Home on the Hill

What every Porcine enthusiast needs.  Compliments of my Son in Law.. New posts are indeed going in.  About enough for an acre.  With the advent of more pigs we want to get them out to pasture.  To frolic in the sunshine ( as if..) wallow in the pig wallow, eat the lusious grasses.  Root the Rooties.  We are also thinking of using the unused horse barn to shelter an increased herd as we are hoping our Yorkshire gilt and one of the Berkshire / wild boar crosses can work their magic.  A nice addition to the barn will be water and power & light and perhaps heat.  A later project. But first things first, I need to keep the pigs inside the one acre lot and the bears outside.  Not to mention the occasional cougar.  So we're surrounding the place with a five wire barb wire and five wire electric fence.  Yup, that's ten strands in all.  Two electric strands on the inside, three on the outside with the  five barbwire st...

I know, I've heard it before, bet you have too.  Water runs downhill.  So last year when we cleaned out the yard cattle guard and put in a draining culvert I could have been a bit more particular about the grades of the pipes.  Alas.  The ditch under the cattle guard was four feet deep and by this spring had filled up with sand it had stolen from the driveways.  That gave the grass something to grow on and the cattle illusion of falling into a deep dark hole was no longer evident as a few of the more acrobatic Cows and calves made their way across to the obviously green grass of the yard.  Usually at four in the morning, and of course they noisily want to bellow their great achievement and encourage their more timid com-padres. Fortunately with an excavator nearby, and brother Tom as operator, we managed to dig it all out, put in a new sixty foot drainage culvert, properly sloped. I was working in a stupor as a result of picking up a nasty bug on a Das...

If I could only remember what it was!  The Rhode Island Reds are coming along wonderfully.  Just about all feathered out.  Hopefully they will be able to go outside soon.  On a warm day we've opened the door but they only venture out about a foot and then back into the hen house. I changed the plumbing around so they can use the automatic font and added a line so we can get water outside for a chicken bath, drip irrigation to the spinach patch and a future water line to the horse barn.  Which will soon hold pigs.  Well at least the back portion of it.  We are constructing a fence line so the pigs can get out to pasture. It will be  about an Acre in size all told, minus the Barn the back of which is in the picture.   It will be a permanent fence, five barbed wires and three electric lines.  On both sides of the fence.  We have to keep bears and coyotes out as well as pigs in.  Brother Tom's skid-steer has a...

We managed to get most of the garden planted yesterday before the rain started.  Hopefully it will clear up today as I have an unending list of outside projects to do. The bugs are back.  While we were fiddling in the garden they descended in hoards.  Jo-Ann finally had to resort to the protection of a bug suit.  She went buggy. Facebook Sucks Warning:  Rant Ahead Mind you I've gone buggy.  Facebook has finally broken the last straw.  Applications that I cannot stop popping up.  Just Rude.  Makes me wonder what the whole purpose is.  An illusion of being in contact with "friends".  I really don't find Farmville or any of the apps anything more than time wasters.  Diversions?  Diversions from what? I tried to get rid of my Facebook account by using some online applications to do it.  Of course FB has a cease and desist order against them... That's enough.  How is it we've managed to se...

It's a case of combing the Yak.  I start out doing a project but before I do that I need to do this and then while I am doing that I might as well as do the other thing which means I have to do something 'bout... You get the picture.  One thing does lead to another and as the saying goes" " it is often difficult to remember the original objective of draining the swamp when your up to your butt in alligators.." Case in point: The Animal Shed, formerly know as the blue shed.   We are having a hard time locating weaner pigs.  They are going for 85$ and none to be found!  We located some Tamworths locally but even this Falls batch are already sold out.  The Pig experiment went so well we are expanding the herd.  Ditto the chickens.  I need to find a place to put the three laying hens while the 31 Rhode Island Reds take over the pen. So the Old birds go out to the Chicken tractor while the new birds grow.  With four pigs this year, one female w...

These piggies have been handled since birth and are starting to warm up to me. Despite the rain the wild life is out and munching on the abundant grass. Seems to be that wet is the season all across B.C. Actually when I looked at the country wide forecast it looks like the majority of Canada is all wet!  Even our friends south of the border seem to be getting drenched. Were planting as much as we can in the green house.  Harvesting the Roma tomatoes and getting ready for the new crops.  That is if I can get rid of  nasty Spider Mite infestation.  I've tried some natural pyrethrum solutions that haven't eradicated them.  I have even resorted to some rather harsh chemicals.  If this doesn't work I am going to have to get some killer mites that feed on the Spider Mites.  It's an expensive solution but I like that it's organic and the hit team will spread out over the whole green house.

 Well actually I am sitting.  On a rare sunny day last week I ventured down to see a neighbor and he wasn't home so I decided to demonstrate my horse viewing technique. What do you think,  have I got it about right? Their guard dog "Bear" was doing yard duty.  Don't know why they call him bear tho.. This dog sleeps outside all winter long.  He has a huge thick coat and once he knows you he is a pretty gentle giant. Its really been wet around here and all the melt water run off from the surrounding mountains are causing the local rivers to over flow.   This is the Endako river.  It's a small river that runs through the middle of this picture from right to left.  The lake is our bid for water front property.  The problem is that field is where the power line for us and our neighbors comes through.  Time to get the big generator checked out. The Weiner  Pigs are doing well.  I think they were weaned about 5 o...

Maybe I should have given it a couple of days of sun before sallying forth with a skid steer to clear the stuff  around the Garden shed before the Move.   The more I struggled the deeper I got.  Even pushing the forks into the ground and using it to try and jack me out failed.  Must be a lesson there.  It was so stuck I was in danger of not being able to get out of the the beast. Fortunately,  a call to Brother Tom and the excavator pulled the Skid steer out without a hitch.  The problem was the trench we had dug to get power to the greenhouse was soaked with snow melt.  Just a giant mud pudding.

First you need a pad to take them back to.  This one is raised up for better chick viewing and consists of pieces of 18" high clear greenhouse plastic that was riveted together to form a circle.  It goes right to the bottom of the tire and is screwed into the tire at the top.  The whole thing sits on a piece of plywood laid on top of some pallets.  There's an electric blanket underneath to keep the footsies warm.  Plastic on that, then newspaper, paper towels and a couple of inches of chopped straw. Secondly you got to find some chicks.  Who would have thought they come in the mail.  These are Rhode Island Reds, a dual purpose variety. We dipped their beaks in the water, which was laden with sugar to give them a lift.  They started drinking right away - and even figured out how to use the feeder.  The sugar water made for some weird looking straw camouflaged chicks. Some gentle picking and they all are pretty fine now, and on re...

You know, I've felt like that.   Went to change the tires on the Focus yesterday. Time to take a chance with summer tires.  The wheel nuts were the cheap kind, pressed on metal to make them look cool.  But any torque, and I needed lots of that, and they twist right off reveling a dinky nut underneath.  Down to Brother Tom's to use his 3/4 inch impact wrench.  Rounded off the nut, put on nut remover and used a strong arm - to break the stud off.  Ah well replacement parts ordered. Maybe Monday. Cleo likes yogurt.  Well who doesn't.  The trick is getting that last little bit off of the bottom. With out using your fingers or a spoon.  On our walk yesterday we heard something behind us - on the way back and look who has been following us.  Without alerting the dogs.  Now that's some trick.  As soon as Cleo saw Boose,  the wandering cat,  she assumed the down position.  She gets a chicken treat for...