Guess who just moved back to the neighborhood?
Many of you may remember the pig that @smailer donated to our homestead. As our lives have transitioned and things have changed, we let one of our friends take her to their place. He had wanted to get into pig farming, and since she was pregnant, we thought it would get him off to a great start. However, his work situation shifted to where he will be gone travelling a lot, so he was no longer going to be able to take care of animals.
Another neighbor wants to use some hogs to help make a pond, so when the opportunity came up, he was very excited. Because we have some experience with pigs in general, and more experience with this particular pig, my neighbor wanted my advice and help.
BUILD THE PEN
Step one was building the pen and preparing the place. Since I had extra hog panels lying around, and since he is letting our heifer hang out with his cattle, I offered up the fencing to him. We soon were hard at work constructing a 16 foot by 32 foot pen.
Much like @papa-pepper my neighbor has come children available, so soon we had a work crew hard at work on the task. It sure makes things like this go a lot more quickly when there are a lot of helpers. Cattle panels would work well for hogs too, but the larger spaces near the bottom of the fence allows the little piglets to escape, so hog panels were definitely the correct ones for the job this time.
After pounding in the T-posts and securing the hog panels to them, step one was completed and the pen was ready. Next step: go and get the mama pig.
GO GET MAMA!
I got a few of the @little-peppers ready to help with the task, and we waited for our ride. Soon the van with the trailer picked us up and we were on our way!
When we got there, mama had already had her babies, so we had to be careful. Too often mamas that large accidentally crush their tiny babies to death. The first step of this part of the process was to remove the babies without irritating the mama hog.
This was easy enough, as this pig had always been friendly with us. She was a lot larger though, and definitely a force to be reckoned with if she became irritated.
Soon I had carefully removed all these little ones. The next step was trying to convince the mama pig to get in the trailer. This is normally an easy task if the pig is hungry. However, this mama was sitting with a large pile of whole corn in her pen and had no interest in doing anything for food.
Unlike these tiny babies, which could be picked up and placed where we wanted them, a sow weighing in at over 300 pounds with an uncooperative attitude is another deal completely. While I won't even go into details about the amount of effort or time it took us to get the job done, in the end it did require a lot of brute strength to get her loaded, but we did it. She is now happily settled in at her new home. Stay tuned for some cute photos of the piglets!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-helping-the-neighbor-build-a-pigpen
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
here's the proof @papa-pepper
The caring mama...i have not being seeing these kids of the pigs often..the look pretty young like few days old...lol thanks too @papa-pepper
This is so cool..... Awww ...@papa-pepper
Thanks @bhoa!
I admire the work you are doing dear friend @ papa-pepper congratulations.
There is nothing more beautiful to do and be in contact with what pleases us.
congratulations for the whole team
I wish you a great Sunday
Wow! Different specie of pig. Look kinda different from the ones here in Africa. Cute piggies
Mama pig is really huge.. And the babies are looking so cute.😀
She is very large!
So cute little piggies😊
That they are!
Nice baby pics there.. Have never seen this type of color, until now
Papa Pepper going Hog Wild on the Homestead!
Lol!
Mama Hogg and babies are so cute!!! Family is ♥.
Papa Pepper's work is never done. Bit another worth while endeavor for sure.
It never is. Thanks man.
Buena raza de Cerdos, se ven hermoso y
You are one of my favorite SteemIt accounts to follow. I am fascinated by your lifestyle. Thank you for sharing it with us.
I'm glad that you like it!
Wow..this amazing... @papa-pepper this big way so big wow!!! The one I usually see around Me never has big like this.. you feed them well both youngie and their moma looking good..
So are you pig free again?
Dear @papa-pepper, for me it feels like a out of body experience, when I realize that it is actually YOU!!!
I got to know a bit about you watching "Hot Ones with San Evans" and I loved the show so much that I have decided t do one too. Me and my friend @minigunner tried streaming it through @dlive, it was laggy, probably cause of our internet, but we also filmed it and placed it on @dtube! it was one of our first posts! Just wanted to say Thank You for introducing to hot peppers and going online and buying some of the Hot Sauces! I am humbled for being able to write to you directly!
