Idaho Pastured Piglets For Sale.

THESE are the pigs for your small farm!

I have two Idaho Pastured Piglets for sale. 

They have Registered parents and can be registered.   

These are not your normal skinny meat piglets.  This guy and girl are solid little oinkers!  Born January 6th, 2015, they are now six weeks old.  This brother and sister will not be sold as a breeding pair, but a non-related boar or gilt can easily be arranged.  Time is running short for the little guy to be sold as a breeder.  On Monday, February 26th, he will be castrated and be raised as a meat pig.   

Six week old boar. 

Six week old gilt. 

To learn more about Idaho Pastured Pigs and for pricing information please click on the "Idaho Pastured Pigs" link above.  

Thank you for looking!

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Brrrrr. Again, Piglets Are Doing Well And Growing Fast!

The warm-er temperatures I was promised by the five day forecast didn't come as promised.  Darn it.  But the little piggies are doing fine.  The spent most of their time under the heat lamp and next to they're momma - only running around when she gets up at feeding time.  

I know this picture is pretty crappy.  It was taken through a chicken wire fence and while the piggies were under the heat lamp.  You can see the nursing piglets if you look just left to the center of the picture.  

Pig Is Pork

We picked up the pork from the butcher yesterday.  How enjoyable it was to see the culmination of a summer's work!  

On the way home, my daughter and I discussed a passage in Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass about how, when an animal is butchered, our perception of it changes.  A pig becomes pork.  A cow becomes beef.  A deer becomes venison.  And a chicken stays chicken, but in your head it changes from a feathered, clucking chicken to chicken dinner.    

To raise your own meat you have to have this mind set.  I saw an interview where Joel Salatin talks about how, in today's society, most people's only interaction with animals is with household pets.  Because of this, there's a tendency towards anthropomorphism  - an attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior - to all animals.

Does not having the disconnect between field to plate and this anthropomorphic idea of all animals allow the factory farm to flourish?  Does people not being close to their food allow them to not see it as a living breathing animal to which they "relate"?  The factory farm is the perfect tool to allow the disconnect to not occur.  Yes, you know there are animals that are being horribly treated, but how can that reality relate to this  sterile, plastic-wrapped package of pork chops in the grocery store?

Ah well.  It's time for me to get off my Sunday soap box.  But it's something to think about.  

Pig Hang Weights

The hang weights of the three pigs were:

185 pounds 

163 pounds

and 

160 pounds.

We're happy with that.

Holy "Grapes of Wrath" Batman!

The circus came to town yesterday.  It wasn't your usual circus, but a circus of two people trying to get three pigs into a trailer and they absolutely did not want to go!  

At first two of the pigs walked right up the ramp and into the trailer with no problem.  But we just couldn't get the third pig to take that short walk.  Then the first two decided that the third pig had the right idea and they didn't want to be in there anymore.  We tried blocking one of the pigs in and getting the others to go after.  Did you know pigs can fly?  They are excellent jumpers!  

Our frustration level climbed and finally we called our friend, Jim, who had pigs while he was growing up and had experience with loading them.  After lots of messing around with blocking pigs and the pigs jumping through or over our blocks (screaming the whole time) and after hours of work, three people who were determined to get those darn pigs in the trailer - and three pigs who were equally determined to not go in the trailer - got the pigs loaded.  

We finished by putting a tarp over our homemade, redneck trailer to keep the pigs from getting too cold or wind scalded on our one hour trip to the butcher.  

Job finished.  

Thanks Jim!  

The Piggies Go To "Freezer Camp" Today

This afternoon we'll be loading up the pigs.  They grew really huge this year!

This is a couple of months ago. 

Frost and Happy Pigs

Oh boy, we had our first heavy frost this morning.  Fall has come on strong and summer already feels like it was a dream.  

During the summer, have you ever looked at the lush, green-leafed trees and thought, "I can't imagine being able to see every branch of that tree?"  Then winter comes, and by the end of winter you look at the skeletal trees and think, "I can't imagine there being so many leaves on that tree that I can't see the branches?"  

_________

A friend and I cut corn stalks yesterday.  The pigs have one and one-half weeks before they go to the butcher and I have one sack of feed left.  I'd like to get by without buying any more feed.  The friend has a field of older corn that he's letting me have (thank you Jim - for the corn and the help!).  

The pigs don't seem to mind that I'm giving them lots of corn stalks with the starchy corn cobs still on them, mushy tomatoes, baseball bat-sized squashes, and tree dropped apples.

