Four Winds Ranch: " Life on the Farm "

[Four Winds Ranch]

Here is our latest batch of piglets!!!! 10, and for some reason they are multiple colored!! Mom and Dad are both white!

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This is my foal "Twister", I am quite proud of this girl so far!

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[promiseacres]

So cute!

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Yay!!! My eggs in the incubator are piping!!!!! First time using an incubator so I am a touch excited!!!!

Yesterday, One of my broody hens hatched out 4 chicks! And another hatched out 1! I checked the rest of her eggs and all 7 remaining eggs had fully formed, not livng chicks in them! So, I wonder why they couldn't get out of the eggs?

A couple days ago, I decided to take 2 little runt piglets away from their mom, cause out of the litter of 10 (first time mom) these little ones were on the thin side. They are 4 weeks old so are good to eat normal pig food, but I mixed a little lamb replacer in to make sure they weren't lacking anything. The littlest one didn't seem to pick up at all, were as the other spruced right up in 24 hours. :/ Unfortunatly, we lost the smallest this morning, poor little thing. It was 4 weeks old and only weight 2.3lbs, was a true runt and they can be tricky sometimes to keep alive.

Ok! This experience has me fumming!! DH feeder pigs (7, 100 pounders) escaped on him! They got into the barn and made a huge mess, and somehow got the water hose turned on in the barn so the whole barn had about 3 in. of water covering the floor! But, the horrible part is, they ripped apart one of my rabbit cages and ate a litter of 5 week old baby bunnies!!! The doe escaped, and I found one poor little soaked, cold bunny huddled in a corner on a mound of wet hay! It wasn't injured, just sooo cold! I tried to warm it up a bit, cought its mother and held her on her back so the poor little thing could nurse. I put the mother and baby in a dry cage, and before I went to bed, held the mother again so I knew for sure the bunny had something to eat. This morning, the doe made the bunny a nice nest again and is feeding it herself!!! It is going to be one fat little bunny with all that milk to it's self!!!

Well, I got to run and give the bottle lamb a bottle before it wakes the entire house!!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Sorry about your bunnies! I am really glad you found mama and one baby.

I myself am not particularly fond of pigs. I don't mind them when they stay in their pens....but we can't build a pen for nothin....so DHs first pig got out, into the garage and dumped several hundred pounds of "my" animals food all over, broke my shelves, and refused to stay in her pen after that.... .....But I didn't lose any animals to her. Second pig, Wilbur was actually really nice. I have to say I almost liked him. He didn't get out and was very sweet. He did "bounce" his cage though. He would pick up the edge with his snout and literally bounce the whole panel/kennel up and down just from excitement when we went to feed him. But I was lucky with him. The kids we bough them from knew I was afraid of pigs so they picked out the mellowest one for us.

Again, I am really sorry to hear about your babies! Hope the little one and mama are good.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

We are smack dab into hard-core haying here in the the heart of Central Alberta!
It is a nice feeling of acomplishment to see the nice cut field after field, and the stacks and stacks of hay getting bigger and streaching longer everyday!!!
We sell a large portion of our hay every year and just keep what we need for our selves.
After haying immediatly it is time for Swathing!!! And then of course Combining!
And to tob it off, in amongst all that, I still have about 30 sheep that need shearing! :/ I am attempting to slowly chip away at this, so, I am trying to do 1-2 every morning!
AND, I have to replace my weaning pen fence this year. As luck would have it, the post bounder blew a hydraulic hose, and once that was all fixed, the wireing is screwed!! So, now I guess it is pounding by hand, which means slow going. :/
Oh well, I guess between throwing around thousands of square bales, and hand pounding fence posts, I will be in good shape going in to winter!!! (Actually, shearing sheep is actually quite a workout too if you are not used to it!) ( Come Feb. shearing will start all over again).

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Yay!!!! I am finished picking-up, hauling and stacking square bales!!!!!!!!!! Unlike normal people, we do all this by hand (except the hauling)! :/
Lol, well, also had a bit of an accident today!!! I can kinda chuckle now, but at the time, Drivin' along baling with the round baler, guess one of the berrings went and wasn't noticed, so, as ya turn to the next swath, glance behind out of habit, and the whole windrow behind is all smoke with 2 foot high flames!!!!!! Not good in a field full of hay!!!!!! Soooo scared the bale in the baler was on fire, quickly drop the bale (which was fine) and pour all the drinking water on the smoldering baler!!! Thanks goodness one of the hired hands was out there to help put the fire out!!! Yikes!!! Definatly scary!!!!

 

[jodief100]

I am glad you are okay and didn't loose your hayfield.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

We only got a couple hundred round bales left to bale and we will be done haying!!!!!! Unfortunatly it poured this afternoon which will set us back a day or two, but, the end is in sight!!!!!!!!
Well, and then the grain crops start! :/
I almost have my weaning pen totally redone!! Had to stop today before it was totally finished because I was a little on the clumbsy side!
All the posts were pounded, and I was streching and stapling the wire on. When I got the wire to where i was putting the gate, I decided I should pound one more post for stability! (I use the hand pounder that fits over the top end of the post and has handles on each side, ya lift it up by the handles over your head, and SLAM it down over the post, weighs 60lbs.) I get the post all measured and in place and start pounding! All of a sudden, I am sitting on my behind on the ground kinda dazed! My first thought is " Its that damb ram" (As I was working in the same pasture he is in.) As I dizziley start to get up I realize the ram is all the way on the other side of the pasture! :/ And then it hits me!!! THE POST POUNDER FELL ON MY HEAD!!!! I know this is kinda funny and all but it has happened to me before quite a few years ago so I know the symtoms, and yep, I had them all!! I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting with an ice pack on my head, luckily the headache isn't too bad! :/

 

[jodief100]

I am glad you are OK. So nice to be done with the hay eh?

 

[elevan]

You're lucky. Our fence post driver hit DH in the head last year and busted his head open...he had to get his head stapled back together. Scared the beegeebies out of me! Glad you weren't hurt more than a knock in the head.