Can you believe it? The puppies were 8 weeks old yesterday. Due to us heading to Great Falls we were able to take one puppy (Sammy Lou) with us to meet her new owners. She will be very much loved & adored in her new home - a great match. Jake’s (sire) owners came to pick up their puppy (Edward) today & also one for their mom. That puppy is headed all the way to Kentucky. Another gal is coming to get her “baby” (Mox) on Thursday so that leaves us with just 3 to find homes for as we are keeping one of the girls - Carina.

We are so pleased how well these pups have turned out. Although they all have different personalities they are very mellow & talk about good looking! Who could resist those sorrowful eyes & silky, curly ears?!

Mildred’s three piglets pretty much go exactly where they want to & have become quite good pals with the puppies. It was funny at the moving sale because folks would be looking at stuff trying not to trip over puppies & then along would come three piglets quite happy to be petted as well although I don’t think anyone braved it except us who know them. Anyways last week we were able to capture some pics of the puppies & piglets together so enjoy:

As you can see in this next pic, piglets, kids & puppies all play together - the piglet is lying beside one of Daniel’s trucks:

Here you can see a puppy with its head on a piglet’s rear end:

Now is where the fun really starts. No time for sleeping, just time to play. No this piglet is not dead, apparently just happy to be a chew toy!

LOL!

Ears are for chewing!

Let’s all pile on:

Bella is going to the groomer’s tomorrow. We made the mistake of not taking her before she had the pups so she is really matted. They will need to shave her so as to get rid of all her tangles but that OK as it will keep her cool for the trip & she soon grows her fir back.
Summer has gone here. There are already a few bright yellow leaves on the trees & the high on Sunday & Monday was only 53F! Yep! It’s cold! It did warm up in to the 60’s today but I’m back in winter pyjamas. I really don’t want to get the kids’ winter clothes out as I know in 2 weeks we will be on our way to much warmer climes & have to put them all away again.

Liz

It seems like we have spent more time on the road this year than any other but thankfully this time it is just Richard out & about. When we knew the farm had sold back in July we also knew it was time to start looking for a “new to us” truck & trailer to move all these pigs. We enlisted the help of a local Used Car dealer who is very honest & will not sell junk but alas he was not able to find us what we needed in our price range.

We have not had a vehicle loan for many years & had no intention of going that route again so when we set our budget we had to stick with it. Because we only have the one vehicle, that vehicle has to not only transport the 6 of us but it also has to be able to tow & do all the farm work around here. After much thought & consideration we decided that a Ford F-350 Dually was what we needed. Right now our truck is only a 150 & it really is not powerful enough for all the work we do. 2 weeks ago we found a truck in Texas but it was right at our budget price so with the expense of going to get it, it went over. What to do?! We waited a week & in the meantime started looking earnestly for a large trailer. When I mean large, it had to have 3 sections - most have only 2. Richard spent hours looking & the only one he found was, guess where? In Texas! He called about it on Saturday & the Reserve on it was way above our budget or at least we thought it was. HOWEVER when we got the measurements of this trailer we realized that with the trailer we have now & this new one we could transport ALL the animals. Originally Jessie (Michael’s wife) was going to pull another small trailer that we would have also had to buy. This new trailer is 34′ on the floor & 7 1/2′ in the nose so it is BIG. Eliminating the cost of another trailer & the extra gas & food expenses etc that we were originally planning on meant the trailer was just in our budget.

SO what to do?! We still did not have the money needed to pay for the trip to go get it & the truck. Yes we could have taken it from somewhere else but neither of us felt right about that. Richard discovered that we had just enough air miles to pay for his air ticket. Answer #1! THEN an ambulance buddy up here asked Richard exactly where we were moving to in Missouri as he had just purchased a load of car parts from down there that he needed bringing up. When Richard told him that he was probably headed that way & could pick them up on his way home, we got the fuel bill paid. Answer #2! We made enough money at our moving sale to pay for Richard’s food & hotel rooms etc. Answer #3. Isn’t it incredible how if we are patient (OH so hard at times!) God works everything out.
Now it was time to get serious & start buying. Spending big bucks always makes us nervous as we do not want to make a mistake but we knew this was right so pressed forward. Richard bid on the trailer & we got it THEN he booked his flight to Houston, Texas & followed that by calling & giving a verbal “Yes” to the truck. BTW this all happened Sunday/Monday AM. LOL! You know us! When we make our minds up, we go for it 100%! Kids & I took him to Great Falls yesterday afternoon, ran some errands etc & then left him there. He flew out first thing this morning & arrived at the dealership this afternoon. He took the truck out for a test drive & found a couple problems one of which was the rear 4 tires were REALLY bad. Richard is not a mechanic but also not totally ignorant about vehicles. However we have never owned a vehicle so big nor have we ever had a diesel before so it sounds & handles a lot differently. What to do? He just prayed that if they would put 4 new tires on then he would know that this was the truck for us. Guess what? They put 4 new tires on! NOW due to the lateness of the day & the fact that they had to order 4 tires it meant he has to stay overnight but they are footing the bill & put him up in a nice hotel. He was supposed to get to where the trailer was tonight but delays also have a purpose so we’re both very relaxed.

