pigs

Mostly in the summer they turn over up some fresh dirt and plop down either in the sun or shade, but when they want some shelter  they head for these little gizmos called Port-a-Huts. Toss some straw in , and the pigs love them. Shannon moves them about using the bucket on our tractor. You can put on doors that cover 1/2 the front, but as you can see our hogs tend to blow them right off. One down....three to go .

Recently Shannon single handedly moved the hogs from a pasture on the far side of the barn to a fresh pasture. It involved rounding them up,  closing them into a pen,  and convincing about 20 hogs that it's in their best interest to run up a narrow chute and hop into a trailer. Finally, he pulled the stock  trailer over to their new digs. Wish I had photos of Shannon in his overalls and straw hat red-faced and chasing hogs, but I have to leave it to your imagination. If I'd been here to take photos, he wouldn't have had to chase and run because I would have helped him -  and the photos would like be rather dull.

So, you'll have to settle for Happy Hogs in nice fresh dirt. 

If you have an area that's full of brush that you want gone, for say ...a garden, then you need hogs. Hogs like nothing better than to keep busy rooting up every stump and rock while they eat the grass and it's roots. They don't eat the alder but they make it easier for us to clean it up. Once hogs have been on a piece of land long enough they turn it into a moonscape. It's tilled dirt with nothing but rocks laying on top.

A couple years ago this pen was cleared by some hogs, then the following year we planted some corn and clover in it , expanded it and turned cows into it so the cattle could eat it down. Now this years hogs have work to do in the expanded area. This makes for Happy Hogs.

A sure sign that Spring is coming is the birth of babies on our farm. Last week we had 3 sows farrow (have baby pigs) in the barn .

There aren't many things cuter than a pile of pigs. We are especially partial to pigs that  are multicolored.

You may have heard stories about mean sows and how scary they are. But our girls are watchful and protective,  and never vicious.

Well, actually there was one big girl who was ...but there's no room around here for mean animals so she's gone now.

Is there anything cuter than a pile of pigs?

I think not....