Pigs – The Peasant's Manor Farm

It’s Going To Rain, And Other Musings

We live sort of center of this map above, and that big blob of rain is headed right for us. It is 43 out right now, so there is no threat of snow at the moment. Looks to me like it wants to make up for all that did not fall over the summer.

All week the forecast has shown us that starting today we would get five days of rain. That has been steady in the computer modeling that makes up the forecast, so I think it is something we can rely on. I best head up to the shop today to get some tarps for the firewood pile, lest it turn cold and we need to get a fire going to keep warm. It’s no good having wet wood!

The girls are both up, our grandson is over, and the kids are having a calm morning just about to put a show on. Grandma is going for a nap, and grandpa is too tired to do much because of all that got done yesterday.

When we were out getting wood, I noticed a piece that was put up high on the pile that was about 3/4 the size of the truck we drove, a jacked up Dodge Ram, and that it was precarious. I told the kids to stay away from it, and one I had to tell twice. Then Jordan, our oldest, and I took some wood from near it to the truck, and a noise caught our attention. That massive trunk took a tumble. We’d never seen one tumble before! They are usually stacked better, but someone irresponsible has been running the loader they use to pile the wood up. There were a few that have been placed in odd positions unlike the normal piling that they do down at the dump. It sort of negated one of the reasons I like getting wood there, normally. Not having to fell trees makes it a lot safer than going to the forest to get wood. But that was not one of those safer trips for sure, and I am thrilled to pieces that I noticed it and got the kids away before it took its tumble.

While we were out yesterday, my chuck arrived at the house. I can now drill with the lathe! That’s it! It’s whistles for everyone! I’ll probably help a lot when making narrow containers, too. There are definitely a few ideas rolling around in my mind that I look forward to trying. I have a piece of elm on the lathe right now that is too wet to keep working, so I am letting it have some time to sort itself out. I had been thinking of making a ball out of it, but maybe that is a good shape, and I can put a glass container down the middle and use it for Missus’s flowers. It is light on the outside, but walnut colored down the middle. Those two tones would look great with a burst of color sticking out the middle of them!

With the pigs gone, that opens up a space at the back of the llama pen that I can do one of a couple of things with. One is to open it up for the llamas, obviously. The other is to put a fence at the back of the llama pens and divide out a driveway to give another entrance to the property. That would be good for hay deliveries, and bringing in firewood and the like. Maybe. It just requires a little fencing and some gates. Especially as it might be good to put gates at the back of the pen for access to loading and cleaning at a bigger scale than we are able to do now.

We still are looking at moving house. I want to keep going on a few things in case that falls through. I don’t want to put life on pause for something that doesn’t materialize. There is a guy who owns a piece of land near us who is thinking on buying ours. He has to try to work something out with someone adjacent to us, though, because he wants both pieces of land to have clear access from our place all the way down to the corner. If that goes, or someone else buys, then that will set the wheels into motion.

But today? A duvet day…

Today’s Turn

Today I hardly saw the lathe till evening. I spent the morning with out oldest loading firewood at the dump, then we came home, unloaded it, and split it all up. He was very eager to have dry wood because he has been having troubles burning some wet wood he has at his place. There just wasn’t very much workable dry wood there, though, so I suggested he take some wet wood, then when we got back to the farm, he trade the wet wood for some of my dry wood. I have plenty laying about, and a lot sorted out for this winter. So he did that. I have more for next year, and lots for this at the moment. He left with just over half a cord of wood all split up and ready to burn.

After he left, a guy showed up and took the last two of our pigs, leaving us free of them, and their cost on our feed bill. He went to pay me via Venmo, but my account is still suspended from the first time I tried to use it, so I told him not to worry about it. I wasn’t going to make him unload them after all the work he did to load them, and I was happy to get them off our feed bill, and was planning giving them away anyhow if we didn’t sell them to anyone. I was thrilled to see them go.

So it was a great day, seeing both of the boys, and getting firewood sorted out, and getting two pigs sorted out. I did work on the lathe a little tonight, but the wood is wet, and prone to catching. I was happy to leave it, before it ruined my new hobby.

