The piglets are now 4 weeks old and growing well :) They're eating grower pellets which give them a majority of the nutrient a growing piglet needs aswell as fruit which we're scavanging from the road side apple trees and a trip to Mildura in the next few weeks will see us collecting esky fulls of grapes from the growers that deem them not suitable for the supermarkets. Need to find a stone fruit grower somewhere ;) I freeze the excess fruits so we've got plenty for the animals to munch on for atleast 4 months.
They get along well with the chooks, curling up with some of them at night in the same enclosure. I'm still hesitant to house them near the big pigs so they're still in the backyard. It's saving on mowing the weedy lawns lol

I've sold one, to a neighbour and trying to convince another neighbour she needs one lol. I've got the others advertised all over the place but no interest yet. We may just have to grow them out ourselves and sell them through the markets. We've got 6 months before that happens.

Until next time
~x~

Our gorgeous dog Buffy left for a new home yesterday. She's a sheep dog who needs to be able to run for miles and play with other dogs so we made the heartbreaking decision to let her go to a farm where she'll get to experience the life of a sheep dog. She's still a pup really, not quite 2 years of age so she has a lot of living to do.

It's sad to not have her here but we all know she's better off at her new home.

Enjoy your new found freedom Buffy, we miss you xx

Until next time
~x~

Miss Pigsy gave birth to 11 piglets on Wednesday 16th at 11pm. We missed the birth but it seemed to be an easy labour for her and she did wonderfully well. 1 lil piglet was stillborn.

During the day on Thursday we had a few mishaps. Miss Pigsy, being so big and not used to little piglets running around and under her, accidently squished one. She then squished another 4 but we managed to save one, so from the 11 we were down to 6. Unfortunately i had to make the heartbreaking decision to take the remaining  piglets away from her. There were a few factors that made the decision easier. Miss Pigsy's milk was near non-exsistant. She was moving around a lot and wouldn't lay down for the piglets to feed, it was a very, very hot day, the man of the house wasn't home, the vet is 2 hours away. I did not make the decision lightly, i couldn't bear to lose anymore piglets so i took them and began the process of hand rearing. I trawlled the internet and found a lot of helpful information, i used info that has been repeated multiple times on all different websites. I felt reasonably confident i could help the piglets grow. I'd reared calves for many years so i had a basic understanding of what was right and wrong when it came to animals. They feed well from a bottle and the pink, squishy little piglets made it through that night with my help.

On the Saturday i persisted with them to get them to feed from a shallow dish as i'd read and been told by a few piggy people it's a better option. I was lucky the man of the house was home as i was very sleep deprived from the previous 2 nights and couldn't get the piglet to do what i wanted. Hubby said i was trying too hard lol. He left them to their own devices and sure enough, they got hungry and feed from the dish with no help. They then feed every 3 hours instead of hourly. We had them in a big cage with lots of hay and there they slept all night with their continued 3 hourly feeds.
Fast forward to today, they've been having weetbix mixed with their milk and it's making them fuller for longer. They sleep for 8 hours overnight. They're growing with no set backs whatsoever. I made the right decision on that Thursday and noone can tell me otherwise.

Miss Pigsy hasn't had any side effects from not having the piglets. She's eating, wallowing and looking ok although she does have a sad look about her as she knows she had piglets but doesn't know why they're not there now. The little milk she did have dried up quickly and thankfully she didn't suffer from mastitis.

So, there you have it. We survived our very 1st piglet birth. Would i do it all again, not in a hurry!

Until next time
~x~

There's nothing more refreshing on a 40 degree (Celsius) day then wallowing in a muddy hole, well, if you're a pig!

Mr Porky who's been with us for 4 months has finally realized there is nothing but goodness in a mud bath. I don't think his previous owners, who had him from birth (he's roughly 14 months old) ever gave him a mud bath or put a sprinkler on for him to get used to water. It's taken us quite a long time to get him used to it. I'm glad he is because with our shocking heat there's no other way to cool down.

Our little black piggy's  Jap and Sulky, have taken to water really well too. They're now 6 months old. I know, i said i was going to have them in the freezer by this month but we've been told they could grow a bit more and just before winter would be a good time for processing.

Miss Pigsy LOVES mud baths, more so now as she is 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days pregnant :) She's due on the 17th of January but i'm hoping for her sake she births in the next day or 3. She doesn't do a lot these days apart from laying in her wallow. She's huge! I'll be sure to blog when she has her litter, here's hoping all goes smoothly for her.

