Pig Mowers, Skirting Table and Donkey Kisses

We have had a few visitors to the farm lately. First Murphy came to visit...you know... of Murphy's Law. The tractor decided to choke up and quit, the lawn mower not long after gave it up too. The weed eater decided to not spit out string, then it decided it didn't want to even release the spool head.
My back can't take using pruning shears to cut every blade of grass around here so I decided to let the pigs out. Yep, 4 legged mowers should do the trick. I moved the Angora bucks from their pen, opened a gateway from the pig pen and let them have it.
With the rains we have had, grass and weeds still growing, what I hadn't managed to get mown in the last couple of weeks is now about knee high. I do believe the pigs will do a fine job. Should have all mown in about a week :-)
If you didn't know, pigs love the green stuff. Fresh green is best, but they will also eat hay, grass cuttings, etc. In the olden days some used pigs to till their fields.
We let the pigs run around our gardens in the spring and root it up. Makes tilling easier.


Sister also came to visit for a week. We worked on a few craft projects. Finishing the skirting table was on the top of my to do list. The photos don't really show the details but it is finished.

Sister being the artsy one of us added the finishing touches to the table. Little sheep on the sides with little blades of green grass by their feet.

She brought some photos I thought I would share,

taken during some of her past visits to the farm.

My great niece and Eeyore our donkey, goat guardian

And a not so lovely photo of me, milking. Sister loved this photo due to being able to see the milk flowing from the udder. This photo is actually about a year old. I remember doing this, just not her taking the photo. This was when I was breaking Isabella to the milk stand. See how high my left arm is...I am blocking her back leg from kicking or stepping in the milk bucket with my wrist. Where her leg would go, my arm followed.

10 Little Piggies

This year's feeder piglets

Doing what they love to do - root
Definitely not going to bite the hand that feeds them
But she does smell good...
Good enough to bite!

This Little Piggie

Our pig farmer friend called to say the feeder piglets would be weaned within 3 – 4 weeks.

For those of you unfamiliar with feeder pigs - they are piglets raised for home use, market, or as a 4-H or FFA project for summer fairs.

Our pig farmer friend has school age children who raise pigs for 4-H. The extra piglets not used by the children are sold to folks like us who raise their own farm food allowing the kids to make a bit of cash to fund their project.

Why We Buy the Piglets

1. Buying a whole pig is buying in bulk. That saves money.
2. We grow the pigs without hormones or antibiotics. We know we have healthy, safe meat without chemicals.
3. The meat tastes better than store bought and is much healthier which is the most important point in our opinion.

We offer our family and close friends the same opportunity. We house and care for the animal; they pay the cost of their piglet, it's feed and processing for their animal.

Normally we don’t have too many takers (maybe 3) who participate each year. This year everyone surprised me (though I suppose I shouldn’t be with todays economy). We reserved 10 piglets to raise for 8 families.

Home Alone & Pigs In The Trailer

As of today everyone has departed the farm to return home. It’s quiet. Not deafening quiet, but good quiet. Normally takes me a day or two to adjust to being home alone after a family gathering. Not so much this time. Sister and great niece stayed an extra day to help me re-group and clean up the house. I appreciated their help greatly.

The past week was fun, eventful, plus a tad bit overwhelming. Between recovering from our houseguests, our big fat Irish family gathering, the Celtic Festival and the farm…I feel completely and totally exhausted.

So much was jam packed into the last week, especially the weekend. It’s all rather a blur right now.

As I mentioned early on, sister came down Tuesday for a Girls’ day out (Weds.). After the morning farm routine, we were able to spend most of the day in town shopping and pampering ourselves. The pampering part was with our hair stylist. We booked most of her afternoon (yeppers it took most of the afternoon for her to beautify us). We definitely kept her busy with my perm and sisters high/low lights; both of us had a trim and brow wax. Not sure we look better, but we definitely feel better. We also indulged ourselves that evening with pizza (carry out) while watching "chick flicks" in our jammies. It was an enjoyable relaxing beginning.


The better half rolled in early. Not expecting him home ‘til Thursday evening I about had a stroke when the dogs’ barking to the sound of someone trying to come in the front door woke me up at 3:30 a.m. Luckily I had forgotten to pick up the baseball bat when I groggily rushed into the living room to see what was going on or the SURPRISE would have been for him, across his head.


