Wooh, I'm on the struggle bus today y'all.
This morning it was hard to keep going. About 930, as usual, I almost went to bed. Thursdays I usually stay up later though to ease the transition on Friday and keep from staying up 24+ hours. Well, I managed to pull it off after a long shower. I ended up going to bed around 2pm, and waking up about 930pm, ending up with a solid seven and a half hours of quality rest.
I didn't get anything planted, but with a little blood and no sweat cause it was too cold to sweat, I got the easy part of the pig fence installed. It took til half past noon, but progress was made, and the morning sunshine on my sunthirsty top half felt just right. Now that I think of it, I wish I'd worn my hoochie mama shorts...
Commence pig pen!
The ever helpful homestead wizard @goldenoakfarm advised a buried fence, so here's what happened. This section is roughly 5m long. Roughly. I haven't measured anything, but the total area is somewhere around 20-30 feet by 20-30 feet. It's on the big end of that I think, official measurements to follow one day when I grow up. I buried the fence in a trench about half a meter deep, leaving the top of the posts a meter above ground. Those posts therefore are sunk over a meter deep. This'll be a real pain in the ass to remove if that's ever needed. The metal fence on the north and west sides has a concrete pad it sits on, so that's a solid spot. The other side is a building, so also solid. We're looking at possibly containing two #300 (I think that's nearly 150kg?) animals in here, so I want it solid. At the top of the fence, I'll run a hot wire in case the pigs want to learn to fly, but the breeder we're getting our animals from has no issues containing his animals in a two foot electronet fence.
We're almost exactly four weeks out from pigs, so there's no huge rush to finish, but it's been on my mind to at least get started. Their feeder came in. The farmer we used to buy our pork from used a similar dish for his piggos, so I figured it'd be a solid buy. I like the durability of these big reinforced rubber pans. When the animals get bigger I may need another one, and I buy it gladly.
Snugglebuns
Mombun's small litter of four white snuggles got out of the nest for the first time today. It's always fun to see the baby bunnies getting more active. @minismallholding, here's some fresh new bun pics for you 💚 don't they look yummy? 🙃
Mombun and a snugglebun
I'm feeling the coming on of my manic phase, so this weekend is going to be a good one. When I went to bed this morning I was pretty upset with the state of things; a usual sign of what I'll call the turn. When I go from being hopelessly depressed to being radically progressive. I go from deep defensiveness to righteous offensiveness.
I feel like there's some things I need to clear up about my own personal stance on things, but this isn't the time yet. We'll get to it. It's just that I've been spending a lot of time in the theoretical space, and that understanding of theoretical liberty is turning into a physical manifestation that's requiring no small amount of action on my part. But it's late, two hours after I usually post, so I'm gonna call this one a wrap on that note.
Love from Texas
Nate 💚
Am I correct in assuming the gray wall directly opposite the chainlink is the building? Be aware that pigs rub HARD on things and the protruding boards will look inviting. Too much of that rubbing and they may move walls...
Avoiding vet bills: that sheet metal is extremely sharp. They will be trying to burrow under it. If they hit that sheet metal.... You will want to SECURELY cover the bottom. A hot wire will only work until they bury it.... At least the sheet metal doesn't invite rubbing.
Good thing you put the chainlink on the outside of the posts. Prevents rubbing, and will support the chainlink better.
Have you figured out what you will do to prevent smell? It's a mighty small area for 2 pigs. If allowed pigs tend to use 1 area for a potty. If it's cleaned out religiously, that will help.
There needs to be a deep muddy area for them to cool down in, always. Have you planned that?
Best practices has it that between 225 - 250 lbs should be the maximum for butchering.
And I'd make 2 good size sturdy but not heavy pig boards, in case you need to handle them. And practice with the boards, on your pigs or your friend's before you need to do it...
Great comment!
But you just worry too much 😘 Or maybe you're just a perfectionist at heart 😊
If you see how pigs are raised over here... none of those concerns are manifested. Context is important tho...
We have raised pigs and have had many of these problems... Just trying to head off headaches down the road...
Tons of information! 😍
No, the apartment isn't in the picture. It needs new siding anyways, but we'll be running another chain link up along it to keep them off it.
The metal fence all has concrete underlayment, so they can't dig under and get cut on it.
For the smell, we'll be adding copious daily wood chips so that any poop smell will be converted to compost smell. Justin Rhodes did the same, and reported that there was no smell from his two pigs in an even smaller area than this. That's actually the series that got me into this idea.
This corner used to be called the digging area. We've changed that first letter to "p" instead, but left the remnants of the digging, there'll be no shortage of wallows for the critters. As a matter of fact, the kids were using it as such just as I was setting the area up lolol I should have got a picture, they were filthy 🤣 and once the pigs are here, the kids will be banished from the area. Farmer-Sam-finished-pork just doesn't sound appetizing...
LOL Nate!
I have a cat with food allergies, and for a while his only meat source was rabbit because we thought he was allergic to both poultry AND fish (turns out he's ok with poultry but it's a hard no on the fish). My cousin keeps rabbits as pets, and when she found out my cat ate rabbit, she literally gasped. I was like I'm sorry, he has allergies! LOL. They are heckin' cute. I don't know if I could do the deed myself, though I recognize the need. I am grateful for people with greater fortitude than I who can handle it. And Yuan is thankful, too. :) I suppose you inure yourself to it, but I would probably be sobbing.
It's really not that hard. It's their life purpose to be food and to feed the garden. I watched a video from the guy that runs the Farmstead Meatsmith, and he went over how to kill food animals in accord with their species. Rabbits usually go fast from a calm place, so I like to comfort my animals before the harvest. They don't know what hit em, and if they struggle a lot beforehand, I know it's not their time. The stress of the struggle and fight can flavor the meat, so I give em a.couple days after that. Spend more time with them and get them comfortable with me being around, so that the next time they're more open to being handled and comforted before the one savage instant.
The process is to get em comfy in my lap with my right hand underneath supporting their hind legs, with my left hand on their back behind their head. In a smooth movement, I close my hand around the back legs and around the neck, tipping the head back and pulling the back legs. The neck pops and it's over before the rabbit knows anything weird is happening. Naturally, that's how they'd go; with a quick strike from a bird of prey, or from a snake or carnivorous mammal. No struggle, quick and painless, so I try to honor that.
My friend lives out in the country where they're allowed to discharge firearms at their home, and he gets the animals comfortable and pops em at the base of the skull with a .22. It's fast, but that's loud and ammo is expensive. Plus, I actually enjoy the sacredness of my process. I handle the animals pretty much from their first day, so to take on that role of apex predator feels right to me. I think it was Daniel Vitalis that called it conscious omnivory. I've always liked that wording.
I'm glad you see the sacredness in it and are conscious about it. I wish that was the case everywhere.
Lil, fluffy snowballs! 😍😍
Love it when they emerge from the nest.
Other Mombun had her fourth litter today, and did a great job making her best and putting the babies in it! I hyped her up almost daily with a good candid pep talk about how if she didn't put em in the nesting bucket and make em a nest I was gonna have no choice but to eat her. I think it worked!
😆 Poor Mombun! Maybe it just took a while for her to get the hang of things. Fingers crossed it all goes well now.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.I'm over at my house trying to fence out deer and gophers with as little work as possible, and you have done a job I can't begin to imagine. It looks good to me!
Theoretical liberty and actual liberty are the same thing. Imagination is the key, and determines what is real. I'm just thinking out loud here, but liberty is very much on my mind these days.
Nice post. Good luck this weekend.
I'm not near as perfect as I'd like, so theoretical and practical liberty are hard for me to reconcile. I'm getting there though.