Our neighbors are organic pork farmers and we love their pork but they have decided to quit the pork business. Their pork was so good, too! The best.
Mark has talked about raising our own for a couple of years. So we bought a couple of hogs from them. Then they got loose within two days and one of them had a heart attack when Mark and his friend went and caught her. So she died and now we're down to just one. Ironically, the only one we actually named.
Her name is Rose (above, left). And now it's getting really hard to say we don't live on a farm... what with six Nigerian Dwarf goats, a pig, two+ dogs, and 15 chickens.
Life is good. Except when the goats think they can just free-range all over the yard. (Read: goat droppings everywhere. Not.cool.with.me. The chicken sh*t is bad enough.) So, this spring our number one priority is to fix up the electric fence that the goats are supposed to stay inside of. Especially when there will be a bunch more added to the herd. The three females are all pregnant - and one is so large she's probably carrying triplets. (She's had them before.)
We have about an acre fenced off for them - plenty of space to roam and "free-range"! But they learned how to crawl under the wire on part of the fence and that was that. They tasted freedom and they loved it. Now since the fence is broken in a few sections (possibly from deer running into it) it's not working at all and the goats just step right over the bottom wire and in between the others to go back and forth as they please.
I'm a city slicker and I'm still wondering how this happened...
The funniest part is, I don't mind it (for the most part). The animals are all pretty fun and entertaining to watch. I just really, really struggle with the droppings all over the yard because they get tracked into the entryway. I have a strict, no-shoes-allowed-in-the-house, policy and everyone follows it, except the occasional company, but I still don't like it getting in at all. It drives me insane. And as we progress to make a real yard with grass around here, things will need to change. drastically. I would even like to keep the chickens fenced in somehow - but not sure how yet because it's more important to me that they continue to free-range.
Some pigs are pesky, we've learned, and will not stay fenced. They can be a bit destructive when loose too, as far as trenching up the yard. And believe me, pig poo smells worse than all the others! Rubber boots become a necessity, since they can go right under the hose. But the affordable organic pork is a great reward for the work. I think if we make a portable hen house/fencing set-up that would allow for a contained free-range (that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?)operation, I would be in favor of having chickens again. I too hate the poop, but we've been looking at some ideas on how to combat it without totally cooping up the birds. Plus, if we have a portable pen that can follow the cow pasturing rotation, the chickens can clean up the fly larvae in the cow patties, to get protein and to keep fly numbers under control. And I can not believe I even have any knowledge about these things... I was raised a townie, and do not want to live on a farm, yet here I am!
Posted by: Nora O | January 26, 2012 at 08:34 AM
Bummer you lost a pig!
Posted by: Sara | January 26, 2012 at 09:31 AM
My husband would love to live on a hobby farm some day! :) I think I'd like to have chickens. The week I spent at my mom's I realized I enjoyed them!
Posted by: Megan | January 28, 2012 at 01:19 PM