Tomorrow he should head up through Texas, pick up the trailer & then make his way to Missouri. He is going to go by the new house on Thursday & refresh his memory there (been a year since we have seen it & yes I know I still have to share that story with you!). Not expecting him home until Saturday/Sunday.

Now I want you to give me three cheers! LOL! I actually started packing today. Please note the word “started.” I managed to get about 1 1/2 boxes done. Had high hopes of accomplishing much more but the day has been really busy from start to finish.

Hope your week is going well,
Liz

Oh my goodness! I am not a pack rat but it sure seems like we have a LOT of stuff to get rid of. Our moving sale starts tomorrow afternoon & so today we have been putting stuff out in the garage ready for moving outside tomorrow. Equipment is also heading out of here. Only in Chinook, MT would a truck driver come at 11:30pm to pick up. Yes that was not a typo, he got here at 11:30 last night to pick up the vulcanizers! Poor guy must have been exhausted - we weren’t too wide awake either.

Of course due to the business it seems like we have a copious amount of shelves. The new owner of the farm doesn’t want them so they all have to be taken down - we’re just selling them with the brackets still on them - sure somebody will want them. We don’t have room to take them. Richard has been cleaning out the shed today, finding all sorts of unwanted treasure   I’m glad we are doing the sale this weekend - that will give us 2 weeks to concentrate on packing with space to move. I may have said this before but I really dislike living in a mess. OK! OK! With 3 young children (Michelle’s too old to count as a child) mess is inevitable but right now it is chaos with stuff everywhere.

Good news on George & Sean, the two boars we needed to find a home for before we moved. Sean is moving to here in Montana where we got Sally from. Gina & Marc lost their boar earlier this summer so Sean has girls waiting for him. They are coming to pick him up tomorrow. George is going to northern California to meet a new Red Wattle girl. Jamie is hoping to come get him next week. We are thrilled as we wanted them to go to good homes.

Caleb’s almost finished his bottle so its time for his bed & time for us to take down more shelves.

Hope your week is going well.

Liz

When I went out to water the pigs yesterday Sally came out for a drink & then quickly went back into the barn. We knew she was due this week so no surprise - she was looking really uncomfortable. Michelle checked her at 7:30pm & she had had one piglet. We both went out at 8:45pm & there was one more - both girls. We waited about 20 mins & a boy was born. Left her to it & came in to relax for a while. About 10:30pm I headed out in the rain to check one last time for the night. Imagine my surprise to see what I thought was 12 more live piglets & 1 dead. Talk about quick delivery! She must have pushed them out one after the other in quick succession.

Ran to get Michelle & we all went to bed very pleased. 15 piglets, or so we thought, is excellent.

Trying to get things cleaned up around here as we have our moving sale this weekend so first thing this morning we took a big load of rubbish to the dump & went & got grain. Finally got out to the barn to ear notch & check all the piglets. (All piglets are ear notched so that we can keep detailed records of boy/girl. teat numbers etc.) Found one more dead piglet - probably got squashed. Started ear notching, got up to #13 (making 15 piglets) but Michelle found another one & then another one. Sally had had 17 piglets! WOW! 11 girls & 6 boys. All remaining 15 are doing great. As you can see from the picture they are all black with white stripes although some have a little red in their face. When Sally was in heat she was in with Sean but we then moved her in with George so we have a feeling that they both had their way with her, resulting in them both fathering some piglets. This is the largest litter we have ever seen here on the farm so very exciting.