One bonus during this weekend - the pigs went to butcher. Yeah!
Wish you could have been here or I would have remembered to take the camera out for their loading. Normally we don’t have a bit of trouble out of the pigs. This year it was a free for all pig fight. Just crazy I tell you.
Our normal method of loading pigs is to back the livestock trailer up to the pigpen, create a so-called chute, so the pigs can be herded up and onto the trailer. The better half can normally persuade them to walk up and load with little difficulty while I am standing in the trailer with feed calling "Hereee piggiees".
A neighbor volunteered to come help, which was extremely nice since I was going to be preoccupied with preparing for the festival and family gathering. The neighbor was to stand in for me.
Shortly after they began their attempt at loading the pigs, I hear the guys bellowing my name. Seems they were having problems with the pigs not co-operating. The guys needed more help. It wasn’t going to be me. I called another neighbor (one we were raising a pig for) to come help. He showed up about 10 minutes later (7:30 a.m.) morning coffee in hand, looking as if my call was his reason for getting out of bed.

A short bit later I heard the pigs screaming so I went back out. It was a sorry sight. Visualize 3 grown men falling over each other trying to tackle pigs that didn’t want to be tackled. You would think 3 grown men weighing a combined total of roughly 600 pounds could load 5 350-pound pigs. Guess not.
The pigs were scared to death, trying to run over each other to get out. Trying to run over the guys to get out. Trying to run out through the sides of the cattle panel chute, out through the fence, out through anything, just wanting to go anywhere but in the trailer.

I finally told, well screamed STOP! They did. I ask what the problem was. The problem seemed to be that the trailer was a bit too high for the pigs to easily step up into. They were having to lift the front end of the pigs on to the trailer then shove the ham end of the pig up and in. The pigs were not having anything to do with being touched by sweating, cursing, angry men. My suggestion of putting food in the trailer so they would step up by themselves fell on deaf ears.
There was also another problem that I saw that they didn’t. Our pigs are not use to being rough housed, smacked, grabbed or yelled at. They were grabbing the pig’s ear to pull the pig up and into the trailer. Come on, think about this! If you hurt the critter it is going to scream, that in turn upsets all other pigs, they in turn scream and run. I tried to explain this, which also fell on deaf ears. Any hoo, I also suggested one man on each side of the front of the pig and lift up by front leg. In their opinion my idea wouldn’t work (which really should have). Nothing I said seemed to be appreciated or useful. They continued to struggle, push, shove, grunt, huff and puff (the men not the pigs) and managed to load 4 of 5 pigs. The last pig to load was the heaviest and largest.

I, if anything, know our animals. So while they (men and pig) were resting and getting a second wind to finish the task at hand, discussing what to do, how to do it and what to build to help the pig step up. I ran to the house, grabbed a box of Fruit Loops (cereal) and ran back out. I threw a handful of Loops in the floor of the trailer in front of the last pig snoot. You see our pigs like sweet things. Low and behold hefty, huge last pig standing, walked up and into the trailer to eat his morning Fruit Loops.

Raising Pigs

Each year we bring in a pig or two (this year 5) to fatten for fall processing. Seems to be the norm for most folks who raise their own, buy in spring, butcher in fall. We did consider the idea of breeding our own pigs, but the goats seemed to take over and push that thought to the back of our minds.

The pigs have proven to be more than the obvious, ham, bacon and prime pork cuts for the freezer. They are just as handy as a garden tiller. Actually better than my Troy-Bilt tiller right now, it is in need of a few repairs. They also give back to the land (their manure) while rooting, chomping and wallowing away. It makes prepping the gardens much less labor intensive for us. They have done a wonderful job and we will continue to use this method to till our gardens from now on.

We also consider them our garbage disposals in a way. We did not opt to have a garbage disposal as a kitchen appliance in our new home due to composting and raising the pigs. The pigs love the extra whey from my cheese making. We feed them scraps (no meat or bones) from the table, leftovers not eaten and all of my OOPS. (Oops are any foods that I might find not suitable to serve– for what ever reason...may be burnt, undercooked, not seasoned properly, first time new recipes tried that were awful, pretty much all mistakes from the kitchen.)

