Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[NH Homesteader]

They are amazing! Mine is also a hoarder. She moves her water dishes and random braches, etc into her hut. I use this long metal roof shovel to fetch her dishes so my awkward pregnant self doesn't have to climb in with her... She found that too (reached through the fence) and bent it in half trying to stash it in her house. Strange creatures!

 

[sumi]

They are strange creatures, pigs. Mine used to move their dishes around all the time, so I kept a hook handy to grab and drag them closer. What also works is tying a rope to the dish and the fence, so you can pull the dish closer with the rope. IF the pig leave the rope tied on that is…

 

[NH Homesteader]

Pretty sure that rope wouldn't survive long with this pig! Or FEM's boar for that matter!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Lol, probably not. Even though I did buy some tubs one time that had three attachments coming off of them that you could use to clip them to the fence. Similar to this - only shorter:



Worked great....for awhile. The hogs abused them so much that the metal hooks that you would use to hook the clips to - came off.

 

[baymule]

I use 3 tubs for the pigs we have now. Two for feed and one for water. I also give them flakes of hay soaked in whey. If their feed tubs are out in the pasture, I flop down a flake of hay and pour their corn on it. No way I'm walking in there with a bucket of feed for 800 pounds of hogs!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Heck, if I can't hit the feed pan now - it goes on the ground. I figure....uh....what can it hurt? They root in the ground all da dam time anyway!

And the stoopid piglets are ticking me off... they've rooted up one side of the garden area real well - but they are totally ignoring the other side. And, of course, I took down the dividing fence to use on the fencing project last weekend or I'd lock 'em on the un-rooted side. Ugh.

I finally got Mom to sit on the back porch today and Cowboy was FASCINATED...oh my gosh ... he wanted to be right beside her at all times. Of course, when she's sitting down and he's standing in front of her they are eye to eye with each other. Mom has always been a dog lover, but eye level with Cowboy would intimidate pretty much anyone. I drug him away and she decided that being outside would aggravate her allergies.

Dad is doing ton's better without the two meds that made him weak and dizzy. Still sleeping a lot, but lucid and stronger when he's awake. Mom....different case. I tried to re-teach her how to use her cell phone today. Now, a couple months ago she was calling me 17 times a day with it, lol. Now she can't remember how to do anything with it. Not sure if she can get it back or not.

I've got quail eggs in the incubator - hope some hatch - cuz I left the gate to their pen open today and we're down to 4 adults... geeze.

 

[baymule]

I raised quail once, long ago. Pharaoh quail, they laid like crazy, I incubated the eggs and had lots of little quail. They sure were good in the skillet!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We love 'em! Hoping to get 'em going again, but if I keep leaving the stoopid cage door unlocked we aren't gonna have much luck, lol! At this rate I should just let the original owner raise 'em... I'd probably come out cheaper just paying him the $2 apiece and butchering 'em instead of raising 'em myself!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Aw Cowboy doesn't know how big he is! So, are quail difficult to raise? Or only when you forget to lock them up, lol

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So, are quail difficult to raise? Or only when you forget to lock them up, lol

Leaving the cage door open does make it a little more challenging, lol!

But, they are really not hard to raise at all. Feed 'em a high protein game bird feed and keep water in front of 'em (and lock the cage door) and no problem's at all.

I put 5 eggs in a couple weeks ago - totally did NOT write it down so no idea when they are due except it ought to be getting close if they are fertile. About a week or so later I put in six more. I've never had any luck candling quail eggs so don't know what I'm working with. Just hope to get at least 5 or six babies.