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You filthy swine!

Started by mike_belben, June 25, 2021, 11:44:25 PM

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mike_belben

Well after a bunch of weedwacking, trampling, straightening, step-in propping and assorted grief i finally got this portable goat mesh up and charged.  Farthest point from the charger has 1700 volts which isnt enough but ive seen her pull her snout off it in pain a few times.  


shes much more active and content then the few days just asleep in one spot in the trailer.  Im think confinement stress prevented her from really eating or pooping the whole time and now shes chowing down. Shes plotting around wagging here tail so we are headed in the right direction.  The longer i sit here on the trailer neck ignoring her the closer she approaches.  Im leaving the trailer in the pen as her bed/shelter. 


Praise The Lord

barbender

You might as well keep her, Mike. She'll fit right in and make you a nice guard pig😁
Too many irons in the fire

mike_belben

Well unfortunately im here guarding here now. It didnt take miss piggy long to figure out she can push dirt up to the bottom non energized strand and just go under.  By the time the 2nd strand touches her its on the scruffy neck hair and just not enough juice to spark. 

  I think the trick to portable woven fencing is a stupid hot spark that it never forgets.  I may have to butcher her tonight.  its quite hot for that now. If i dont i suspect she will be gone altogether by dark and then she'll either get bred by a wild hog, be dogfood or both.
Praise The Lord

doc henderson

mike, it is no wonder you are somewhat off grid.  you have all the entertainment you need right there with your family.  God bless.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Southside

Can you run a single smooth wire say 10" off the ground in front of the netting? Give her full shock when it counts. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

newoodguy78

X2
Best luck I've had with pigs is keeping one strand of hot wire at snout height and move it up as they grow with another one 8" or so above it. They naturally want a clean debri free area and have nothing but time to put everything at the perimeter burying the fence.
One or two sparks from the fence to the snout that momentarily straightens their tail and makes them squeal will have their total respect of it.

mike_belben

Well she got the shock where it counts alright.  Id like to see her sneak out of the refrigerator. 





A wire inside the mesh woulda been perfect but i didnt have enough step ins and it meant a bunch more grass trampling and yadda yadda.  She took a long nap, kids came home. Boy said lets do it so i crept up and shot her in her sleep.  Excellent situation i just couldnt pass up. 


That lard ash had up to 2" thick fat layer under the hide, grossest pig i ever carved. Averaged an inch thick all over. Dont fool with a potbelly unless you want lard, and for heavens sake dont bother scalding or scraping, just skin it out.   A 300 lb berkshire is easier to do than a 150lb potbelly and youll get twice the meat.  This things jacket alone weighed like 50, 60 lbs.  Lotta butchers gonna charge you based on weight you dont want. 
Praise The Lord

mudfarmer

Yum! Just start cooking everything in lard.. winter is coming, fat jackets for the whole family!   ;D


Today marks one month of a group of five cut males born this spring being in next year's new garden plot. Let's take a look.



 
Day 0 (Sept 9)



 


 
Day 31 (Today)

That enclosure is 11 or 12x 16ft panels. New plot is separated to avoid cross pollination of different vegetable varieties for seed production purposes. Will get more pigs over the winter then broken up (they will compact it about 6-8"  down over this long time period) and amended with compost.

It has been warm and dry so the boys have not had a barn for this past month. They get good shade all day and are staying happy and healthy. They will need a barn moved down there next week by the looks

mike_belben

yeah they nuked that pretty good.  looks like a foolproof enclosure too.  wish i invested in panels several rounds of stimulus printing ago when they were cheap but i had zero livestock aspirations then.

 i do have a few hundred pallet rack mesh panels i got up north for $2 each that will eventually be very handy when i bring them home.  ive been collecting $1 galvanized 6ft EMT cutoffs for posts. add a little wire and giddeyup.
Praise The Lord

mudfarmer

Once in a while TSC gives us a 10 or 15% off coupon, that is the time to have a full pocket and load up on posts and panels. Easier said than done!

The feeders are easy on fence but the old sows and boar will bust them up like nothing if they are bored. Best to run posts every 4ft and bury the bottom 6" of the panel. That means $$$$$ and time  :-\ A well built setup like that sure lasts a while with hardly any maintenance.

