Farming and stuff

Well my friends, I have been up to alot. I moved back onto the farm and have been working non-stop to get it fixed up. among the happenings: I picked up a new sheep named Polly. She is and East Friesian x Lacaune which means another milker. She is a month or two younger than Ash, which seems to mean she is about a month behind in her pregnancy.

 The ram was REAL excited to get to meet her, so I tried locking him up for a day to let him cool his jets while the girls bonded. This was him trying to crawl under the barn door.

 She's spotted, so I'm hoping I'll get a good color when I cross her with a Jacob. Check out the cool spots on her ears: they are ringed like agate!

 The adorable friendly piglets were so curious about the newcomer! She was interested in them...not so interested in Rosie (who walked over to say "Hello.")

Good ol' Rosie. Being a mom is hard sometimes: I guess she needed a pick me up when she tried to drink my coffee.

The piglets are getting big fast! I built a creep feed to help let some pressure off Rosie. They are starting to root around and eat worms and such, but they harass mom nonstop in the barn for more food while she eats pulling at her teats...puts her in a bad mood fast. So at breakfast time I give them a small amount of pellets with milk. They enjoy that while mom eats in peace. Then we all play. I feel like with giving them a little extra food they've been growing even faster...I already had to lift up the bottom electric line on the feed so they could get in. I am disappointed that she sheep haven't lambed yet and the piglets arn't getting the sheep milk: that was the plan. Didn't happen...guess they get powdered milk instead.

In the less than two weeks ive been back I have: repaired the barn walls Rosie punched out, replaced the rotten/broken board on the barn door, got it to open and close again, and reinforced it. The wood piled in the barn is mostly cleaned up, I built a creep feed and a simple pen for the sheep at night. Painted 2 rooms in the house, cut 1/4 a cord of wood (burned most of it already, too), cleaned up the front and am now getting the gardens ready. I need to build a self-feeder for rosie so the sheep stop stealing her food, then I am on to fencing. I am also about to start reorganizing my studio and working on my jewelry again. yay!

On that note I will be moving my farming stuff to a new blog soon and focusing back here on jewelry. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading about the animals, but its time to move this content onto its own site. I'll let you know the new blog as soon as I come up with a proper name. Any ideas? ;)

3 Day Old Pigglets

 Rosie seems to be picking up on this mothering thing.So without further ado: lots of pigglet pictures:

 Everyone seems to be doing well with their appetites

 This little girl, though, as a big nasty cut on her leg. Luckily the straw is clean and the weather is cool so hopefully it won't get infected. Just gonna have to wash it every day and keep an eye on her. She's the most energetic of them all.

 Rosie looks very happy and contented.

 Looks like a few are getting daddy's floppy ears!

Yum yum yum

Bouncing around being happy babies. Looks like 2 boys 5 girls. Turns out Rosie did have 8, but it died the first night and got buried in the hay. Next time I'll change the pen so I can get into both sides and grab any injured babies. Other than a few with scratches they all look pretty good. They went outside for the first time yesterday. it is really amazing how quick they develop. I swear each time I look at them they are bigger.

Also, why arn't you people following Rosies twitter account? The more people follow the more "she' will tweet https://twitter.com/RosieDaPig

Piggies!

It finally happened! Rosie had her first litter yesterday. My mother had to go to the farm in the morning and Rosie seemed to be acting funny. She gave her some fresh hay and Rosie immediately started to try and make a nest with it and seemed to be having an occasional contraction. I got a call from her at work "Rosie seems likes shes gonna pop!" By some chance I got off work early that day and decided to go up to see how she was doing.

I went in to find Rosie like this:

 Breathing calm, but pretty clear contractions.  I didn't know how long she had to go, so i got her to flip over so the piggles could get to her tits. Look and her boobies! Ay, I can't imagine how bad its got to feel to have 14 sore boobies!

 Regardless, she seemed calm and I think happy to have me there. I encouraged here and gave her some space for a little bit. I came back with some water mixed with raw apple cider vinegar: she loves to drink that! Its good for digestion and she gulped it right down.

 After she had her water and she flopped down again I noticed he water had broken. About 15 minutes later she started really heaving. I looked back and there were little feet!

 Then with a little push it came out a little further....

 Then went back in. The little feet see-sawed back and forth for a few minutes and I considered the possibility her first on might be breech so I decided to time it. If it took longer that 15 minutes....just as I looked at the clock *POP!* out it came! Rosie's very first baby!