They ate so much yesterday that they actually got full (I didn't imagine that could happen) and they didn't finish what I gave them!

That is one contented pig face!

Don't forget to Hop on over to Homestead Revival!

Pig Goes For A Stroll!

I woke up on the first chance to sleep in a little bit, looked out the window, and saw one of the pigs walking around my yard!  Boy did I hustle fast into my clothes and run out to get it before it took a walk over to the neighbor's houses!

Luckily, it came when it saw me and I was able to get it to go back into the pen when I filled the feed trough.  

I'm not sure how it got out, but when I wanted it to go in it wouldn't even step over the lowest fence wire.  I had to undo all three gate wires for it to go into the pen.  I think maybe it just got really hungry and went looking for more food.  The damage that a hungry pig does to a lawn is amazing.  It dug up at least  20 feet of grass!   

They're getting to the size now where all they do is eat all day and scream for me to bring more food.  I'm a slave to bringing them goodies to nosh on.  Corn stalks, apples, old tomatoes, giant zucchini - they eat it all!  Don't be concerned if you see a lady picking up buckets of dropped apples along the road (the apple crop is phenomenal this year)... that'll be me!  

Itchy, Happy Pigs

I filled the pig's water barrel this week and while I was at it I thought I would give them a little bit of a spray.  

The weather has been so hot and dry and and the flies have been really biting.  To gain some relief I noticed the pigs have been wallowing in the dust, but they just couldn't get comfortable.  I knew the dust baths weren't working so well because as soon as I sprayed a little bit of water on the ground the pigs came running and flopped themselves down into the damp earth.  They immediately started rolling and frolicking around in sheer relief!  

It looks like I sprayed a lot of water, but I really didn't.  I'm being SO careful with the amount of water I use.  The ground in the pig pen is so dry, hard, and dusty that as soon as I put down a little bit of water - which wouldn't soak into the hard packed earth - and they started rolling in it, it turned into soup!  

This is one happy pig!

Daisy was not impressed with the pig's antics.  The galloping around and playing kind of freaked her out and she started barking at them.  

After a nice mud roll, when all those little "itchies" come to the surface, one must have a really good butt rub!

Piggies Are Growing Up

Remember those adorable little oinkers that came in April?: 

They are growing SO fast!

Every once in awhile they play this funny little game in the evening as I bring their food.  They'll all run around in circles until one of them makes a barking noise.  Instantly, they all thunder off and lie down to hide in the tall grass.  I can see them watching me!  I figure it's some kind of alarm thing?.... but they've made it into a game?

"Babe" No More

The pigs have become quite large and have lost that cute little "Babe" piglet look.




Funny though, they act the same. I still chuckle when they hear me in the morning and come charging to the front of the pen for their breakfast. The squeeling/screaming has really lost it's charm though.

And, while it's cute when little piggies are pushing past to get to the feed trough, it's not so cute when it's 250 pounds of hog shoves you aside. I have to wonder what would happen if I fell down in the field? (I can guess)

Is anyone interested in buying half of a pig? They leave for the butcher on October 25th.


By the way, doesn't this lettuce look scrumptious?



The variety is black-seeded simpson that I planted outside this fall. I thought the frost got it, but it bounced back beautifully!


10 eggs
3 eggs
6 eggs
5 eggs

Coming along

I'm hoping to have enough vegetables to be able to go to the Farmer's Market next Saturday, August 14th. I had to put in my garden late this year because I had to wait for the high tunnel to be finished. I couldn't even plant outside because the outside garden is right next to the high tunnel and would have been trampled in the process of putting on the plastic. But finally, finally I'm starting to see some results!

I've pulled radishes and lots of basil. The parsley is coming along well. I've found that watermelons LOVE high tunnels and may plant more next year. Beans have gone crazy. They're loaded with flowers and I hope to start picking beans very soon. Cucumbers are loaded. There's a lot more and it's all coming along great!

My tomatoes are loaded with green tomatoes and I'm doing a bunch of pruning to encourage them to turn red. I'm just crossing my fingers that the late blight doesn't get them. I swear I'll be sick! I'll take most of the cherry, Beefsteak and Brandywine tomatoes to the Farmer's Market, but the Romas are all mine and will be made into loads of lovely tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, barbecue sauce (do you know I found only one barbecue sauce that didn't list high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient? It tasted horrible!) and other tomato-ey products.



I got a butcher date of October 25th for the piggies today. Now I have to feed, feed, feed them!

4 eggs

Happy Tuesday!

One
HUNGRY
pig!
(See the drool/foam?)