Eating Like Pigs

In my last post about pigs I showed some pictures of the pigs eating. Well now I've gone out and taken a video of the pigs eating.

*WARNING-You may not want to watch this right before you eat!*

Aren't pigs dainty eaters... This happens twice a day rain or shine (although the pigs don't really like the rain) It starts off with them squealing loudly when they feel that they're entitled to their meal. Next comes the eating of the feet (you'd think they would learn that they don't get fed when they try to eat our feet...) and then the pushing and shoving when they try to put their head in the bucket of food before it's in the trough. Apparently they're starving and need to eat right that second, but it makes it hard to get the food into the buckets and not on their heads! And finally they get to eat. Very noisily. And rather sloppily. Of course the sow (Angelina) gets the most food, not only because she's bigger, but because she's the most aggressive and tries not to let the other pigs near the food.

Solar Project

About a week ago we signed a contract with Solar G to get a huge solar panel! 2 days after that they came and dug a big hole. The next step was filling it with gravel and then today they put the base in and poured all the concrete.

This is what the solar project looks like so far. We have to wait for the concrete to set and then the Solar G people will come back and start the next step!

I have always wanted to write my name in concrete or put my hand print in or something. Well it turns out concrete is toxic or something and burns your fingers. Luckily somebody told me this before I shoved my whole hand in. As for writing in it with a stick something that somebody else pre-chose, well that's just not as fun! Oh well... Maybe one day when I'm rich and famous...

A Heroic Battle

Well I hate to say this, but today Carter (the goose) actually did something useful! What a surprise...
This afternoon our neighbor's dog(s?) came into the farmyard and were trying to eat some nice tasty ducks. Luckily Carter got in the way and (for once!) beat up something that wasn't human! He got a bit hurt in the process too though; feathers were all over the yard. But wait, there's more! Asha (who is usually suck a wuss) came to the rescue as well! She got in a fight with the dogs because she didn't want them to eat her goose! So she ended up saving Carter! And since Carter proved that he is actually good for something, I don't feel the need to get rid of him anymore! Well I never thought I'd see the day that I'd say that...

Dog vs Turkey

I've been meaning to put this on my blog for FOREVER but have never gotten around to it... Well today I'm finally doing it! This is my first video so *fingers crossed* hope it works!

This is a video of my turkey (George, who you can read about in my very first post!) with his little turkey minions, and Asha. Now for the story line... George really doesn't like dogs. Actually, George isn't really fond of anything but other turkeys. And, well, since we give him food, he'll put up with us too! And then there are the little turkeys. They think that George is the greatest! They will follow him everywhere, and do whatever he does. He doesn't really like them, but they can gang up on him (and have in the past) so he'll put up with them as well, but only because he's at loss of what to do to get rid of them. And last, the other star of the show, Asha can be seen trying to play with George in this video. He wants to beat her up actually, but luckily she's too fast for him to do any real damage. This is one of my favourite video's (even though it isn't great filming on my part) because it's so unlikely. I mean, how many people have a dog being chased by a turkey, who has a swarm of baby turkey's following it? It just doesn't happen that much!

I tried to shorten the clip (cut off the beginning because the filming is horrible) but none of the applications I tried to open it on seem to have that function! If anyone could explain how to do that it would be great...

Roadtrip!

This Monday we undertook an epic road trip to get some pigs. It was more than 5 hours both ways! We got a pregnant sow (yes, we actually went through with this!) and 2 little boys (that we will be eating). They (especially the sow) did not want to come home with us. And they protested loudly about it. The next day (when we were getting them into their pen because we got home really late) the sow got to walk into the yard from her cozy pig transporter. The boys, however, had spent the night in the back of the truck and decided that they liked it there and didn't want to get out. Especially when they realized it meant them being carried. Now I know where the expression "squealing like a pig" came from! They were REALLY LOUD! Luckily we got them into the pen all right and they then decided that it definitely wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, so they started to eat some grass right away. The sow also started to turn up the soil (very pig like I must say...) We also (well, the farmer we bought them from) found out that the sow that he thought was a "maybe purebred big black pig" was actually a pig with papers! She is registered in the national breed registry, and her piglets are actually worth quite a bit of money! So instead of eating them, we may end up pre-selling them all to make some money off of this investment! For once! Anyway, back to the topic of the actual pigs, another one of those expressions "eating like a pig" is also true! These pigs are GROSS when they eat! They spew food everywhere and get covered in icky. I have some great pictures of them eating in the trough (legs in, completely covered in food!) and dripping food everywhere while they chew with their mouths open. I put some of the best on here.