 I got one shot with the flash when Rosie heard it squeal and jumped up and turned around. That's when I realized I was in a bad spot: in order to possibly help her with a breech (okay, okay, and to see the first one happen~!) I had gotten in her pen and was boxed in to the sides and even ceiling and the only way out was by Rosie and her new born. Any other pig would have killed me. Rosie gave me the stink eye, but was also confused by the squirming and squealing thing.I managed to slip by her by making it clear I wasn't going to touch the little "thing." I tossed my camera aside because it looked like I might need to get in and grab one if she decided to flop down one.

 The next three popped out in fast succession. I was really surprised: maybe five minutes between each one? Rosie still wasn't sure what was going on and now she had 4 things squiggling about trying to nudge her. A few times she nearly trampled them to death. One of them kept screaming bloody murder whenever he fell over which would terrify Rosie so she'd hop up and start spinning around and everyone else would start screaming...She was having a very hard time of it. She was lying on her stomach wide eyed keeping an eye on the little things. She was so upset and the piglets were all over the place. It was below freezing and they were trying to find something warm: one got buried deep in the hay pile.

I finally decided to intervene. I got back in the pen with her and started petting her. She of course rolled over for a belly rub...and finally one of her piglets got to her nipple and latched on! THAT is what she needed! She started calming down and eventually the other piglets found their way over and latched on. You could see her relaxing with the situation and she started rolling over to give her teats to her babies.

 As she relaxed then next few piglets came out of her. We still had one in the hay. I was afraid to move it because anytime she heard a piglet squeal she jumped up and started freaking out. She seemed relaxed, though, so I gently uncovered it and moved it out into the cold. Of course it squeaked and Rosie saw it. Once again a panicked look came over her face, but this time she looked down at the piglets suckleing by her side, then at the straggler slowly moving towards her, then at me-then, unlike before, she stayed calm, looked at me, then at her baby and called to it without bothering her her other babies. He stumbled over to her, nearly going behind her, and Rosie stretched her head out to meet him and guide him gently to her belly. Rosie became a mother.

I left after she had #7...she seemed to be getting the hang of this mothering thing and I was freezing! I was dressed in my work clothes not knowing I'd be spending the evening in the barn. Shawn was finally back so I left him in charge. He did a nice job creating roll bars out of logs!

 Not living back at the farm yet means I don't get to see Rosie until I have time off work, but I guess she didn't have any more. My mother went by in the morning and she was protective of her new brood, but let her get a peek. Today they were running around, apparently. Can't wait to see who has floppy ears and who just has giant ears!

WAHOO!

Great news: Rosie is pregnant! Mr.Pig did his job just before he left, apparently. I assume the summer heat disrupted her cycling or made her miscarry...either way once things cooled down she must have finally taken. I was the one saying she wasn't pregnant when everyone else said she was, and thoguht she was pregnant when everyone else gave up. I guess thats what I get looking at her anatomy ALL THE TIME. Plus, she's been acting CUH-RAZY since early October. So fellow first time pig breeders take heart: it is hard to tell with some pigs if they are pregnant. Some people say look at their back end and if their vulva is pointed up, she is pregnant.

Well, not with Rosie. My clues were: stopped having heavy mucous breeding cycles, nipples were still small but pointed funny directions, wanted LOTS of grass, wasn't as interested in being friendly, and her attitude was just...a little crazy? But her vulva looked pretty much the same the whole time.

BOOBIES! This means BABIES!

She sure is lucky that her teats are developing because she was juuuuust about to be sent to the slaughter house. So these babies will be a white meat (roast, tenderloin) breed (Yorkshire pig) and a red meat (bacon, ham) breed ( Gloucester Old Spot) making the pigglets Yorkshire X Old Spot. Apparently its an amazing combo, so we will see.

Thanks Mr.Pig, I'm sure your babies will be crazy cute!

In other news, I crutched Ash the sheep aka gave her a Brazilian. I didn't get any pictures of the process, but if you arn't going to shear before lambing it is pretty important to crutch. By cutting the wool away from the anus, legs and stomach mom is cleaner and the lambs don't mistakenly suck on poopy wool instead of her teats. When I turned her over and started shearing her tummy I saw her udders were caked with poop and urine. GROSS! The waste gets stuck in the wool and dirty tags grow bigger and bigger. She's all cleaned up now and ready to have her lambs. Also, I won't get as much crud in the milk. Her udders didn't look too big so I assume we are still a few weeks off. I hope so because I want to be moved back in before she lambs.

