This began with our first experiment with electric fencing. We put the goats inside our first fence on a regular basis, and they ate a lot of the greenery. It was kind of a pain to take them back and forth to their usual place, so we eventually stopped and fenced off some other green food for them. Instead, we decided to use some of the space they had started clearing and build ourselves a little pig hut. For interest, and for speed of building we decided to try out a straw bale design (which Jeff found the idea for online). This isn't straw bale building like someone would build a real house out of, but it should be good enough for the pigs for the time they'll be with us. It took 21 straw bales, a little wood, some rebar, a bit of wire, and some old tin that we have left from the chicken house deconstruction. It was built in a day, with the help of my cousin Michael and WWOOFers (I think only Andrus was here that day, but I might be wrong). If this doesn't work, I guess we'll move on to sticks, and if that doesn't then bricks.
Then it turned out that pigs need to have special training for electric fences. So we had to take a little more time and make them a small enclosure around their little straw house. From our research you can use electric fences to hold pigs, but they need some convincing that running through it isn't a good idea. So we have a small regular fence with one electric wire running inside of it about 6 inches off the ground. This way when they hit the electric wire if they try to go through it they can't, so they learn that once they've been shocked they should turn around. It turns out, they might have been okay with just the electric wire, when we got them and they hit it they seemed pretty convinced that they should turn around. (According to some of my internet research if the wire hits them between snout and nose they turn around, if it hits them above they eyes they charge through).
Then this past Saturday the day was finally upon us and we went to Ranburne, Alabama (about 20 minutes away) to pick up our two new Hereford Pigs. We got them because the guy who had them raises for shows, but their color doesn't quite match the Hereford breed standard. Then we decided to name them Tessio and Clemenza. Clemenza is of course the heavier of the two (weighing in at 38 pounds when we got them, compared to Tessio's 33). They came home with us, and seem to have settled into their new surroundings reasonably well. We're hoping to keep them in the small pin until they are big enough that we don't need to lower the wire on the big pin, but they may start to stink in the small enclosure if they stay there too long. Time will tell. They are definitely in a bigger enclosure than they were at their old place.We are very excited by this new addition to our farm. The pigs are hopefully going to serve at least two purposes. One is root clearing. Since our land was clear cut and is now growing back with all kinds of scrub and small trees. Our best soil has TONS of roots growing in it, and that makes it hard to garden. Since pigs like to root (dig for and eat roots) and are known for tearing up the ground, we are hopeful that they will help to get rid of the roots, or at least some of them. If they do, pigs will become a definite part of our overall land clearing regime. If they don't, they will still be very tasty (purpose number two).
"That's all folks!"
-Jeff & Annie
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