P.S. Would you think "Hot Ones with Sean Evans" could come to #dtube?
P.P.S. I tried to get original "Hot Ones" sauce, but with sending it's 52$! :O
Could you please bring it to Europe?!
P.P.P.S. I love what you did there for the pigs!
Strange how the mind works, isn't it?
This was a nice post about neighbors helping neighbors. And, to my mind, there was something particularly heart-warming about the rural setting ... one farmer helping another build a pig-pen ... one man helping another provide for his family. Reminiscent of barn-raisings of old, albeit a bit scaled down.
If one were philosophically inclined, one might metaphorically extend the symbolism to Steemit, for here too is @papa-pepper renowned for his generosity of spirit.
As is often the case when reading something both neighborly and noble, I was inspired to verse. I'm not quite sure what it was about 'this post' that inspired me to write 'this poem,' but that's often how poetry works. Being a poet, I accept that mystery is part of the process.
In any event, here it is.
An Ode To My Ex-Wife
Behavior repeating; eating, excreting,
Some things, will never they change,
Down on the ground, while making them sounds,
Scratching, for have you 'The Mange.'
Well lucky for you, will not I eschew,
And lucky, I know him a man,
@Papa-Pepper his name; your kind it, his game,
Will help you, as only he can.
First build you a pen, so spreads not again,
Knowledge, is knowing know-how.
Your hide will he wet, an ointment from vet,
For kind, this man to a sow.
mmm, bacon-seeds! Me Gusta!
You are very blessed to have such luck.
Wow amazing baby and mom pig..@papa-pepper
Glad mama and her babies have safely moved! :)))
Great post. Love the content. Keep up the great work. This is something my wife and I are hoping to be able to do once we can get some land.
You love rearing animals.
What is the species of those pigs and after how many month do you win them from their mother?
Sweet pen, and done pretty cheap as well. It is similar to the ones i use to keep animals out of my gardens. Thanks for sharing!
I love the being there for each other!
Us too!
Mother pig can be mistaken for an elephant baby... huge!
Nice that you were able to help each other out.
Does this mean that he's going to put water in there to make mud so the pigs will romp around and soften the ground where he wants the pond?
He has an area that holdssome water, but if the pigs compact the rest of the earth, it may hold more, thus creating a pond.
I hadn't thought of that. I figured they would wallow and create more of a mess. Crazy that they do the opposite.
Ohw, piggies are my favorite animals. Here in a South Africa we get a lot of these black piggies. Super cute. Thanks for sharing 💓💓💓
Wow! This is really nice. Wow! She is not big, she is massive. Haha
your "proof-of-..." are getting bigger and bigger xD
Why no proof-of-piglets? :( i want to see some cute piglets
This is a fantastic story of co-operation between neighbours. It has a happy ending and the kids were helpful too.
Nice @papa-pepper
That is so cool. :D Those piglets are so tiny and adorable. :D They make ours look like giants, at least until I remember ours are probably a month or a month and a half older than those ones that is, LOL. :D
It is wonderful that you guys can and are willing to help each other out like that, neighbors you can count on are always a blessing. :D
God bless you and the pepper clan. :D Have an awesome day! :D
Sometimes they are so smart that muscle is the only answer to get them moved without waiting for hunger to be the prime mover.
Awesome post! I invite you to visit our blog and vote us back! And of course to enjoy our content :)
I heard recently about using pigs to seal a pond. They are useful little animals. One of the local pig farmers where I grew up said his dad used to use pigs to get rid of roots on freshly cleared farmland. He'd clear off the trees and then let the pigs dig up all the roots. After a year or two he'd have root free farmland to grow his crops.
Thanks for sharing.
Liked your pictures, very much. My "favorites' were the 1st one, the 7th & 8th ones
Will re-steem
Animals do not behave the way people do. They fight when it is necessary to fight, and they kill when it is necessary to kill. But they will never wrap up all their natural resourcefulness and sharpness only in order to invent a new way to cripple the life of another living being