So the farm is really a farm!

Oh Rosie

Fall has come, rain has started and the pig pen has turned into a mud pit. I built a pen for the pigs i the bar, but it really wasn't enough room for both pigs to spend all winter. Rosie was making it clear if I did't fix up her digs, she would take matters into her ow hands (cloven hooves?). Feed costs are also a problem as the pigs are not yet on pasture. My fiance prefers to overfeed animals rather than underfeed, Mr.Pig was happy to eat whatever came his way at a cost of $35 a week. Aint happening.

On Wednesday we said goodbye to Mr.Pig who has moved on to Farmer Gord's. He has 3 sows and 30 acres. Its a better space for Mr.Pig. Of course, it was a adventure load Mr.Pig. I had to feed my piggies a little that day because Rosie was in a mood. She kept trying to tear open the fence, so I feed them in hopes of placating her...but them mr.pig wasn't as hungry as he should have been. So Gord had a family emergency and shows up a 9 pm. Luckily I had hooked up electricty to the barn...but it was just a single lightbulb. Everywhere else was pitch black. I untied some of the cattle panels to let out Mr.Pig and Rosie decided to make a break for it, them Mr.pig decided to take a hike too. So we chased the pigs around in the dark, got them back in the barn then focused on mr.pig. once we had him infront of the trailer he went in.

So Rosie has lots of room and food to herself now, all is good, right?

no. Wrong. I suppose I should have taken pictures as proof but believe me: she tore her pen to shreds and tried to run away. I sat down at my bench finally and started working on a new ring when Shawn looked out to see Rosie escaping into the neighbors Our permimeter fence is only a fraction complete and Rosie would not be contained any longer. We had to discuss the future of Rosie as we don't know if she is pregnant or not. She *might* be, but the again has always had trouble taking....I was fit to be tied and ready to turn her into dinner, however Shawn did not agree. As you can see our little flow chart:

You see the corner of the crossed out one: "dead pet." Oh Shawn, you might want to stick with being a vegetable farmer. So Rosie lives. We did call a vet to try and get an ultrasound to see if she is preggers, but alas the vets weren't able to sedate her and we couldn't. THAT was a horrible experience chasing her with giant needles and trying to stab and drug her up. Was she ever mad.

Throughout the day I babysat her and kept her from running away while Shawn came up with a plan...his plan eventually became "I don't want an ugly, crappy temporary fence next to my house, so lets build a rubbish pile that is too tall for her to climb!" So thats what we did: we cut down trees and piled up brambles all the way across the open fence line and I got the section of electric fence powered up. I personally am not sure it looks any better than a janky fence but it cost $0 and we did it in 2 days, so thats great. Did it work? No. The next day Rosie climbed right over the logs.


.....

 The brush pile was meant to be a mostly visual barrier, but it wasn't quite enough. So Shawn put up a line of temporary electric line in front of the brush aaaaaaand tada! it worked! Rosie is now free-range as are the sheep. I got her a new bale of hay for her bed so she is sure to come home at night.

Do YOU see the sly look in her eye?

I really hope this girl is pregnant. With all we have been through with her we need some payback. And adorable babies. Oh yes, and since she IS a pet offically she has a twitter account. Follow her!

Now maybe I can get back to my bench?

Pigs!

We got the pigs moved in a few weeks ago and boy was doing that an adventure. Getting Rosie loaded involved a half days work and many trial and error attempts.

First we tried asking her to go in with food, only to have the trailer fall over and scare her. apperently the small trailer needed a counterbalance for the 500 lb pig climbing in. ok, fair enough, makes sense. After that she was afraid of the thing. Next we tried forcing her in with cattle panel (as suggested in a pig book). she just stuck her nose in the cattle panel and tossed it (and me) aside. Or busted through a wall, or the trailer, or whatever she thought would make us leave her alone. Finally we built a chute (experienced pig farmers know thats what you need in the first place) got her in with food. Still, she wasn't inclined to go in the trailer so I got the hose and sprayed her. Actually, that was a wonderful humane was to get her to move: it was hot, so it wasn't terrible for her to get wet...just annoying enough she moved away from the water. So i sprayed her face when she tried to nose out of the chute which got her to stop trying to break out and then sprayed her backside on up into the trailer. It worked! She went in and stayed calm (thank goodness because she could have busted through that rickety trailer if she wanted).

The beautiful lady using a natural sleepmask

Yes, Rosie is a big girl.

