PIGS!!

This picture is our pigs about 2 months ago. I really should go get a new picture of them in the snow.

We enjoy raising pigs. With proper care and management they don't smell, are fairly friendly and always happy to see you, never mind the hams, bacon, sausage and other wonderful things we make from them. We get our pigs around 6 weeks old and normally train them to electric fence first and then to 1 or 2 wires as they get older. This makes it much easier to get them into the bush as we can circle the whole area without having to try and make paths through the willows, prickle bushes and small poplar trees that make walking through hard. Making electric netting fences though the bush is annoying, frustrating, irritating and often painful. If we HAVE to do this we try and do it as a team, one hauling fence and the other fixing it.

Our pigs normally have names. Strange habit I know but everything around here gets some sort of name even if it is just 'the fat one' or 'our lonely turkey'. One year they were Red, Miss piggy and Snarky. Red was well; red. Miss piggy was sweet as can be. Snarky was just that Snarky. You never knew if she was going to leave you be or try and eat you. This year the pigs names are Ham, Bacon, Pork, Chop, Sausage, and Wilbur. (Not that we use these names to call them, it's hard to teach them with 6 of them together.) Wilbur is our dog pig. Acts just like a friendly mutt but is still a pig and will still be eaten. We recently rented "Charlotte's Web" and watched it with the kids. They loved it and it gave me the name I needed for our most irritating pig. Pigs are great, little piggies are cute and sweet, medium pigs are helpful tillers and handy slop eaters, big pigs are annoying big slobs that try and bit me (just me they all love Papa) and they are FOOD. Once they get to be big pigs I'm finished with them. They get to that "I'm bigger then you are and I can push you over and steal all the food you have" stage and they are ready for the oven. I know I'm a terrible person I eat pigs I raise and I LIKE IT. HA. Take that piggers!! Anyway Wilbur loves Papa. He has big floppy ears and he follows him around grunting and begging to be scratched. When Papa stops and scratches him he rolls his eyes back in his head and grunts with pleasure. Sometimes he even rolls over and lifts his legs so Papa can reach his belly. Like I said. Dog Pig. I bring them milk every morning and slop as well and I all I get is bit and chased around while I try and pour over, around and though 6 very healthy happy HUNGRY piggers that all know I have something very good in my bucket. I once, notice I said ONCE, tried to bring them 2 buckets of food at the same time. Note one in each hand. BAD idea. It is very hard to fight off 6 pigs, one who has his head in the bucket that is crammed between your knees so he can't tip it over, pour a bucket of milk in to their dish and keep your balance while trying not to get too close to the electric fence you know is HOT behind you. When they are little and sweet this is not a problem, when they are big and strong and weigh about as much or more as you do this is a very bad idea.

We got our pigs in late July this year and still have them. We are going to feed them for another month or so and then butcher them. They are out in the bush right now in the front by the road and love tilling the ground up, mostly moss where they are at the moment and flattening piles that came from the Cat work Papa did a few years ago. We have pulled most of the trees out of these piles for firewood or burn piles and hopefully the pigs will flatten them enough that we can finish the clean up job next spring. We find they love to eat small this years poplar sprouts which grow very fast and can reach a height of 4 feet in one summer. After the pigs have been in a area we find that they have left about 18 inches of these small trees and bitten off the rest. Either to eat or to make beds with. Between the pigs and the cow, who loves these trees when small, we have no need, yet, for a goat. We'll have to see what happens in the area we cleared this spring this next summer before we'll know for certain. The pigs have one more job to do before the big B day and that is Bindy's undercover area. It is full of bedding and cow mess and we want them to till it up so it can compost better. I bought 2 bags of whole corn the other day and my next job is to take Papa's big pry bar and poke holes in the mess and drop the corn into them. This way Bindy can not get them. The mess is warm because it is composting and the seeds will grow, we hope, enough so the pigs will find them and love them and want more and therefore turn the whole "mess" for us. I'm looking forward to this, though I have to say I'm not sure if it's because then the mess will be turned (it doesn't smell but this will make it more useful next summer) or because that means the pigs will soon be dead and my 'pig freezer' will be full again. Or simply because I enjoy watching pigs till up and this will be right outside the window where we can watch them. Another bonus I just thought of is that then I will not have to go far for water or milk for them. My arms will enjoy the break from hauling 5 gallon buckets of water and feed. And I'm sure the little Griggers will love to watch out the window as well. Speaking of little Griggers, J loves B day and looks forward to it. He loves to help with all sorts of chores and is looking forward to helping with butchering. We will likely have a whole crew of people helping. I have 4 couples who either want to help with butchering or want pork or both so we will hopefully have lots of help. We bought a meat band saw this summer with a grinder and will do it all ourselves. The people who are getting pork can either butcher with us here or bring it in to the local cut and wrap place. We hope to borrow a stuffer and make our own sausage as well. What a blessing it is to have people around us who have some of the same goals we do and are willing to share tools to make life easier!!! And to teach skills to those of us who want/need them.