Search results

I’ve heard you mention this method for moving pigs a couple times and have to ask, don’t you have issues with the pig trying to charge through the cattle panel? Maybe my pigs have just been super skittish (probably) but most of the pigs that I’ve had to move have decided about halfway there...

I second hot fence, that’s the only thing that might be able to keep him in his own side. For wood posts, I don’t know if a specific product for attaching electric wire to the top of the post. I would probably just nail a regular wood insulator to the top of the post pointing upwards, or nail...

Haven’t done much worth noting in the journal the last several days. It’s been really warm for this time of year, but it’ll hopefully be getting down to more normal temps soon. A good cold spell will help the maple trees have a better season. It’s not really homestead related, but DH and I have...

I have only raised rabbits for a couple years, but I think you should remove the older litter. At 4 weeks, my kits are ambushing the mom to nurse whenever they want, so there probably wouldn’t be much for the new kits, if the mom even did try to nurse them. The older kits should be ok by...

Congrats on the babies! I think your nesting boxes look good. With those temps, they should be fine as long as there’s hay (and ideally fur). A decent nest of hay will block the wind as much as wood does. If she’ll let you, you could try to lightly pull some fur from her sides, belly, or neck...

Bacon! I smoked and sliced the bacon from my folks’ pig today. Then we had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner with the trimmings. This bacon was surprisingly not as good looking as the bacon on other pigs we’ve done. Some areas of it were way meatier than expected, while other areas were solid...

Alright, you guys talked me into it! :D =D I looked into that clear polycarbonate, I think putting some of that in as skylights will work great to let extra light in. Thanks for suggesting it! DH wishes I’d made this post weeks ago. He’s been trying to talk me into it for awhile, so now he’ll...

I’ve had good success with pig pens that didn’t have a gate. We just put in a section (or the whole fence) that was only 3.5’ or so tall and stepped over it when going in and out.

More specifically, the aisle of my rabbitry. Obviously, the cages themselves have roofs over them. Here is a couple pictures of my current rabbit setup: Facing East Facing West (Please excuse the falling apart water lines, the freeze a couple days ago pushed the connections apart and I...

Yeah, she was with a bull from June 2018 until May 2019. I have no idea why she didn’t calve several months ago. We didn’t pregnancy test her until this fall and we were going to sell or butcher her if she was open, but luckily for her she wasn’t. Haha, I think DH is afraid I’ll want to keep...

I love the look of the Herefords too. We started with the Hereford cow, so when we decided to get a breeder pig, I thought it’d be fun to get a Hereford, so then we had Hereford cows and Hereford hogs. DH is pretty turned off from the Hereford hogs after our bad farrowing experience though, so...

Happy New Year! We had another calf born December 31st at 10pm. This calf is from the heifer that has been due anytime for the last 6 months, so I’m really glad she finally calved. Another heifer calf, which means we’re 4 for 4 on heifer calves. Hopefully at least one of the 3 more recent ones...

Whew, it’s been awhile since I posted here. We finished putting in the water/electricity out to the rabbitry and chicken coop. Also painted the house and spent several days/weeks cutting our wood for the winter. I finally got some blue baby rabbits out of my blue buck! One of my does...

Yeah definitely! I like to think the leaf spring would have just bounced a bit where it touches the frame if the connection broke but I don’t know anything about trailer suspension/axles/whatever so I don’t know what bad stuff could have happened :hu Probably for the best, otherwise I’ll just...

Thanks! Your journal is next on my list to read, once I get through CntryBoy777’s.

Hanger steak is the best! I had never heard of it until DH and I cut up our first steer and wondered what this weird, steak-looking chunk of meat was.

DH got the flatbed trailer fixed. Just in time to go “up North” and get a load of pig feed. There’s a grain elevator near my folks’ house that sells better pig feed for $2 less per bag than what we can buy it for where we live. It’s a 2 hour drive but we were going there anyways to go to my...

I don’t have ducks now but have had a couple different batches over the years. I never gave them a pool in the winter. They got a full bowl of water twice a day just like everything else does. Sometimes they would try to get in it and splash around, but not all the time. I’m sure they weren’t...

I think we only need 8-10 cubic feet for the hydrant, but for the price of the gravel and the price of gas getting to/from the pit, we might as well get as much as we can. We’ll have a use for it at some point. Yeah we haven’t found many big rocks around here. Which doesn’t hurt my feelings at...

Definitely! Thinking of that reminds me of the time in my teens when my folks, sister, and I were driving back from going camping with our horses. All of a sudden we got passed by a tire! Turns out it was a tire off the horse trailer! Fortunately the 2nd tire held the trailer weight and we...