Big & Lil Pig

So I have decided against naming the pigs this time around.  So I refer to the pigs as Big Pig, for the bigger one and Lil Pig for the little one.  They seem to like it. :)

 

The pigs are doing great and starting to become much friendlier.  They of course love feeding time and run around like crazies when they see one of us coming with the yellow bucket with their feed in it.

 

Big Pig (l) & Lil Pig (r)

 

I decided to measure the pigs also last weekend. This took much longer than I thought it would.  They were very weary of the tape measure.  They didn't want it near them and then they decided they wanted to try to eat it to see if it was food.  Finally after about 20 minutes I got their measurements.

 

Big Pig - 105lbs

Lil Pig - 75lbs

 

They are will be 5 months old on December 15th.  They are growing well and love their feed and any extra's we give them.  Mostly our leftovers.  This pair of pigs are funny too because they love to eat hay.  They go crazy when they see me bringing in hay to their pen.  I shake it all out in their bedding area and they go in an lay down and start munching away.

 

Check back in another month or so to see how much they have grown.

 

 



Chuck & Tbone

Last weekend I was out taking some measurements of the goats so I decided to measure the cows too.

 

They are about 7 1/2 months old now and doing great.  Just plugging along with growing.  I don't think I realized how long it takes to grow a cow to full size.

 

To help with the feed bill we have decided to cut back a little on their grain.  Most people don't feed grain at all until a few months before the cows are going to be butchered. We thought that it couldn't hurt to continuously feed them grain over the winter to help with keeping them growing.

 

Tbone (back) & Chuck (front) eating some hay

 

I went ahead and measured them and they are currently at the approximate weights.

 

Chuck - 480lbs

Tbone - 415lbs

 

They are both growing nice and slowly and eating everything we give them.  Hopefully one of them will be ready to go to the butcher in spring.

Welker Turns 1

Welker, 1 years old

 

On December 4th, Welker turned 1 years old.  He is doing excellent.  He is with our other buck Brady full time and they have finally become buddies.

 

Welker weighs 80lbs.  He is still a little on the small side in my opinion but he eats well and is growing every day.  I also think its hard to judge just how much he has grown since he is always standing next to Brady who is a full year older than Welker, therefore much larger than him too.

 

We are in anticipation waiting for Welker's first kids to be born here.  He bred  Priscilla who is due January 21, 2013, these babies will be our first purebred Nubians born here.  Also he bred Maddie, who is due January 29, 2013.  We are really hoping for spotted babies but we will just have to wait and see.

 

For now Welker is doing wonderful.  Walks on a lead and goes where ever I say without a fuss.  He stands extremely well for hoof trimmings. He is friendly and loves to have attention.

 

Check back in a few months to see his babies.

Second Deer of the Season

We got another deer a few weekends back.

 

Buck

 

I am so thankful that we got this buck.  It has helped fill our freezer.  We got about 8 big packages of steaks.  All the other meat was canned.  We were able to get 18 wide mouth pint jars of canned venison.  Jamie & Hailey love it.  They make venison stew or just heat it up with some onions and peppers and eat it with egg noodles. They are both happy that we have some stored up for the next year.

Hailey likes to pose with the deer

 

I am still out hunting here and there, hoping to get a big buck.  Not sure if the tall 6 is still around but I would love to get him and mount him on the wall.  That way Jamie & I both have a deer hanging on the wall.