Until next time
Keep cool
~x~

B2 is in her element now we have brought her pony home from the farm. We're 'agisting' it in a vacant paddock next to our home. I didn't want him in the backyard lol

I haven't seen Spirit the pony for nearly 2 years. He's been at the farm with the other horses and being looked after by the various tenants. The last time i seen him he was a little jittery and really wouldn't come when called unless there was a treat on offer. Now it's like he's a totally different pony and i owe my thanks to the lovely young lass who's been caring for him for the past 12 months. He comes when called. Doesn't flinch at loud noises. Is rideable with a lead rope, although he was always rideable but had a tendancy to be a bit wild.

B2 hasn't left Spirit's side much over the weekend. She quickly does her chores, feeds and has a brief chat with the other animals then she's out in the paddock playing with Spirit 'til it's dark. She even shares a carrot or apple with him! She's always been a horsey lover. Using anything and everything she could to put her saddle on and pretend she was riding lol

We took B2 and Spirit for a walk yesterday. Will be good to see her riding him on her own when both horse and rider have confidence with each other.

Looks like Spirit is smiling in this one :)

Until next time
~x~

I cleaned out the fish tank (the water was used on the garden) and then arranged the pebbles nicely on the tank floor. Some would say i was bored, other's, just being fancy lol Either way the fish are happy.

Until next time
~x~

Our home is turning into a zoo lol On Saturday i took hubby and the munchkins to Melbourne for a spontaneous day trip. I returned home with hubby and the munchkins along with 2 hens, 3 pullets, 4 chickens, 2 ducklings and a bunny rabbit! It was a noisey car trip lol So, without further ado, meet our new additions :)

                                                    Etta

                                                                     
                                                    Dulcie

                                                    Clarence

                                          Cuddles

                                                    Spencer

                        Annabelle, Bessiebelle, Isobelle (aka The Belle sisters)

                                          No named chicks

 

The chicks are nameless as we don't know the gender of them yet. Our luck they'll all be roosters lol Not too sure on the ducklings either but names were wanted so if there's any identity crisis down the track, blame the munchkins ;) Etta has already rewarded us with an egg both Sunday and today, Monday :) Until next time ~x~

I haven't done an update on Buffy the dog for a long time. She's now 7 months old and still growing! She shouldn't grow much more taller but a little more filling out would be ideal. She eats like a horse then runs it all off so she's looking a little on the skinny side under her shaggy coat. B2 loves her to death which is great because i don't have to feed, exercise or clean up after her like i do with all the other animals around here that i didn't ask for lol. Speaking of the other animals, we've lost the rabbits. Someone left the cage unlatched. Luckily the guinea pigs stayed put. The rabbits were wild to begin with so i'm not too disappointed they've gone. They weren't the most playful pets we've had. Pigsy the big pig is just that lol. She's eating, wallowing and snorting her days away. She's 15 months old and begging for a boar to assist her needs. We may have to buy a young one. We've had no luck with finding one to lease around this area. The chooks are destined for the pot. I've not had eggs from then since February. I've tried threatening them and left the axe standing in their yard. They're ex battery hens so i guess after 2 years of being free from the battery and free ranging on the farm and now here they've finally settled into complete retirement. We also has pet yabbies. Funny characters they are. The lid to their tank is firmly on so no midnight escapes for them! Until next time ~x~

Say hello to our loveable,grunting Pigsy :) Before i go on, she is a pet only, not for fattening up ;) We may breed her but for the moment she is digging around my vegie paddock cleaning the weeds out and turning the soil over.

We welcomed Pigsy into our paddock on New Years Eve. She travelled 300km from her old home to us on a hot dusty day but she travelled well and was extremely happy when she found a muddy wallowing hole to squirm around in.

Pigsy is now 1 year old and HUGE. If she had her way she would eat all day. A normal meal for her consists of apples, potatoes, green leaves and barley. Every so often when i can get to the bakery she gets old cakes and slices and once a fortnight she gets a big box of vegie scraps from the local greengrocer. She won't eat mushrooms or capsicum and isn't fussed on carrots. Fussy pig lol. I'm trying to grow vegies for her to make life easier for all. There will be a nice crop of corn in the next month or two. Hopefully the pumpkins produce more then we can eat and i've a few plots of potatoes growing strong. We were lucky to get a freezer full of apples from trees off the side of the roads and the neighbours are always throwing her their scraps. She can't complain when it comes to variety.

I'm not sure what breed she is. She's red/brown in colour and has very coarse hair. You know when she's happy because her tail is cute and curly. When she's sad or not well the tail is straight. We had a slight illness scare where she dropped a lot of weight in a 48 hour period but a dose of penicilian perked her up and she's been great ever since.

Until next time
~x~