Free's piggie thread...new pics p 19

[Henrietta23]

Me, too! I see my pasture all cross-fenced, with a little tent-like ark in each section. Uh-oh. That would allow for.....more goats!

Here was the answer from Bob via e-mail:

The best thing would be to have a smaller fenced in area that is attached to your structure. I don't know how to attach it to a triangular structure but maybe your dad can get creative. This way here they can be outside and go in if need be. Maybe some green fence posts from tractor supply with two inch page wire 3 or 4 ft high. It is always nice to have a small fenced in area(8ft by 10ft) or 8x8, or anything small, where you feed them and water them, in case you need to close them in or catch them for any reason. Put some bedding in the shed also, so they want to be in there.
Good luck.
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So I am thinking.....I could price hog panels at TSC, or I could take the last bit of horse fencing off the garden and replace it with chicken wire. I think I'd prefer hog panels, but I may have to re-configure the garden fence because of the time factor and the fact that we don't have a truck and may not be able to find someone with one today on such short notice to transport the panels. TSC is only a couple of miles away on the same road that we live on, but it is a busy road and too far to walk dragging hog panels!

Wish we were just a little bit closer.... and I didn't have to be here at work!!

 

[Henrietta23]

Happy Pig Day Eve!!!

 

[freemotion]

Poop. Just got an e-mail from him and he has to cancel delivery for tomorrow because the farmer he is buying cattle from (next town over from me, he was going to drop the piggies off on his way by) is haying in this sudden heat wave and won't be able to load cattle tomorrow morning.

Sigh. Well, they are being fed and are growing, that is a good thing, right?

 

[Kim_NC]

Yep, let him feed them another day or two.

We're getting new pigs this weekend. DH says 4, I say 5. We'll see. The others I posted a pic of earlier in this thread are in the freezer. Delicious!

 

[Henrietta23]

Aw rats!
Wanna come help me fence?

 

[freemotion]

I am SOOOO glad the pigs didn't arrive today. I do not want to be outside at all, nevermind babysitting scared weaners or worse, chasing them! You are on your own, H23, with the fencing....I did my time! And then some! And then some more!

I can't wait to also be able to say, "They are delicious!!"

 

[Henrietta23]

Yeah, it's nasty out there. I'm inside dreaming of my new dishwasher being installed tonight.
Hopefully it will cool down for when the piggies do come home.

 

[freemotion]

Suddenly delivery is on for tomorrow, early!!! I will be home alone. DH will be at work until at least 10:30, and my dad took mom to Cape Cod for the weekend.

While I visited with Henrietta23 and her family who were goat shopping today, my dh went to TSC to get two cattle panels for me and six t-posts. The panels were on sale for $18.99, and I figured I could put an electric wire down low to make up for the big spaces in the panels. I have no idea how big these pigs are or what size spaces they can squeeze out of....my local TSC doesn't carry hog panels, and the next best thing were the goat panels...but they were SO much more expensive! So I would make do with the cattle panels.

DH surprised me with the better panels! He does know how to make me happy! So when I got home, I got the baby goats out to play and then made some pizza dough for supper. Then dh joined me in the pig pasture to get a small but sturdy pen built to contain the weaners for the first week or so, until they got to know me as their food source. Food carrier. Provider. Whatever.

We basically made a simple ring-shaped pen for them by clipping the panels to the t-posts. Their house is at one end, and I put up a make-shift gate at the other end. The gate is a piece of the same grill that I used to protect the barn windows from my horse's nose and teeth when I first had it built. I have a gate-sized piece left over from that project. It was dumpster-dived by a friend of mine, so I can't really tell you what it is, but it has served many purposes since then....as a gate, as a trellis, as a sifter of compost when I spread it on my lawn and want finer bits. Now it is a pig pen gate, at least until its next job.

Last night we worked in the rain showers to get the gardens tilled and a fence up around the new garden in the pasture. I put 5' chicken wire around that one, with a strand of electric wire strung down low to keep pig escapees from destroying my veggies. It is also to keep itchy goats from rubbing on or climbing on the fence, and to therefore keep the chickens out of the garden, too.

Fencing never ends. Face it.

Hopefully I will be able to post pictures tomorrow night, dh willing!

 

[freemotion]

Well, that was anti-climactic! Thankfully! The piggies arrived in a dog crate on the back of a pick-up truck (he got the cows on another day, made a special trip to drop my pigs) and Bob and Matt (Bob's daughter's boyfriend) carried the crate into my pig pen. Carefully stepping over the hot wire.

They said the set-up was a fortress and no one would get out. They also said we could leave them in the small pen rather than locking them up in the house, since it was so secure. I guess a few years with goats means I know how to build a secure pen!

They immediately started eating grass like the trip was nothing to them. I have to run back out there with food and water for them. I am so relieved that they are so happy!

They were weaned this morning, and have never had to drink water yet, so that makes me only slightly nervous. They are eating well and know what grain is, so if I think they need more by tonight, I will give them some grain mush made with Mya's milk. I do have that three gallons of whey in the second fridge for them.

OK, off to take care of that and take some pictures!!!

 

[Farmfresh]

The mush sounds like a good plan! Isn't it great when you develop a skill yourself (like fencing) and then other people who actually know what they are doing, praise you for it! Congrats!!

Now if anyone asks what sports you like you can include "fencing"!

edited to say ... I wonder if you should add some yogurt culture to the whey? It might make it even more productive for them.