By the time we had finished feeding pigs it was time to get lunch. Where did the morning go? After lunch it was time to do some mail. I went to the Post Office early as we had to move some pigs around. Sally only has 12 teats so that means there will be a constant bickering at feed time. So we moved George, as he does not need any extra food like Sally does & then we went & got Ginger and her babies. My hope is that some of Sally’s piglets will graft onto Ginger & they will share the piglet raising. Ginger, as you may remember, only has 7 piglets to feed & has 14 teats so plenty to spare. This is a common practice between sows so hoping it works in this situation. Sally is a bit of a “bossy britches” but Ginger is no walk over either so hopefully the two of them will become “friends.”

Just as we had moved them, the vet arrived. Castration time! Richard & I would rather the vet do this job as he is able to use a local anesthetic so it makes it less stressful on them. The boy piglets (cross breeds & other ones not going to be sold as breeders) need to be castrated otherwise as they mature the meat gets tainted. All went well & the piglets are now recovering.

The day is nearly over but it’s been a good one.

Hope your Monday went well also.

Liz

Richard went out to feed the pigs on this particular Thursday morning & sent Daniel in to tell me that Polly had her piglets. Polly is a first time mom which normally means smaller litters but she had 8 which was great. Looks like 3 were born dead & the others were REALLY tiny so we’re thinking that they were a little premature. It was very hot here that week which could have added some heat stress to Polly.

Anyways the 5 surviving piglets are doing great - they are very placid & growing well although still on the small side but time & good milk & food will solve that. I took these pics last weekend.

Here are three in the feed bowl with two chickens looking on:

It doesn’t take long for piglets to find the water

Here are two of them eating with Daddy! Yes quite a size difference. Stitches is a handsome boar - very long & big!

This pic

When we came to feed Ginger & Sean this morning the kids were the first to shout, “Ginger’s got blood!” We went searching. Found one piglet in their shed. Richard went out looking in their pasture and walked right past them as she had hidden them well in the grass. Whilst Richard went back to the house for paper, pen & ear notcher Daniel & I found the nest which had two more piglets in it. As Richard came back Ginger had #4 in the shed. Then she joined us back by her nest & gradually had 5 more.

We had to leave after #9 to go to a wedding. Couldn’t very well turn up late & in “pigged” clothes! When we got home tonight we found 3 dead but one new arrival making 10. If you remember Ginger was the sow we purchased with Hammy back in the spring. She has never had large litters so we are absolutely thrilled with 10. Yes we have lost 3 but she still has 7 which is great - 4 boars, 4 gilts.

Been so busy that I haven’t even told you about Polly’s piglets born 2 weeks ago - that’s next.

Liz

If you have never raised puppies you may not know how dirty they are! Unlike a cat that you can train to a litter box, puppies go EVERYWHERE! We do have disposable puppy mats down but even so they seem quite happy to go elsewhere, walk & roll in it. SO tonight it was time for their first bath. Richard was cleaning the utility room where they are living so Michelle & I, along with Daniel’s help, took all 8 puppies & deposited them in the bath tub.

They got a good shampooing & then it was time to find towels to dry them all. Of course as we opened the door Caleb decided he needed to squeeze into the bathroom as well. It was quite crowded but he didn’t care.

The puppies are SO fat & I’m sure it won’t be long before they are dirty again but at least for now they smell sweet.
Hope you’re having a great week.

The puppies will be 5 weeks old on Monday & are getting into all sorts of mischief. Whenever we go out there, they come running. They are doing really well.

Hard to get a pic of them all together so here are 3 resting after lunch.

This little gal was purchased today so has a new home to look forward to:

Will we have any boots or shoes left at the end of 8 weeks! LOL!

Playing & sleeping:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Liz

Caleb is now 8 1/2 mths old & pulling himself up on everything. Just took this pic off the camera so thought I would share it with you. He has something white in his mouth!

Take care,

Liz

LOL! I am sitting down for 5 minutes, eating an ice cream (organic Caramel - Yum! Yum!) & wanted to share this funny story with you. It was the Azure delivery today & along with 120lbs of nectarines I had also ordered 3lbs of apricots. Daniel & Hannah started stuffing the apricots as soon as they arrived & a while later Daniel came in asking if he could have another “peacock!” It was quite hilarious & of course that confused Hannah & so several times through the day they were eating “peacocks!”

It has been a busy day. I have 20lbs of nectarines in the dehydrator & have canned 60lbs! Then I backed & cut some rubber. Now I have to go pack up all the orders that I didn’t get packed today.

Have a great week,

Liz