Our First Summer with Pigs

This spring we bought 3 pigs.  1 for sausage and 2 to start a breeding program.

These pigs were fun to watch and we enjoyed them.

So when Darling Husband heard of 3 more for a great price we got them.

They were cute but not fun to watch.  They didn't love playing in the water or happily chase each other they just ate and slept.  Great for fat pigs but I like happy animals.  - proof I'm not a great farmer 

So when I wasn't working we had 6 mostly full sized pigs.  I get a lot of food for the piggies through my work so having 6 pigs during summer when I am not working was expensive.  I was also buying normal commercial grade food for the pigs instead of making sure everyone is mostly grass fed because - pigs eat A LOT.  The 3 Little Pigs were ready to go to Freezer Camp by middle of summer.  We had decided to try to do the butchering ourselves with Darling Husband's friend.  The problem is we needed a free weekend and we were super busy.  Finally end of summer we were all ready to process the pigs.

I wanted a lot of sausage.  I looked up premixed sausage seasonings and realized most were expensive and many had preservatives that I didn't want so I spent days looking for sausage recopies and made the seasoning mixes myself.   

Don't keep scrolling unless you want to see graphic pictures!

Notice the happy dog under the table in this picture.  

The fodder room was a great sausage making room.  We made 120lbs of sausage in one day.  Butchering 4 pigs in one day was a huge job we will never do that many at once again.  

I have discovered the joys of making sausage and I can't wait until I have enough fresh pork to do it again.

I still have a lot to learn.  

We were using a commercial grain instead of me watching the diet like I do with the sheep and cattle so instead of having a meat that is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids I have ended up with a really high in cholesterol pork.  I am thinking of adding flax seeds to the fodder mix and increasing our fodder rooms production.  Don't tell Darling Husband yet! 

All because I LOVE homemade sausage!

Darling Husbands favorite picture.

Escapees!!!

The dogs were running around and barking.  

Coming to the house and barking at the door then running off barking.

So I looked outside:

This is not the pig pen!

They did a lot of exploring.

Then they tried playing with the lambs.  

The adult sheep tried to keep the lambs away from the piggies.  

Finally they decided to follow me into the pig pen.

And Lilly ran right into the muddiest spot and plopped down wiggling her way into the mud.

More Babies

We went a few days without any new lambs and Darling Husband must have felt like something was lacking because he brought home 3 piggies.

They like their house and loved running around in their pen BUT don't like fodder!

They do like chasing Luca!

Then Dragster had twin rams and finally the next day we had a small ewe and ram from Dodger.  

Then Shelby had boy girl twins too!  

Our 9th and 11th lambs of the season are our only girls.  They look so much alike that even their mom's had to smell them the first week.

I can not get the top videos to load and can't delete it for some crazy reason.

When we put the sheep into their night pen it is often easier to pick up the youngest or most uncooperative lambs and carry them into the pen.  We have to carry them low enough that their mom's can see and smell them otherwise they will start running all over the property.  Stick Boy is showing Mama Lamb he has her baby and she needs to follow him. 

  

Don't Try to Teach a Pig

My brother had a bumper sticker:

DON'T TRY TO TEACH A PIG TO SING

IT WASTES TIME AND ANNOYS THE PIG!

Well....

We lost a tree.  A beautiful tree fell over in looking at the tree I found a water leak they are not close enough that I think one caused the other.  The water line needed to be repaired and that meant turning off the water to the pigs for several hours.  

The pigs drink out of a nozzle not water bucket like the rest of the animals.  I did not have a way to use a nozzle without the water being on.  They do a set up at the fair but we are not showing our pigs so we don't have it. 

 In my infinite wisdom I decided to teach the pigs to drink out of the bucket. 

 I grabbed one pig and put it's nose near the water NOT even INTO the water and 

it squealed so

 badly the dogs came running, 

 

Luca saw it was me and started watching the perimeter of the pen.

Good dog.

the other pigs joined the squealing and started running around knocking the bucket over,

 the chickens started squawking, 

and I fell into the mud from the knocked over bucket.

The pigs survived 2 hours with no water without any problems.