Pallet racking and EMT would be perfect for growing out a litter to butcher size I think. Sometimes we get a pig or a whole litter that likes to climb or jump up with front feet on fence, they will bust the welds on the panel cross bars which causes me to make up new words. You are mostly clay, right? We have a lot of rock and sure have bent some posts.

mike_belben

Clay over solid rock.  Ranges from a depth or zero to several feet.  My yard is about knee deep to rock.  Always fun trying to bury a dog or set a gate pole. 
Praise The Lord

mike_belben

So i broke miss piggy down on an 80 degree sunny day as fast as i could and sure made a mess of her trying keep the bees and flies off and get her in the fridge asap. 

Today i trimmed and sorted the big pot of random cuts.  I got 6 pounds of lean meat, 8 pounds for pure sausage and 3 pounds of fatty stuff to grind with deer for burger, plus the dogs got a big bowl of cooked up trash trimmings.  I still have 2 shoulders, ribs and 2 hams to do - figure thats another 20 lbs.  The head, hide and lard attached to the hide felt like 60lbs to me and ill bet 20-30 was guts so thats maybe 125 lb pig which is about how it felt to drag the little porker. I wanted the get the jowls but it was getting late.


So i cooked some up tonight.. First time ive eaten a pig that i prepared completely from alive to on my fork.. And parts of it were to my surprise, kinda gamey.  Ive always mentally thought or assumed pig fat is just delicious but maybe thats a case with a certain diet or curing regimen, whereas this thing was wild and ate probably anything.  Wasnt stinky and she wasnt stressed (or even awake) at slaughter so i dont think its that.  

I can say connective tissue in a pig is about as undesireable as it is in a deer when fried.  And like a small deer, a potbelly doesnt have many "steaks" in the front end.  Atleast not when youve got no idea what youre doing and doing it as fast as you possibly can.  Speaking of which i knicked my finger when skinning and my lovely wife got me some stainless cut proof gloves, basically a steel wool glove.  A bit scratchy but great thing to have, dont even have to think about your fingers, much faster.   It woulda gone much better if i coulda kept her into cold weather and took my time to sort out muscles instead of just hacking. 


Anyways i will probably treat the rest of this animal like a deer and stew anything thats full of ligament until it falls apart by spoon.  Might try smoking and salt curing some of it since ive got no investment in this pig to lose when i screw up.  
Praise The Lord

Southside

Good score on the gloves. You definitely need those for processing your broilers. I have a chain type for my non knife hand that wasn't cheap but has lasted over a decade now with no sign of wear but I can guarantee you has been struck by a knife many times. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

mike_belben

Well it was a confusing crime scene but ive determined that dang puppy killed TEN birds last night.  Shes pretty lucky i didnt kill her.  She got put inside the coop with the birds and a shock collar but didnt go after any out of knowing what id do.. She kept scooting away from them so i forced the chickens over toward her each time she moved.  every time her eyes glanced at one she got the buzz mode (not a shock) until she was just quivering in continual fear.  Thats what i want.. The thought of a chicken or coop to make her queezy from here out.  


Im down to 9 birds from 30 and most loss was from my own dogs.  feel like ive wasted half the dang year on this.  Theres no way i can do a daily moved tractor under the circumstance.

The mostly fermented grass diet may produce the absolute healthiest, most delicious chicken ever concieved, but i wont know if none of em live to slaughter.  It produces a very energetic bird that grows really, really slow.  But im getting real frusterated with dogs.  The whole perimeter is cinder block now.
Praise The Lord

mike_belben

I have achieved a pretty dangerous voltage milestone from a battery but its not reliable yet.  Getting quite an education from it, on the bright side. 


