September 4, 2018

So excited!  Yesterday marked the first time we have had pigs at Powell Acres!  Our new adventure!  We bought two pigs locally.  Red and Freckles.  They are Duroc/Yorkshire cross.

Don't know what we would have done without all of the helpful hints we got from our friends at Homesteads and Sustainability Facebook group here.  Because of their advice, we shored up our pig area with more electric fencing, contained our pigs to train them to electric and help them assimilate to a new environment, and learned a number of other tips and techniques.  We also watched a number of Youtube videos where we learned how to put peanut butter on the pig nipples for the pig waterer to attract the pigs and "train" them where to find water.  We also learned from Youtube research what kind of feeder to get by weeding out what went wrong with others and learned to anchor it to a post by watching some videos by Lumnah Acres.  We really like these videos as they do an excellent job of showing how Homesteading is really trial and error, and there is no end as to how you can tweak things to make them right for you.

We transported the pigs to their new home in our horse trailer.  It was quite convenient to put them in the side door, as it is above the floor of the trailer and insured that they did not escape while we were bringing in the next one.  When we got home (a very short distance - maybe 7 miles), they were still terrorized by the new experience, with one hiding behind the other one in our trailer.  After some water and food, they decided it was safe to come out.  

One of the things we worry about with adding a new animal to the farm is how our "security force" is going to react.  Our dogs, Phoenix and Hercules.  We put them both in the basement (they love it there on a hot day - especially when a neighbor is enjoying target practice, as they don't like the noise.)  We brought out one dog at a time to meet our new farm animals, since they are brothers and tend to be closer to inciting a riot when they are together.  Once one dog met the pigs, my husband took him back to the basement and brought out the other dog.  This led to a more peaceful introduction to our new farm animals.