Good Good Freinds

Jean was here Thursday and we had a great visit! We had a quick bite and then off we went bargain hunting at a few thrift stores in Maple Ridge. We both found things that we needed for our new homes.

Then we came back here and Jean treated all the pigs with a huge bag of hazel nuts and she must of taken a bazillion pictures! Can't wait to see them on her blog when she gets home and settled from being away. Then we fed them all dinner and Jean took some more pictures lol

After we had everybody else fed we drove down to the Shake and Shingle Pub not too far from here and Jean treated me to a really nice dinner. Good time and much needed break from the routine here .

Saturday was busy today with my sister helping and Brent back again. Today we tackled the basement starting with my millions of tins, jars , coffee cans of nuts ,bolts,nails washers you name it . And started to try and separate them all. Still boxes of this and that to unpack and we boxed up maybe 2 dozen tins of paint left behind for recycling.

Then Gloria and Stan came to visit from "For Pets Sake" and brought some boxes of good garage sale items AND a really nice donation!!! There organization holds fundraisers and pub nights to help folks like us. Cool eh!!!

To wrap the night up Lisa arrived our Bunny Loving girl and we rounded up six bunnies from a neighbor. We got them into some nice little cages i had here , lined them with towels and they are all snuggy warm and on there way to there new homes. Nice way to wrap up a day and Lisa helped me feed the pigs too.

Lisa has a little car and here is a picture of her co-pilot and the kids we got out before they were turned into dinners.

Wilbur: One Precious Pig Spared the Slaughterhouse

Sundays

I have always liked Sundays as technically it is my only day off. That of course when i am working full time and by no means did i ever stop working but there was peace and it was my day. After a work week and then waking to Saturday mornings filled with volunteers and the grueling work ahead of us. But Sunday mornings was my time and nothing would dictate how i did what, unless i had a booked visitation. Then every thing worked around that but the early mornings were mine.

I spent some time on the grass with Ricki and Whisper who were happy to get my attention while there family raced all over the acreage. Cooing the way pigs do with there bristles raised, i loved on them for a long time as i laid down on the damp grass.

And I watched Georges reaction when he saw me coming. A happy spin and a trot around the tree to greet me.

When I went out side to feed dinner tonight which was 30 minutes from when I was last out there Dior gave me a great horse hello. She knickers all the time but this was a song! I loved that!!! And today watching the two knuckle heads drinking from the pond is a picture in my mind I will never forget.

I watched Scout bucking in playfulness as he raced towards his brother. Hearing the hello between mother and son when reunited after searching for roots in different areas of the property. A loud and deep oh oh oh.

Buddy playfully grabbing my hand as he was so excited to have his collar on, and me with leash in hand. I could go on and on. Every body is happier here , every one of them. And these large pens are so much healthier for them as they leap from there nests to race to the gates for feeding times and freedom.

Tonight Mouse left her patio door nest and was up here with me where my office is set up. I caught her looking at a empty space between two pieces of furniture and it made me get up. I went and got two blankets from upstairs and spread them out beside me. She has made a new nest not more then four feet away from me here. I took this picture of Mouse laying in the sun yesterday. I sent it to Ken our vet with a note from Mouse thanking him for today, yesterday and tomorrow.

Tortilla gave me a scare early today as sometimes i hear his cries from his house at feed times and then i know he needs me to help him to his feet. He is an old guy about 16 -17 years old now. Today was different his front legs were pulled tight towards his tummy and i thought oh dear is today the day. I asked him if he was okay and his eyes were closed and he cried and cried. I reached over him and gave him a lift and he got up to his feet and was fine. It was like he had forgotten how to get up and that is what i asked him. "Did you forget how to get up Tory?".

But tonight I realize he must of been asleep and having a bad dream. Silly me, poor Tortilla. He still gets up about three times a day getting his exercise and fresh air. Yet he has not venture out to his horses yet. I started him on some remedies two days ago so we will see if that gives him some of his strength back. I check on him every night , watch him get into his house okay and put a flash light on him every night before i go to tuck in Penny.

I got a lot done today but it was in peace and with out threats or worries.

Cleaned four paddocks and the barn and pasture . Cut down some branches and cut off the lock left on the gate from the previous owner. That thing was bothering me and was only confusing visitors. Calling to me from the gates ..BUT IT'S LOCKED!! lol

I also planted a tree that had been run over by the fencing crew and saved by me replanting it quickly in some soft soil by the house. I look out at Dylan's yard and it is pretty boring compared to what he used to have. I may have to change that but while he was sleeping away i planted that tree in his yard. He got up to see what was going on just after i gave it some water. I hung on the fence rails and watched him find it and his tail started to wag. I told him "i did it for you!" "It is your tree and it will always be known as Dylan's Tree. Gads if i change his yard , i 'll have to move the tree again.. lol.



Well off i go to check on the kids and hit the couch.

Freedom Penny

WOW . Erin came to help, wow a volunteer!! And she arrived with apples and carrots too. I should mention Lee came to visit yesterday with 6 cases of apples and another leaf bag of bread for the pigs. And a really nice pineapple loaf for me , YUM! Well of course my sister was here and Mom came over too . Brent was back as well so we got lots of stuff done.

