A Happy Pig is a Muddy Pig

 The weather continues to vex us. Very cold then unusually warm. Good amounts of snow, then ice, then fog like we had yesterday. But at least the ground thawed enough to let our four feeder pigs out of their small training pen and into a bigger lot.

Feeder pigs. I love that term. We feed them and soon enough they end up feeding us. Sheer poetry I tell ya.

For the last month they have had a large boxy building and a closed-in section for exercise. The back of the fenced area above had a hot wire across it to teach them electricity hurts, stay away. Normally we have our feeder pigs out of the training pen in a week or two, but with the horrible cold we figured keeping them in closer quarters kept them warmer.

But when the thermometer got up in the fifties again yesterday, we knew it was time to get them in a bigger area. Keith put in additional fiberglass posts and then strung two hot wires around a 100 foot by 80 foot area. We opened up their playpen and let them go.

They did well with the electric fence, hitting it with noses a couple times and then going backwards instead of through the fence as hogs will do if they are not familiar with electric fencing. Once they had their perimeter scoped out they starting running from end to end, jumping and twisting their bodies in midair. What? You've never seen a pig dance?

It reminded me of this ridiculous you tube video I once found where a female scientist was defending the awful confinement hog operations, stating that hogs did not need any room to move or turn.  She said "they don't even like to turn around." What an eejit.

Hard to believe these guys are black and white, not just black as they appear in the photos,  but they've had a good time rolling in the mud. They are growing well on a diet of cracked corn, raw milk from our cow Liz and veggies from the kitchen. In the next couple of days I'll make an appointment with the locker for late April. Good thing. I ate our last pork chop from our fall hogs a couple of days ago.