Today really was Daniel Boone's birthday! I don't understand why the mail ran and the banks were still open? Boone played a major role in the settling of Kentucky as well as opening up the entire west, and was one of America's first folk heroes. By the way, my wife's family has traced their ancestry back to Boone's sister, Elizabeth, so my children are likely one of the many, many branches of the Boone family tree!
Back to the pig lot:
We all put a lot of work into it and I'm not sure how many man-hours were clocked getting it done. Matthew and I did much of the work together but Matthew also put in several hours by himself while I was at work.
We dug the holes about two feet deep for the posts, cut the trees to the right sizes for the posts, and then Matthew set the posts by himself while I was at work. We cut trees to the right sizes for the top rails and then nailed them to the posts. We dug a two feet deep and two feet wide trench around the outside perimeter of about 40 feet in length. This took much time and effort, and Matthew again worked on this for several hours on his own, as well. We then nailed old roofing tin in the trench to the posts to act as a barrier in case the pigs root down too low, nailed on the wire fence to the posts, and cut and nailed more limbs for a bottom rail. We then filled in the trench with the displaced dirt that had by that time gotten packed back down some.
All of the children helped work in various ways. I found some pictures of our work one evening. By the date on the pictures you can tell how we spent the evening of October 31st. We were more productive and had more fun than many people on that evening. We have never participated in Halloween and we didn't celebrate Reformation Day this year, but we did enjoy working on the pig lot!
Here's Matthew and Simon filling in the trench:
And Christina smoothed things out for us:
The piglot crew paused for a picture. Erica was helping work, too, but she was the one taking the pictures:
We still needed a way to allow the pigs to access the lot so we had to reconfigure some of the existing boards of the barn's wall to change a large open window into a hog entrance at the bottom of the wall. Today, while I was at work, Lisa and the children engineered and built the hog lot door out of old recycled lumber, so now we can close the whole thing up.
Here is a picture of the heavy door they built:
And I thought I would show you a few pictures of the completed lot. It doesn't look like much, I know, but it was a big project for us, and it proved to us that we can do anything we put our mind and effort in. The pig lot is attatched to the side of our barn and the pigs sleep inside the barn:
We still need to put up more rails to make the lot sturdier in order to keep in hogs which will weigh 300 pounds and more in the months to come, but for now it should be plenty strong enough for our little pigs. We will also need to figure out a good way to keep fresh water for them and a good feed trough. Right now we are just using bowls; changing the water regularly and refilling the food bowls regularly. I say "we", but I should say "Matthew". He has taken it upon himself to drive up to the barn every morning to take care of the pigs.
The lot is finished just in time, too. We will have to go out of town Sunday and Monday for a funeral, and it would have been a shame if Nellie and Sally had to stay confined until next week! One of my former students from my school is going to come over to feed and water our cats, dog, chickens, and pigs, while we are gone, so the animals should be fine.
We gave Nellie and Sally extra straw for tonight, as it is supposed to be our first hard freeze; down to 22 degrees! They were enjoying the dirt so much, I hope that they come back in the barn and take advantage of it. I stayed up at the barn well after dark tonight to watch them and make sure they came back into their sleeping area. I lit a lantern in their stall so they would realize where their straw was. They finally came in, ate some of their hog chow, sniffed the straw, and let me pet them some. When I blew out the lantern in the barn, they went back out into their new lot and began rooting around again by moonlight! (The moon is almost completely full and very bright tonight. No clouds, so I bet it will be a cold one!)
Goodnight, Sally! Goodnight, Nellie! Happy Birthday, Daniel!
1 comment
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Renee on November 14, 2006 at 9:31 am
You all have been working hard! The pig lot looks great! I am sure your pigs will enjoy their new home dry inside and nice sunshine outside. You all should be proud of yourself…God has blessed you all with so very much.
Love to all of you,
Renee
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