When we got to the farm the neighbours came out to watch us unload. Rosie didn't turn around, no she decided to back out of the trailer which worked for a few steps.....until she stepped off the ramp, tripped, fell on her butt and rolled out. A rather graceless exit, if I may say so. She was okay, though. The neighbor exclaimed, "Thats a pig?! I thought a baby hippo was coming out!"




The next night we went to pick up her new boyfriend. Well, THAT was an adventure coming back up a twisted, steep mountain side gravel road with a 500 lb boar we didn't know in a rickey trailer in a manual S-10 Chevy without 2nd gear. Lets just leave it at that. Oh the adventures of moving farm animals without money.

 Anyway, the boars name is Mr.Pig and he is Gloucestershire Old Spot. His breed was designed for running under orchards and picking up fruit that fell on the ground before it rotted and attracted insects. His former owner was chopping down trees and turning it into pasture and used Mr.Pig to tear up the roots of the trees and undergrowth. I think he said they cleared 2 acres that way.

While I had hopped to use Mr.Pig in a similar way and run him under the orchard that we don't have planted yet I'm not sure how long we can keep him and his appetite. But we have two goals with him: a friend for Rosie and to breed Rosie.

Oh yes, did I mention the other thing I liked about his breed? Well, as I understand it modern pig breeds don't necessarily know how to have sex. Infact, the farmer either has to help insert the boars penis into the sow OR just skip the boar and use artificial insemination which means the farmer has to track the sows ovulation cycle and administer 2-3 doses of semen when she is in heat. Personally, I love Rosie but thats a little too friendly for me. I want to be the matchmaker for my animals, but i don't want to be involved in their sex lives.

However, these modernbreeds are MODERN, farmers once upon a time did not have AI, nor the time to stand around and help their pigs breed. The Old Spot breed can breed without human help. Mr.Pig is proven aka. he has made babies already: his balls work and he knows how to use them.

Who's got big balls? I've got big balls!

His breed creates alot of bacon. The fellow we got him from recently slaughtered an old spot that gave him 75 POUNDS of bacon, plus hams. Rosies breed (Yorkshire) can be made into bacon, but overall the meat is very white. Instead it makes good roasts, tenderloins, and other white cuts. The fellow we got Mr.Pig from is very excited about crossing York with Old Spot as he says its the best possible mix of breeds. We shall see.

Rosie has mixed feelings about Mr.Pig. He's kinda a dick at feeding time as he pushes her away from all the feed troughs, but he is another pig to hang out with. I remember one day I fed him and he was in the corner chowing down on the slop I gave him. Food was literally flying everywhere and his ears where bouncing everywhere. then at the other side of the pen I had food for Rosie. She ate slowly, calmly, happliy chewing her food, looking around, took another bite walked over to the bathroom, went pee...came back for somemore food...went for some water...lalalala....and all the while in the other corner food is flying everywhere as Mr.Pig was choking it down fast as he could. What can I say? Rosie is a lady with manners, Mr.Pigs a bit of a country bumpkin.

Rosie has cycled, though. Her first few days with mr.pig she was not thrilled. I went to visit them one day and he was asking for backscratches from me, and she was nosing around his balls. At one point he was ignoring her, she stuck her nose between his legs and went *womp!* right into his balls. He went crosseyed, flew a foot in the air and let out a squeal that said it feels the same for all guys.  Next day she showed signs on her backend of being in heat. Hopefully he preformed his duty and she took. We may have pigglets in the couple months. Lets hope!

One last thing. The pen they are in is temporary. We want to build a paddock system and run them through the fields and forest rotating the pasture giving it a chance to rest. In some cases we will use the pigs on a very limited space to tear out weeds and rototill, then move them off and plant on the cleared and fertilized ground. If we can time this right we can really make the whole property healthier...if not we can mess things up. Compare the pen from when we first built it to 3 weeks later:

There is alot of bare ground they have opened up and their "fertilizer" is all the the corner and easily spreadable. It is defiantly time to move them before the ground gets too bare and compacted, but its pretty amazing to see how they can clear land so quickly. I am going to try and figure out a way to get up easily moveable fences that keeps Rosie in (thats the key part. she walks right through electric fences, tears through cattle panel is she chooses) and try and use them to clear a path through the woods. Well, its worth a try at least.

That was alot of pig info. I'm still learning about pigs myself. If you have questions or comments feel free to ask and I'll try to answer. More pig stories soon enough.