Escapees, Loud Cows and Whatnot

So, the two little piggies we brought home a little over a while ago, Boston and Bacon, are still hanging around. This is good. They don't want to be caught. This is NOT so good. But having seen them over by their little house, and feeding area this morning has given me hope.

Willy and LP are very friendly. Willy loves to be scritched. I'm beginning to become fond of him. Maybe it's the fact that it's a round-a-bout way to my relatives back in England. My Great-Uncle named all of his boars Willy. It seemed appropriate. I just felt a layer of peace come over me when my mother related that to me, a total sense of rightness. LP stands for Little Pig. That's cuz he's littler than Willy, and he isn't ours, but since he's around for a bit, I needed something to talk at him with. I really prefer all my critters be sociable.

Gumdrop appears to have stopped sounding like a love sick Manatee. Thank Goodness! Wow, that was like 3 days of annoying noise, I'm telling you. Why no one told me that cows in heat were every bit as loud as weanling calves I don't know. Since Squire was kinda showing off his bidness, I figured that's what was going on. As well as some physical changes I noticed on Gumdrop. These things I learned for myself. Boy, am I proud of myself. LOL!

I am looking for an aerial photograph of the property, so that we can draw in the pastures and paddocks. We were discussing it last night, and we can put in a series of about six to eight pastures, each with paddocks in them for rotational grazing, and yet maintain one feeding area. This minimizes the amount of land damaged by hayfall. We need to get 2 hay racks put up, and that will help a lot too. There are a couple of kinks to work out...aka, keeping heifers and bull away from each other. Same with kids and lambs that still have there whatnots. I'm trying to work pigs into the grand scheme also, and we'll probably put the chickens in the middle, to let them have the run of the place....Not so sure on that yet, as they really should follow through with the goats, to pick through the cowpies. I know the rotation is cattle, goats/sheep, chickens. I'm just not sure where to put the pigs into the rotation.

I've been reading Steven Solomon's Gardening When It Counts. This is an eye-opening book. He assumes you know absolutely nothing about creating a garden from scratch! I'm consolidating thoughts on my gardening strategy, as well as everything else. I'm just wondering if my brain will overload from the copious amounts of input I keep stuffing in there!