Life on the Ranch

31 for 21 - P is for Pig           We have had lots of pigs pass through our gates since living here. Everything from boars to gilts to barrows to domestic to wild pigs . At the present moment, we have one mama sow that has 9 piglets on her. She is a Duroc pig. Here are a few pics of her and her piglets :    My sons are also involved in trapping wild hogs with my nephew. Here is one wild piglet that was caught.

Between the last 2 snow storms, we have accumulated quite a bit of snow. Here are a few pics of my son feeding his pigs. The normal animal chores have gotten harder to do due to the snow we have to walk through now. He has to lug 5 gallon buckets of water and feed down to them.

We had this hog that we have been getting ready for slaughter for the past weeks. Well, last night was the day to start the processing. After hanging the meat out all night (in the snow storm even) we cut up, grinded and packaged the meat today. Here are a few pics from today:

      Well, well . . . today was the day! I went down this morning at about 7am to check on Mama Pig. She was lying in her pig palace, like usual. I went in and started to rub her belly (like usual). She grunted and moaned some and continued to lie there. Most of the time, she will perk up her head and look at me but this time she did not. I asked her if she was alright and then realized that she was straining rather hard. I looked down and saw a red nose . . . oh no, what to do? Here I was about to experience my first piglet birth by myself . . . I hesitated and then decided to go back to the house and wake up my son and the other sleeping kidos. It is about 800 feet or more, uphill, back to the house. I ran full speed dodging the goats and dogs as I headed for the gate.      In the front door and up the stairs I bounded saying, "She's having her piglets!" The house came alive and various kids bolted out of their beds and into their boots. I grabbed ...

On Sunday morning, we went down to check on a few of the pigs we have here at the ranch. One of my son's has a big sow that is pregnant and due anyday. He was gone at a soccer practice so we went down to see if she had birthed her piglets yet, No little piggies yet . . .       Here is Osiyyah and his twin sister, Yophiyyah watching the mama pig. In the background you can see the shelter that one of my sons is making for her to have her piglets in. In the picture below, O & Yo are looking at another pig we have. This one is being fattened up to put into the freezer. Mmmm . . . homemade sausage and bacon!

Here are some pics of some pot belly pigs that have made their way to our ranch. The first is a sow: This one is a boar: Here are some younger ones:

With one pig pen done, another one was built. Here is the hubby putting a few finishing touches on the 2nd pig pen. Here is one of my sons bringing the hoses down to the new pig pen. Now for the boar and the sow to be moved to the new pen: A drink from the hose after they are in the new pen:

Two of my sons have been working on a bigger pen for the pigs. Well, they finished it last might. It is located down in our pasture and has an electric fence line down low so that when the pigs come to check out the fence, they get shocked. It appears to be working quite well.

As I was pulling in through the gate a few days ago I noticed that one of my son's pigs was not with the other ones as usual. I thought this strange and then noticed my son in one of the yards connected to the big pasture. He was saying that something was wrong with one of the pigs. All I could here was, "circling . . . breathing hard . . . wobbly". We ran in and called my nephew and his wife (who have had many more years than us at raising pigs). Worms, poisoning, a snake-bite possibly . . . these were all suggestions. I quickly searched the internet for "poisoning in a pig". I found some great info right away. It is amazing how useful the internet can be. This is what I found - Algae poisoning. I found this very informative site www.thepigsite.com . Well, the day this happened, we changed our morning routine a little bit and the pigs ended up out in the pasture by the algae filled pond for 4 hours longer than normal. She was fine at noon but by 2pm or so, ...