Our very first pigs were Lucky and Matilda. They were purchased when we toyed with the idea of raising our own pigs, they were to be our breeding sows. Two Yorkshire, good ole girls, not tame as pets, but I raised them from weaning age so they were mostly tame. (I don’t have photos of those girls, the computer from those days crashed and burned leaving no photos.)

Next were Beans and Bacon (no photos, same computer). Then came Pork Chop. Pork Chop was the year we only raised 1, she was let to run loose on the farm. Thankfully her time for processing came shortly after she rooted up the water lines and the garden fencing.

Still thinking we could raise/breed pigs; we experimented with Pot Belly’s. Found the cutest little fella named Earl. Earl was to be the breeding boar. He began his life as a pampered pet pig in the city, then when they couldn’t handle him we brought him to the farm. Why someone would want to have an intact male pig in the city is beyond me. We then added 3 Yorkshire cross gilts, Petunia, Pansy and Penelope for Earl to breed.

Never having a male pig on the farmstead before, Earl was a learning lesson. OH my goodness, male pigs stink! They stink worse than any buck(male intact goat) we have raised. The odor was repulsive. Earl only had one thing on his mind, well 2 if you count eating. He would attempt to breed anything that would stand still, our lawn furniture, picnic table, laundry basket…it was not safe to be around the little guy, pet or not. He just loved you way too much. We found Earl a new home, in turn raised Petunia, Pansy and Penelope for the freezer.

Oh and by the way, Pot Belly's can be raised for butcher. The meat is just as good, though not as plentiful and more expensive to process per lb. , portion control may be a way to look at it.

Last year the two girls we raised for the freezer (Ham Hock & Baby Back) came from a similar cross breeding Yorkshire/Pot Belly. We purchased them from another farm. The girls grew well and fast. The only draw back was their legs. They had full size Yorkshire bodies on itsy, bitsy, tiny Pot Belly legs.

This year the five are from a local farm that raises breeding show stock. Yorkshire and Hampshire, 4 barrows (cut males) and 1 gilt (young never bred female). I am considering keeping the gilt for maybe breeding in the future. But not sure we can tolerate a full size breed of boar on the farm. Really have to think it through.

This little piggy went to market ...

Haven't named the group of 5 yet. Any suggestions?

We are raising 3 for our family, 2 for neighbors. Having 5 is a new experience also. There seems to be more competition between them. They are growing more rapidly than when there is 1 or 2. Of course they will eat more, root more, play more and also are heck on watering. We finally invested in a childs wading pool so they would have water to wallow in.

Around The Farm

The peacocks are still strutting their stuff. All of the peahens must not be setting. They are extremely vocal and active today. At feeding time I noticed all were down from their perches early. When the boys are competing for the courtship honors they can rough house more than usual.

One of the boys decided I was deserving of his attention.

Showers and storms began yesterday afternoon, lasting til the wee hours of the morning. We have been so blessed as to only have thunderstorms with the worst of the weather missing us. I don't mind the rains, just stress during the severe weather warnings. Those nights are sleepless and stressful.

The pigs are the only animal on the farm that like the rain. The day after the storms, they are doing what pigs do best, rooting around in the mud and mess.

Miss Piggy, one of our feeder pigs.

Surprisingly Olive had the new babies out and about this morning. I was able to grab the camera before Olive decided it was time to take the babies away. You can barely see the chicks. They blend well into the background. One chick is directly behind her tail, the other three are following thru the grass. Yeppers, the little brown spots, the ones you wouldn't have any clue to as what they were if I didn't point them out.

In the photo below, one chick is at her tail, one is by her right foot (it is a lighter yellow than the others), the other two are at the end of the white vinyl.

That is as close as I can get without her whisking them away to safety. As they grow and start mainstreaming with the flock, we are planning to catch the babies this year. We have had so many people want peachicks, we think we can tame a few to sell. Think is the key word. We will see if we can.

I told Jim we are going to have to prepare a few roosters for the pot. They have decided to roost on and sleep in the nest boxes. Which aggravates me to no end. They leave their calling cards and the eggs are dirtier than normal. It's time for them to go!

The hens are now offering a dozen a day. The one little egg in front is actually a banty egg. The hens are one of the few farm animals that do pay their own way. The eggs sell quickly at $1.50 a dozen. By selling what we don't use, it pays for a portion of the feed bill.

Today's offering of a bakers dozen.