Bad Hair Day, anyone? - YouTube

Praise The Lord

Southside

Your tester sounds like a Geiger counter.  "It's not 3 voltgen, it's 15,000 voltgen" in a Rusky accent.  Sorry to hear of the loss.  
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

Old saw fixer

     That's a bummer, Mike
Stihl FG 2, 036 Pro, 017, HT 132, MS 261 C-M, MSA 140 C-B, MS 462 C-M, MS 201 T C-M
Echo CS-2511T, CS-3510
Logrite Cant Hook (with log stand), and Hookaroon

mike_belben

Quote from: Southside on October 16, 2021, 07:36:21 PM
Your tester sounds like a Geiger counter.  
It really does!    :D
Praise The Lord

barbender

I imagine it would be much harder to break a dog of killing chickens, when it has had to survive by it's own hunting skills in the past. 
Too many irons in the fire

mike_belben

Pity was the full grown wild dog i saved and i cant say for sure that she wasnt involved in this round, but the evidence suggest it was the puppy who dug the hole, she was covered in mud and very heavy, full stomach, i mean it was about 6lbs of birds i didnt find a trace of.

  Pity and bella were clean and didnt seem to know what was going on when confronted with the 3 dead carcasses in the shovel, but roxie knew immediately she was in deep spit.  I dont think the grown dogs knew she dug it out since they were still asleep on the porch and roxie was up, she came right to the hole as i was investigating it.

Pity definitely taught roxie how to dig them a tunnel in the night then ambush them at daylight as they come out of it. I watched them lay together just calmy looking at birds for days, oblivious that they were plotting the first heist.  Pity only needed one good clobbering to give that up. 

I got roxie before she was old enough to hunt but shes the one who kept trying to sneak off with the dead bird i layed out last time.  She got a bunch of shocks before quitting.  Pity only needs one well timed zap to change her behavior.  She very smart, has a long memory [about 500x longer than my kids!] and pretty obedient to me [800x more than my kids!]  :D
Praise The Lord

barbender

Ah I see, I was pinning it on the wrong dog!😊
Too many irons in the fire

WV Sawmiller

   Did you know experienced chicken thieves used to take a long stick/pole and ease it up to the sleeping chickens roosting on a limb and bump/tap the chicken on the foot and it would step over on to the stick/pole in its sleep then it was carefully lowered and placed into the waiting gunny sack and they'd move on to the next chicken? Being of stellar character I cannot personally verify this technique works but if it turns out the puppy is not guilty you need check other sources.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Nebraska

I see a real honest to goodness fenced in chicken coop building on the horizon... Sorry about the dogs, I've got no helpful suggestions for a remedy.

mike_belben

I think what im gonna do eventually is mill some WO timbers and lag them into a frame like an old cabin perimeter sill.  Motor oil the bottom and place it with the forktruck then plop the coop on top.  For now theres cinder block the whole way around. 
Praise The Lord

mike_belben

pretty cool milestone today.  i have never worked cattle in my life, the closest thing ive done is bust firewood in a pasture with 100+ head circled around me and the boy while we worked.  it was pretty uncomfortable.

i just stopped to visit a buddy who tends another fellows 3rd grazing operation, the owner lives about 45 minutes west of us.  buddy had put grain in the feeders up front and they were allll the way down in the farthest paddock over the hill, this is a 220 acre property with a center lane and paddocks branching off. we could barely see them and they werent coming to his call.  i said paul lemme go try it.  

long story short i went on foot over some pretty rugged ground and rounded up 45 black angus scattered over id say 40-50 acre. a few that were in corners and bluff edges that were really hard to get behind them, but i managed to put every single cow into one herd and walk the entire herd into the lane up to the feeders and back down to the pasture after they were done, without a partner, a dog, a prod or any yelling at all.

i was told to watch out for this one and that one theyll run you over etc etc, but i kept from exceeding pressure to the flight threshold any time space was tight and all was fine.  every cow went where i wanted it to when i wanted it to and none left the pack i put them in, including 6 to 8 frame size bulls, 1500# and up who didnt want me to walk them down the chute (which i was in with all of them) but turned and went when i pressured them to turn.  it was actually very easy, very calm, no crashing or dashing or bawling.  all i had to do was walk and position myself, never broke a sweat. 

steve cote and temple grandin are the best explainers i have found for the methods of legendary stockman Bud Williams.  his wife Eunice is still alive and runs Buds informational website. obviously if a never done it before monkey like me can nail it first try, his methods are the real deal.

the fear factor actually gave me a little buzz and im sitting here thinking, maybe i can do this stuff.
Praise The Lord

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