat in peace. As soon as a couple of the Javas are done eating and start wandering around I let the rest of the girls out and chaos ensues! 

Time to make my exit! 

Depending on the day, sometimes it is a chore to get the two dudes back in with the girls. They are usually pretty good though, except for yesterday. Little stinkers! Lenny was unhappy with me...which is fine because I was REALLY unhappy with him. Most of the time they are pretty easy and want to get back in and eat. It seems now that we no longer have a rooster, they don't care so much about going back right away. I don't know if they were trying to protect the girls from Thor, but they were always ready to head back. 

The evening routine is pretty much the same. Getting a second ration of  food to all of the babies and then scratch for the hens. The ducklings are the most work as they mess up the tub that they get to swim in pretty quickly. So sometimes it gets refreshed twice a day sometimes more. They are stinky little peepers for sure! I just don't remember Lenny & Shelly eating so much. Maybe they did...it's hard to say. 

Things will change yet again when we get the Freedom Rangers from the hatchery on July 3rd. We have until about the end of July to figure out what to do with the ducklings. Add them to the flock or give all the waterfowl their own area? 

That's still a ways off, so we'll just enjoy the process until then. 

The best thing from today...

The Kia is truly the All-Haul vehicle

That's a lot of bread! The back seat was folded down too!

 A friend of mine told me about how I could get Franz products at the local outlet for super cheap, so I went and checked it out.

For $10 I can get a Cart of bread that is not sellable to the general public in the outlet. These items are sold as hog & bird food. So last week on Monday I visited the outlet in Hazel Dell and I got onto the list.  Today was pick-up day. We had a lot happening today, so I was really hoping that the bread would be available during my lunch break...SCORE!! We got lucky today - the truck came back early. 

Anyway, the back of my car is filled with hamburger buns! If this is considered a cart - I am not sure that I want to know how much is in a RACK!

What is considered a cart? Well, that would be 10 trays of bread. In this case each tray had 6 packages of hamburger buns and for the heck of it we got a bonus tray. Each package has 12 buns...you do the math!

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

That should last us a while. On top of that the clerk handed Tom a few packages of bear claws and cinnamon rolls...seriously, this is getting ridiculous!

What have I gotten myself into?! Craziness!!

So while we continue to adjust to the changes at home and try to do the regular daily stuff...I believe more than ever that Farm Life is the Best Life!!

I still can't get over this!

All In...

Yep - we are all in with this farm! My dream was and still is to make this property into a farm of some sort. Pigs and Poultry has a nice ring to it. 

Evidently, I am the one who had the idea to raise pigs and that sounds about right. I have to say that the craziness started last year when we watched one of the first Great American Farm Tour videos that featured pigs. In fact, the first farm feature was a farm in Georgia that was getting ready to do a pig harvest. It was quite graphic, but I still watched it and was completely fascinated. Because that's how I roll. It made sense to me  ~ grow your food, know your food. The pigs that were being harvest were  Glouscestershire Old Spots - a very large breed. These dudes can be anywhere from 500 - 600 lbs. Ummm...that's a bit large. 

Time to do research! 

First I looked on Craigslist to see what breeds were available for sale in the area. All I wanted was something that would be close and easy to transport. Also a breed that I would feel comfortable managing. Even just searching in Clark/Cowlitz Counties there were only a handful of ads. Most of them were either Kune Kune or the American Guinea Hog. It was easy to choose between the two - the Kune Kune are spendy! I didn't want to go into this adventure with a lot of cash out of pocket and then figure out that raising pigs was a silly idea. So I looked at the AGH - reasonably priced for piglets, easy to raise, docile, friendly etc. Okay cool, I can get on board with this compact swine.

How did I determine that breeding these dudes would be the way to go? I'm not sure, but visiting a local farm helped a lot! Plus I had read a lot about these pigs on the Livestock Conservancy website - go HERE for that article. This is a heritage breed AND on the threatened list. I'm very much interested in keeping the heritage breeds on our farm. Our Mr. Goosey Pants is the only creature NOT listed on the Livestock Conservancy, but we like him anyway. 

Fiona say "Good Morning!"

Earlier this year we made a visit to Cascade Meadows Farm go HERE. A couple of weeks ago I made contact with Jason at the Farm and got the ball rolling to get our piggies home. After communicating over a couple of days, I was able to get a price range so I could bring the appropriate amount of cash and we borrowed a pet carrier and we were on our way! This past Saturday we made our way out to the Farm and talked pigs with Farmer Jason. He gave us so much information as did his partner. I'm sure that each of us retained a certain amount, but we'll see. They had already chosen a pair for us to take home. Which is great, because they already had an idea of the personalities and their genetics from their parents. I'm hopeful that the two will be productive in the years to come. 

These pigs...SO CUTE!

Fiona was somewhere in this bunch

The kids were loaded up and we completed the transaction and we were off; for an hour drive back home - in a stinky smelly car. One or both immediately pee'd and/or poo'd. We had windows down for much of the drive back home! After about 30 minutes the smell wasn't as bad, but it was still pretty stinky! If we did this all over again I think I would have like to have a pick up that was in good shape to do this activity. At least we had a pet carrier that we borrowed from some friends. 

Once we arrived home, we got them out of the car and set them down on the driveway. While they are small as far as size goes, they are solid which equals hefty! Soon after they were released into a smallish pen to get them acclimated to their new home. Their new home is of a nice lush open space of grass and some clover, chickens and a few ducklings. Oh, we can't forget the dynamic duo...

Lenny & Shelly checking out the latest addition to "their" farm.

We are three days into this pig owning adventure and so far so good. On Sunday afternoon after they had spent a full day in their little shelter we extended their area into  part of the backyard. Rex slipped out underneath the fence that was not energized. Lesson learned...alway energize the fence! Then once he was back in within a couple of minutes he touched his little wet nose on the fence - ZAP! Not just once, but twice. He spent a lot of time near the shelter...poor little dude. He's got to learn to respect the fence. Miss Fiona also has touched the fence, but she is a little more brave and shook that off quickly. In fact, I don't think that she touched it again. It might take some time, but they will get there.

Adding this sweet pair of Guinea Hogs just completes the farm. It also adds to our daily routine, but it will be worth it when they get to breeding age and we have piglets one day in the future. 

Farm Life is the Best Life! 

Craigslist Deals

Craigslist...it's fun to check for pretty much anything for sale or trade or free.

Several times a week I look around for a variety of things that might be useful on our farm. Yesterday I hit the jackpot!

Since we are planning for the Guinea Hogs I started looking for things that we possibly could use. Most of the time I look at the free stuff in Clark County. There is a lot of furniture...which I would NEVER bring into my home no matter how new or clean it might look.

Yesterday an ad popped up mid-afternoon with no photos...the text said:

"6x 275gal IBC totes & 1 steel drum" 

WHAT?! I knew exactly what this item was after reading the title...

FREE?! Oh...I jumped on this deal almost immediately, I replied to the ad and by the time I got home, we went from going to pick up two totes this morning to going after I got home from work last night and picking up one tote. Two totes in the bed of the pick-up would have worked, but the drive back home would have been nerve-wracking. Also, 275 gallons is A LOT...and one tote will work fine for the two pigs that we'll be getting at the first of spring.

Before heading out for the day I did a quick search on the Google pants and the same tote from Uline would have been $499 - this was worth the drive to nearly the other side of town. FREE!!

Arriving home last night

This is a thing of beauty!

The tote was used to store mineral oil so we only need to clean it out before using it for our piggies. The only other thing I want to do to it is get a pig waterer nipple and install it. 

With this for a waterer we won't have thirsty pigs!