Elizabeth was too stressed for me to take more photos....But in a day or two
I will get some sweet shots!
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Monday, April 25, 2016
Blackie (AKA) Elizabeth... The Adventures of OUR PIG!
I can hardly call this an update.....because nothing has changed....meaning Elizabeth has NOT birthed! I can however call this a story worth sharing!!
When the pig farmer, Mr Peter, took our pig to his farm last winter, the plan was he would care for her through the winter, pregnant her and returner her to us. Off we went to Mexico with visions of piglets dancing in our heads!
Upon our return, the first week in March, Mr Peter wanted to return our Pig, Elizabeth right away as she was due to have her piglets. As in the last post you all got to see Elizabeth happily returned to Farmer Papa Mark! The nights were still very very chilly, and when the pig did not have the piglets that weekend, our farmer Mr Peter said that she must have got pregnant during her second cycle, meaning we had at least another four weeks to wait!~ Sooooo Papa decided to bring her from the old barn across the brook, to the old farmhouse right beside our house. He installed a small corral to put the piglets in, with a heating lamp, making it waaaaay easier for he and I to care for them. But is is a tight and a small stall for this big 400lb Mother pig!
The weeks have turned into another month plus....we still have no piglets...Is she even pregnant we ask....Oh Yes indeed she is says farmer Peter....(remember he is a pig farmer...sooooo he knows, Right?) Now it is way warmer, and this poor Mama Pig has been confined in the small stall. Papa decides that he will move her back to the barn, where she can roam and have free range of the outside space.
I need to back up a wee bit. If you have followed our blog, you will know that this pig was raised by Papa. This pig loves Papa a lot, and will follow him around....at least she use too. So the plan was to let her out of the small house stall and she would simply follow Old Papa boy and he would walk her through the meadow, across the brook into the barn...easy peasey.....HA!
I suggested that maybe we should harness a rope around her.... to guide her. No Papa said...A rope would do nothing with 400lb beast like her... we found out later that was true!
So here is Papa, preparing the way for Elizabeth to began the short journey to the barn....(which ended up lasting from 1:30 to 3pm).......
When the pig farmer, Mr Peter, took our pig to his farm last winter, the plan was he would care for her through the winter, pregnant her and returner her to us. Off we went to Mexico with visions of piglets dancing in our heads!
Upon our return, the first week in March, Mr Peter wanted to return our Pig, Elizabeth right away as she was due to have her piglets. As in the last post you all got to see Elizabeth happily returned to Farmer Papa Mark! The nights were still very very chilly, and when the pig did not have the piglets that weekend, our farmer Mr Peter said that she must have got pregnant during her second cycle, meaning we had at least another four weeks to wait!~ Sooooo Papa decided to bring her from the old barn across the brook, to the old farmhouse right beside our house. He installed a small corral to put the piglets in, with a heating lamp, making it waaaaay easier for he and I to care for them. But is is a tight and a small stall for this big 400lb Mother pig!
The weeks have turned into another month plus....we still have no piglets...Is she even pregnant we ask....Oh Yes indeed she is says farmer Peter....(remember he is a pig farmer...sooooo he knows, Right?) Now it is way warmer, and this poor Mama Pig has been confined in the small stall. Papa decides that he will move her back to the barn, where she can roam and have free range of the outside space.
I need to back up a wee bit. If you have followed our blog, you will know that this pig was raised by Papa. This pig loves Papa a lot, and will follow him around....at least she use too. So the plan was to let her out of the small house stall and she would simply follow Old Papa boy and he would walk her through the meadow, across the brook into the barn...easy peasey.....HA!
I suggested that maybe we should harness a rope around her.... to guide her. No Papa said...A rope would do nothing with 400lb beast like her... we found out later that was true!
So here is Papa, preparing the way for Elizabeth to began the short journey to the barn....(which ended up lasting from 1:30 to 3pm).......
PHOTO's of THE RELEASE!
Heading the WRONG WAY, Pig!!
The PIG headed out back!!
Papa tried to redirect her....but she is too darn big.
Way out to the garden ......
Papa somehow gets her back into the yard.
I start to feel kind of smug, because he decides to try MY idea!
As soon as she tied....SHE SITS down!
Papa PULLS and PULLS
She Flops over...like a DEAD pig...
She is fine....Just refusing to try.. yup she is HOG TIED.
I am not feeling Smug anymore....We have a pig on the loose
Papa thinks maybe the rope and a small tug fro the tuck?
NO WAY....She plays dead.
Anyway, she can slip the rope off....she shaped like a cone.
WE NEED HELP!!!
Who better to call then our friend Farmer Peter, the pig farmer!
After a few attempts to corral her....a new plan was needed.
Papa calms her down, and he asks Peter to go get the metal cage
that they transported her in.
The Metal cage and a tractor, and plywood to make a corral,
the pig is captured.
I cannot imagine what Papa is saying inside of his head
while he looks at Elisabeth...But his face look "Pinched"
Lucky for this pig, she is pregnant...Or this would no doubt
be a ride to the buchers!
Mr Arbraham drives the pig to the barn, while Mr Peter
follows ......... What a day!
AND WE STILL HAVE NO PIGLETS...sigh!!!!!!!!!!
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