Part of the reason why I started this blog was to share with my friends the adventure we call the farm!! We enjoy the farm but sometimes things do not go the way that they should or the way that we want them too. For example, pigs farrowing on one of the coldest nights of the year.
So my adventure begins when Lee stopped by my office yesterday and told me that he loved me if anything happened to him. Of course I said, "I love you too" and sent him on his way. No, no, no, I didn't do that! Here is the beginning of the adventure:
We have a boar (male pig) named Arnold who we use to breed our female pigs on the farm. Arnold has a lame foot and we want to help him because we don't want him to suffer but Arnold is a 600 lb. pig and it's just not that easy. So we contact the "pig doctor" a vet friend of ours in Clinton, NC. Thank goodness we had some friends go on to vet school and we can ask for their advice sometimes.
The "pig doctor" told Lee a medicine that can be used to sedate pigs but there again it's just not that easy. Lee called our vet and told her what was recommended and he picked up the medication. Of course, there is always some risk when sedating an animal and there is risk to Lee and anyone helping him.
After leaving the vet's office is Lee stopped by my office to tell me what was going on. The plan was he and Reggie would sedate Arnold and then try to remove what was lodged in his foot. Arnold was sedated and they were able to look at his foot but the medication did not knock him completely out. So Lee & Reggie would look at his foot and then he would rouse up and they would stop and this continued on for awhile. He should be fine.
When me and the boys arrived at the farm after preschool and work it was time to grind feed. We did this until it was dark and we couldn't see anymore.
Now it's time to feed everybody.
We usually do this before dark but like I said we were grinding more feed. We have a lot of mouths to feed! We get the feed and load up in the truck.
Now, let me explain a little bit. We raise all of our pigs on pasture so we have to take them food daily and water every few days ( they have big water troughs). They do see us at least twice a day- morning feeding and evening feeding. We have 4 female pigs on pasture on the back of the farm. Two of the pigs have already farrowed (birth process) and the other 2 were due at any time. There are 4 huts (1 for each pig) they are enclosed (you can see a picture on my Snow Day 2009 post) except for an opening to go in and out. Ideally, each pig will farrow in her own hut. Not our pigs! They both decide to farrow last night and they both go inside the same hut. Me and Lee were out there for close to an hour trying to figure out what to do. It was freezing cold and dark. We were using the lights from the truck and a flashlight. We decided to let them both farrow in the same hut. This morning there was a total of 18 piglets with only 3 causalities and Lee said these appeared to be still born not squished or rolled-over by a moma pig.
I forgot to mention that last week when Lee jumped down off the tractor he came down on his ankle and sprained it. It was swollen for days. He is just now able to wear h is boots again. Well, last night when we were taking hay in for the pigs Lee stepped in a hole and rolled his ankle again. I thought I might have to drag him out of the pasture and getting him out of the electric fence was going to be tricky. His ankle is still sore but he's alright.
Our story doesn't end there. We still had to collect eggs from the chickens and get the feed wagon (where we put the feed that was ground earlier in the evening) back in the barn. I try to be helpful I really do! Lee does things that look so easy and I think I can do it too not always true. My job was to put the pin in the hitch after Lee backed the truck up to the wagon. It just needed to be shifted half an inch. I tried to move it but I moved something in my back instead. I'm fine this morning but I have to remember that as Lee says "Your so girly." Which is a good thing!!
Just another day at the farm.
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