I hope I made the Cook happy this weekend. Started out by erecting her Hills Hoist in the back yard at last, it’s only been two years. Unfortunately it seems I’ll have to get her a stump to stand on while she’s hanging out the washing – it’s too high. I went to the dump as well – this was a little delayed, Hugh came on the Lifestyle Channel so I just had to stop and watch.
Never mind, I also started digging her Moo Poo Pit for her biodynamic preparations. The ground was so damned hard that I broke my favourite Mattock, and cracked the shovel handle. I think I’ll have to wait until it rains to continue with that project. So what is a Moo Poo Pit? I hear you ask. From what I’m told it is a pit about a foot deep, you fill it with cow manure and compost to encourage worms to live in it. To keep the worms in you need to have boards lining the inside. Once the cow manure and compost has been attacked by the worms and digested, you remove the worm casting and mix with water. This can then be applied to your paddocks as a sol conditioner.
I finished the new paddock at the front of the property yesterday and we decided to move the young boars down there for the time being. The Cook rounded up a posse and lured them down to the paddock with a bucket of bread. At first they were happy enough to follow and eat the bread and we ended up with most of them in the paddock. After a small amount of pig drafting we weeded out the ones we wanted and locked them in the paddock. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to charge the fence energiser and the pigs discovered this in about ten minutes. I was busy fixing something when I turned around all the pigs had gone.
About five minutes later I hear the Cook bringing down the pigs again – this time they are a little less enthusiastic. They get half way down and decide to scoot back to the old pig yards. The Cook comes down to the paddock and has a look; she says to me “where have all the pigs gone?” I told her what happened, and she remarks that she was wondering where the extra male pigs had come from. Anyway, by the time I get back up to the yards there are two males left out and the Cook and Harry are trying to get them coaxed back into the paddocks; but, because it’s 7:00pm on a Sunday night they are being less co-operative. I think they ended up back in the pig yard; I need to go check because I don’t know for sure. Of course – the electric fence wasn’t working so I spent an hour looking for the problem in the dark.
There’s so much to do – now the paddock down the front is finished I need to build a shelter there. Luckily it has shade from the poplar trees so it’s a rather pleasant area for the pigs in summer. I still need to put the sides on the Boars hut and the back on the sows hut. The Cook needs the garden rabbit proofed, the little buggers have eaten all her carrots and numerous other vegetables. I’d love to start building a green house as well – but I need to get something done for the hand raised piglets and the young chicks so they can stay outside.
Never mind, I also started digging her Moo Poo Pit for her biodynamic preparations. The ground was so damned hard that I broke my favourite Mattock, and cracked the shovel handle. I think I’ll have to wait until it rains to continue with that project. So what is a Moo Poo Pit? I hear you ask. From what I’m told it is a pit about a foot deep, you fill it with cow manure and compost to encourage worms to live in it. To keep the worms in you need to have boards lining the inside. Once the cow manure and compost has been attacked by the worms and digested, you remove the worm casting and mix with water. This can then be applied to your paddocks as a sol conditioner.
I finished the new paddock at the front of the property yesterday and we decided to move the young boars down there for the time being. The Cook rounded up a posse and lured them down to the paddock with a bucket of bread. At first they were happy enough to follow and eat the bread and we ended up with most of them in the paddock. After a small amount of pig drafting we weeded out the ones we wanted and locked them in the paddock. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to charge the fence energiser and the pigs discovered this in about ten minutes. I was busy fixing something when I turned around all the pigs had gone.
About five minutes later I hear the Cook bringing down the pigs again – this time they are a little less enthusiastic. They get half way down and decide to scoot back to the old pig yards. The Cook comes down to the paddock and has a look; she says to me “where have all the pigs gone?” I told her what happened, and she remarks that she was wondering where the extra male pigs had come from. Anyway, by the time I get back up to the yards there are two males left out and the Cook and Harry are trying to get them coaxed back into the paddocks; but, because it’s 7:00pm on a Sunday night they are being less co-operative. I think they ended up back in the pig yard; I need to go check because I don’t know for sure. Of course – the electric fence wasn’t working so I spent an hour looking for the problem in the dark.
There’s so much to do – now the paddock down the front is finished I need to build a shelter there. Luckily it has shade from the poplar trees so it’s a rather pleasant area for the pigs in summer. I still need to put the sides on the Boars hut and the back on the sows hut. The Cook needs the garden rabbit proofed, the little buggers have eaten all her carrots and numerous other vegetables. I’d love to start building a green house as well – but I need to get something done for the hand raised piglets and the young chicks so they can stay outside.
1 comment:
shoot the rabbits and excellent source of meat
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