Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pig Adventures: Part 2

Having decided very early this morning that we were not going to run after the little buggers, we decided to build them a pen. I went down to the coop and talked to Tony our wonderful store keeper and he recommended pig panels. The funny thing about that is that I have at least 3 laying around the ranch. I picked up an extra 5 just in case and some T posts.

I had to send dh back to actually pick up everything as the panels are 16 ft long, thankfully we have a 16ft stock trailer :) Once he returned we got right to work and soon we had a 16 x 48 pen with a door that we took from Quinn's former isolation chamber . . . er . . . pen :) (Quinn has since joined the relocation program and be moved to an undisclosed location, lol, nah, we put him in the corrals).

While doing this we realized that all the pigs were loose and roaming various locations of the property, including the front by the highway. Apparently they found it very nice and cool in the ditch among the tall grass. I think the biggest thrill for this lot is that they'd never had a chance to really free range. They were having a great time, especially in the areas that were muddy from the rain. :) Pigs and their mud, lol.

I have found that they are not stinky once they have a large area to roam but it's only the first day :) We headed off to Wichita and took care of making sure our lawn would be mowed and took full advantage of banana Thursday as we call it (you can buy them at $0.18/lb and wally world has no limit on that), since wally world also does price matching we bought some cantaloupes 3 for $4 as opposed to their 2.50each :) We were able to find several leads in our quest to lower our feed bill for the pigs, it was a very productive day :).

Once we finally got back home the pigs had regrouped and were looking for water. We filled a couple bowl and began cutting up fruit to lure them to the pen, then pulled up a couple chairs and watched them work it out. It was beautiful, we even took some pics. (I will post soon).

We met the guy from the repair shop and he gave me some great tips on tractor buying, he does seem to think a bit too much like dh however. They both thought of a 12 gauge shotgun, men!! It was nice to meet a neighbor out of town like us :) They have a beautiful 90 some odd acre property that is practically tucked away behind these massive trees, but when you get up close and it is like Home and Garden Magazine. I love meeting neighbors :)

Anyway keep watching for future installments of the pig adventures, to be continued . . .

1 comment:

Kansas Mom said...

Yeah, when we talk about getting pigs in a few years, I'm really just thinking of one or two to raise for a summer and then butcher for our own meat. Kansas Dad has mentioned the possibility of a sow, but I'm not sold yet.