Two Pigs Sold

Today the people who bought the pigs the other day came to pick them up. That’s two down and two males to go, which is great, because they cannot possibly become pregnant or get any other thing on the farm pregnant, either. There is no way we get swamped with pigs again! No more worrying about that fence between the pens. And I have moved the two males into the pen the females were in, which is more secure, so no more worrying about the boys getting out! The guys who picked up the girls today said that in a week or two they expect one of their friends to come and get the males from us, too. I will keep them listed, of course, but if he does, that is good enough for me.

I think that per pound, pigs are by far the most expensive animal to keep on the farm. For four small pigs, we were buying eight 80 pound bags of feed at about $16 each per month. That works out to about $128 per month before Uncle Sam puts in his bill. They were eating a little over 5# per day by that reckoning. I am sure glad to have this at least part way off our feed bill. There is enough in the bins right now for the pigs to go a full month from now without buying more. This coming new month will be pretty cheap compared to where we were in the springtime!

After I moved the boys into the girl’s pen, I took their old pen apart, and gave the llama pen more space for now. I am using the old fence from the pen to reinforce some of the weak points in the property boundary fence. I was able to put both of the water barrels into the pen with the boys, and I will repurpose the extra house for the dog to use in place of the one he has had. Hopefully that will be a huge improvement for him!

Finally, a quick mention. The temperatures are going to drop over the next two days, with the highs in the 50’s and the low’s dropping into the low thirties, even below freezing! Nice way to ring out summer!

Listing Animals

We are listing animals for sale. I have the pot belly pigs listed, and someone has already said they would like to come pay for them tomorrow and pick them up on Saturday. I will be listing some of the goats soo too. We have a couple of llamas that will need to find new homes as well. Though they are old, or one that is young and needs to breed elsewhere because he is related to the girls we are keeping.

If the pigs do go, then we will lower our feed bill substantially, which is great! I welcome that. It is an expensive hobby to keep animals around for fun. Having some money free should allow us to focus in on other hobbies, too. We plan to get back into this animal business on the other side of a move.

This weekend we relaxed again. Missus has a lot of stress at work right now, and needs these weekends to come down from it a bit, and get her head back to Earth. We had our grandson by, too. That is always fun! We did comb the rabbits, and picked and carded some llama fiber.

This week coming will likely see us putting the new oven in, and hopefully getting that trailer in the front yard cleaned out and moved empty into the back. The weather should be cooler, so I really should get the chainsaws sorted and ready to cut some firewood down to size ready for splitting. I keep putting it off for cooler weather, so I won’t overheat doing it.

My spare time is spent looking for hand tools for woodworking. There are a few I want to get so I can get going on specific projects. There are a few specific tasks I would like to be able to do, and while some could be done with power tools, there is just no need for all the noise and danger of power tools for what I have in mind. It is getting time to order a new tool as soon as it is available from the tool maker, so I am getting excited, if you could not already tell. There is in fact one that I am getting when it is available no matter, even if I have to pay it on credit. It looks that useful. It is a tongue and groove router, and in my thinking, it is going to do a lot more than just allow lapping of wood panels. I see it for inserting backs, making drawers, and even making cabinet drawers with. We’ll see if I am right in only a few days after one comes available!

Missus has shown me a bobbin lace pillow that she likes, and I would love to be able to frame the wood pieces of it for her ready for her to put together the padding and cover. I think we can do this. I’ll need to get her some good wood, rather than doing it in pine and having it causing her troubles to do it being a softer, inferior wood to something like oak, which I think would hold pins for the cover much better.

So that’s where we are at on a Sunday night. The school week is about to start up again, and I have more than a few things to do this week, though none as stressful as helping little one through a meeting with her teacher, or getting her set up for testing, as we did last week!

Bye Big Pig

Big Pig was dead in her pen this morning. She is going to be missed quite a lot around here. She was a big, 400 pound puppy, loveable and trusting. She leaves a letteral and figurative hole in our farm, and we will never be the same without her.