On another topic, they need names. Well, some people would disagree with that. They say "why name something you'll eat?" What don't they understand about being able to bond with your pig (while it's alive...) And a name makes it much easier to talk to a pig. Not that you really need to... Hmm... I guess they have a point!

Anyway, we need names for the pigs (and preferably ones that have something to do with cuts of meat!) We're thinking of calling the sow Angelina (big celebrity, lots of kids!), and I have friends that want to call one of the piglets Wilbur... However the pigs are black and we're planning on eating them, which doesn't seem like the best thing to do to a famous children's character that ended up living happily ever after... So... Suggestions would be great!

The Prospecting of pigs

This year we might be getting a big, black, PREGNANT sow!!!!! So we would have to help deliver the piglets, and we'd have to get the boy pigs castrated! That would be an... Interesting learning experience! This way we would have quite a few piglets, as well as a breeding stock that we would have to take over winter. Since we had such luck with the Tamworth's we would still do a couple of them just to compare the meat(?) and because we like them anyway. It has been very hard to find piglets this year though! Which is why we want a pregnant sow as it is a lot better bang for the buck (we hope) and a lot easier to come by. Hopefully this way the pig hut we have will be big enough for the one (or three) pig(s) when it is still cold, and by the time they get too big, it won't matter! This is the new plan, although some people aren't overjoyed with is, it seems like the best course of action, and therefore plausible to happen! I will post more when we reach a final decision and are sure of which pigs we're getting!

A very tiring new lifestyle!

This new home and lifestyle is very tiring for Kaslo! After trying to keep up with the other dogs on the walk, he'll come home and just crash for a while! Also meeting so many new people is very tiring as well! Here are some really cute pictures of Kaslo asleep :)

The first picture is of him is after his first big romp outside. He went up onto the porch and collapsed at the door and proceeded to try to eat the mat. Apparently being tired doesn't stop him from wanting to eat everything!

The second picture is him after his first night here. He's been really good about sleeping through the night, and gets up at about 6:30 every morning, which is not ideal, but at least after you take him out and give him something to chew on, it's possible to go back to sleep. For me anyway...

The third picture is him after a very long and tiring walk where he came in and fell asleep right away on his bed, and was too tired to really care how much I moved him around! I put his little pig toy (which isn't really meant for dogs but so far even though he's not always supervised (*GASP*, yes and we even read the label!!!) he hasn't choked on it. And survey says he probably won't!) under his leg and took a bunch of pictures. This is one of the ones that turned out best. I think it's really cute!

Anyways, I'll keep posting more pictures! Maybe next time I'll put him in a little shirt... Or not, maybe that's just too mean for his manly pride? Any comments?

The arrival of Kaslo

On Tuesday we brought home our new puppy, Kaslo. Aside from throwing up in the car, he's doing fine here! He's almost house trained, and doesn't have many accidents. He gets along really well with the other animals as well. I've been taking tonnes of pictures, as per usual, and most of the ones from the past few days are of him, and how he's interacting with the other animals.



Asha is slightly put off by not being the "baby" now. She is constantly trying to but in whenever we try to pat Kaslo, and jump on our laps to get the attention for herself. She treats Kaslo a bit like she treats the cats, by licking his head. She must thing that he's a cat because she gets very confused when he tries to jump on her and play with her. She tries to play "tag" with him, but he can't run as fast and gets really tired easily.


Kiri isn't quite sure what to think about about the puppy... She decided to ignore him for the most part, and occasionally steal his kennel (which used to be hers) and eat his food. She doesn't appreciate being played with, and will growl and grumble to us about him, although her bark is much worse than her bite!




The cats don't really seem to like him, although that's not surprising as they never really like dogs at all. They all have been making themselves scarce for the past couple days, and try to stay out of "bouncing distance" in which they are in danger of getting bowled over by the very energetic puppy!