Tag Archives: homestead

Ah, That’s the Spot!

All the hogs love the various trees, stumps, logs, and boulders they have available for scratching. After all, their human friends can’t be there to scratch their every itch. Not that I would have wanted to scratch this little guy’s particular itchy spot!

Young Turkey In a Pickle

One of the perils of letting your poultry free range is that sometimes the birds get into places where they shouldn’t be. This young fellow had been trying to get in to (or out of) the goat pen when a single feather got caught up in the piece of string that used to hold the top edge of a fine mesh intended to keep the birds out. The mesh had been taken down because the birds had been tearing big holes in it when they perched on the fence rail and I had left the string so I could replace the lighter mesh with something heavier. The good news in all this is the bird was hung up in such a way that his foot reached the ground. Add to that the fact these Ridley Bronze turkeys are very mellow (so he didn’t panic or thrash around) and I was able to lift him up and set him free. He suffered no damage, except perhaps to his pride, and is now back at work cleaning out the summer vegetable beds.

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Piglets at Breakfast

Cora’s piglets are growing up so fast! From very early on she has encouraged them to come out of her hog hut to explore and forage. They have been quite happy to oblige and are actually more adventurous than their mother when it comes to tasting unfamiliar (to them) foods. This is very different to what’s going on with Olivia’s litter. They aren’t allowed out much at all – – when they try to roam Olivia gives a single short warning bark/grunt and they sprint back into their hut and stay there. For hours. Olivia is way more protective, perhaps because this is her first litter. It will be interesting to see if she chills out next time around.

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