New to the forums

OOH, I want some...!

I love pigs! Those pics are darling! Welcome TulsaDawg! I am the long lost DGr that is a trucker now.. I only get to do drive by visits.. LOL

I hope to get my own place where I can have chickens and pigs!

You should check out the youtube videos he has on the 'Animals used in garden prep' thread. If pigs stayed looking so cute I'd never eat pork again...lol.

I wont show Billy I WONT SHOW BILLY, He still does not understand why he cant have a sheep, I sure as heck am not going to explain to him why he cant have a pig. I even tried the Wait till you are in 4 H and that can be your project, but then I remembered he is going in Next year... Hopefully he will forget...
I helped by BFF raise hers when we were in FFA many moons ago, they were cool.

Why can't Billy have a sheep? I thought he needed a mutton-bustin practice ride.

Welcome! This is a great forum. I loved your video of your pigs tearing up the soil for your garden. Our neighbor raises pigs. Their sow is pregnant and they keep trying to talk me into taking a piglet. I told them I'm just getting used to raising chickens and don't know if I'm ready to move up to pigs yet. I have a spare stall in the barn. They're so cute when they are babies but boy do they grow to be HUGE.

Pigs are wonderful animals; you should have at least one.

The only pigs we can have here are pot-bellied pigs. We can have up to 3 and they can't weigh over 75lbs each.

Pot-bellies are not big rooters (cultivators) and they rarely stay under 75lbs. You have to be very careful what you feed them to control their weight. Too bad, you really need a pig.

No, I really don't need a pig, unless it's in the freezer....lol. I don't care for the looks of pot-bellied pigs when they're adults anyway. It was hard enough to talk my DH into letting me get a few ducks. Unfortunately the ducks are on hold for a bit longer, we had to replace our hot water heater this week. :(

Loreen, what is a DH? I'm not familiar with all these new fangled abbreviations.

DH - Dear Husband
DW - Dear Wife
DS - Dear Son
DD - Dear Daughter
DGD - Dear Granddaughter
MIL - Mother-in-Law (usually no D preceding...)
... you get the picture. I was puzzled too the first time I saw those.

Thanks, Green, for posting that! Yes, the 'D' usually stands for 'dear' but I'm sure some of us mean other 'd' words on rare occasion....LOL!!

Thanks for clearing that up. Reminds me of the time I asked my wife who that was with our daughter and she said "you mean Jill? Jill's what they call a BFF" and I said "now honey, she might be a might portly, but she's definitely not a big fat fu" well, you get the rest. :)

LOL

I do raise vegetalbes but my garden spot is surrounded by an eight foot fence. I'd go borrow a pig or put the chickens in to clean it up but I have a perennial bed of asparagus in there I wouldn't want disturbed. I may use this idea for a new garden spot in the spring. I'll fence off an area and borrow a pig from the neighbors and when all the grass is dug up I'll take him back and let the chickens in to eat the grubs and slugs and then I'll plant it up. :) How's that for a plan?

Brenda

That sounds like a plan. There won't be any grubs left for the chickens, though. Grubs are like Godiva chocolate to pigs.

HUMMM I should let the chickens run in the garden one day, should I till it up first?

They'll do it for you!

The one thing to keep in mind is that you have to have any animals producing manure in the garden removed for at least 120 days before you start harvesting. We always pull the pigs out of whichever future plot they're in around Sept/Oct.

"Grubs are like Godiva chocolate to pigs"

so do you rent out.... as I have a lot of chocolate for one of yours....LOL

So glad you joined here.

I just join your Blog so will be looking forward to when you can ship ham, bacon, ribs...

also wanted to find out, since you raise natural, what do you do with the ears from those that go to market?

I've got 4 collies who would be interested.......

Janet

Janet, I'm not sure what our butcher does with the ears. I think he tried to make "silk purses" one time, but you know the saying... :) I'll ask him next time I take pigs to him and let you know.

I hope he used sows' ears...

Or was he guilty of using gilt's ears?

greenhouse gal

Is there a difference?

Janet

Just that the saying is "Don't try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear..."

Now my question is do you make your own feta cheese or do you get it locally?

Janet
former cheese maker

There's a vendor at one of the markets we attend that makes numerous kinds of cheese and yogurt products that we put in the Greek sausage. The kalamata olives are imported from Greece. I'm trying to get my cheese making friend to make us an Asiago cheese. I grew partial to it when I was stationed in Italy many moons ago. We actually went to Asiago once a year for cold weather training and lived on minestrone, cheese, bread, and wine when we weren't out in the field.

Oh I could live off of smoke motts cheese. My favorite. I used to make a mean feta, so that was why I wondering about your cheese.

Been reading your blog site. Love the pictures of the animals and I'm drawn to the red spotted ones. I like unusual and they are most certainly that. very beautiful to me.

what service, army? I'm a former wm (women marine...) no comments now...LOL

son is in the army stationed in Iraq right now, but home on leave waiting for his first child (my 1st grandbaby) to be born.

Janet

I served in the 1/509th Airborne from 80 - 83 and was stationed in Vicenza, Italy. We trained all over Europe which was a real eye opener to a young Georgia boy, but it was a great experience that got me prepared for college.

Well thank you so much for your service to our country.

Janet

Yes Thank you for your service...

You're welcome to both of you.

Just stopping in to say welcome and I am VERY VERY glad to have another pig person on board. I covet pigs. Want to have a sow. Or two. not sure quite what. For tilling and meat. And I don't want to be always buying piglets...

grownut, I hear ya! I don't even like bringing in breeding stock. It's much safer to raise all your own pigs, as there's less risk of bringing in disease. I've NEVER given a pig a shot on my farm and don't intend to start. There's nothing to raising a litter of pigs if you plan it out right.

I think I could handle a pair and just sell the extra piglets. But right now it's pretty darn intimidating. We are dealing with escape goats. Uneven terrain and a full grown goat will get out under the fence given 7" of squeeze room. Which this time of winter appears everywhere along our fences. Ugh!

A belated welcome to this forum, ImaTulsaDawg! I enjoyed visiting your website and viewing the videos of the little pigs. I am having quite a problem with ferral hogs visiting my property and know they are difficult to deter once they get it into their piggy heads that they want to be on my pasture. How do you keep the ferral hogs from visiting your pigs?

Hot wire works really well on pigs - even feral hogs.