Cleaned up some of the mess out front behind the fence which i think was left overs from the tree house that used to be here. We also disturbed a little fat gray mouse so we were quick to leave him some of his wood for mouse protection. All the cement blocks scattered about the property were gathered to one pile . They are left overs used to raise sheds and enable footing for the crane truck when it got stuck. The big hole created by big tires got filled too!

Another heavy load to the dump but metal and rotten wood can be recycled. Brent came and helped me unload after all of us filled the truck up. So much waste in the wood pile at the dump. Old wood barn windows i would of loved to grab , but your not allowed to scavenge hunt there anymore.

Another mild day and pigs were enjoying there freedom. I let big Roscoe out first, he loves to be anywhere we are. He ventures out and then returns to us to catch up on what we are doing. He gets a rub and a scratch, and off he goes again.

The horses barn got done and the pasture was picked clean and all the waters got done. I got some of the pen work done but by 2 we were all done physically.

Big day for Penny!!! I was calling the Super Wee's in for dinner and looked in shock, Penny was coming too! She has never been out this far and has never been that far anywhere, even at the old place.

I start feeding at 3:30 and she was still cruising around when i came in here at 5:30. I was out a lot longer too, as it was such a pleasure to watch her explore the pasture.

With the help of homeopathic remedies and human brand Recovery. The home made soup and scattering her food every night the weight is coming off even more and her limp is totally gone. The added exercise has really helped her and sweet Penny has awakened from her fat depression and painful life.

I added a picture of her from when she arrived

Yes that is her way out there!!

Out of the Darkness

Another beautiful day and i took lots of pictures as you can see and some movies so you can see the set up for the pigs.

I went into town today and loaded up with hay again and filled the inside of my truck with apples , carrots , peanuts and wood burning pellets for the stove. I also splurged and bought a little shop vac so i can clean out the pellet stove better. And you all know i set my little one on fire by doing that and using the house one is going to wreck it. I need a shop vac anyhow and man they work great. Far better then any of these house hold ones they sell you. Yes, bigger and bulkier but power!! Oh oh oh oh oh ohhhhhhhh power.

As i looked at the pictures I took today i realized something. How i was frantically searching with Sue my real estate agent for a place for both the horses and the pigs . How it had to have shelter for the horses and pasture. It have to have enough land to build bigger and better piggy paddocks. How it couldn't be too far from my Mom. What if i got snowed in and lived out in the boonies, how would i get feed , hay and smokes LOL .

Anyhow what i am trying to say is who would of thought that all of a sudden i am now realizing that by fluke the house is perfect for me too.

When every one is fed i sit outside on the bench and make sure Tortilla makes it back into his house okay. He is an old guy and his rear legs are not as strong as he used to be. While i was looking at him he was looking at me. Your so cute Tory and he "oofed" in agreement.

It was then for the first time in my life did I look up at a crescent moon and saw a beaming smile in the sky.

If They are Happy, I'm Happy.

Well i got all the rest of the pigs houses filled with straw and raked the Super Wee's paddock and after doing the horses and two wheel barrows to start with i was done. It took five trips to wheel barrow over 5 bales of straw and i took two out filled with piggy pearls and pine needles out of the Super Wee's. The rest of the paddocks will have to wait until tomorrow.

All the pigs who weren't out free disappeared into there houses to fix the straw how they like it and search for delicious oats. And thank goodness because ohhhh poor poor Comet. His high pitched WEE'S translated too "let me out,I want out oh pleeeaseeeeeee" . Try as i might to explain that doesn't change anything. That he was out yesterday and others were watching him. Its only fair i am telling him and he stops and thinks about that for a few minutes and then he can't help himself and starts all over again.

It was 12: 30 so i started to call the Super Wee's ( JEANNNNNNNNNNNNN) and every body came except Tom. He had me walking all over the place thinking he was confused and was trying to find his way back. NOT.. he totally ignored me and even though i put a dish of crunch under his nose he had his own agenda.

I had to go into town so I left Buddy out to protect the little brat.

I got the truck loaded for the dump and let me tell you when i got there i could barley pull the card board out of my truck. I get quite a bit of cardboard here as get cases of apples and go threw about 4-6 cases a week . But i was out of strength and it feels so weird to be that weak lol

I got home about 3:30 and there was Tom pacing his fence line. "How do i get in???". "I want in nowwwwwwwwww". With a smirk on my face i walked out there before i unloaded my truck and thought to myself next time he will a good listener.

I almost forget there was reason for celebration on Saturday!! And i called Mom and my sister out so they could see!! Gads Danny has been with me for years and came in so fat his eye sight was permanently damaged. Back at the old place the Butter Cup kids had a huge paddock and that was good because only one of them ever wanted to go out. Danny, Casandra and Tuskers are The Butter Cup Kids and if you look back to when i first started this Blog you can read all about them.

http://heartsonnoses.blogspot.com/2008/10/is-my-pig-too-fat.html

When i talked to this herd about us moving one day i promised them no gravel driveway. There gate exited right onto the driveway and they had to cross it to get to the pasture. Tuskers and Danny both hated the rocks and it took cake to get Danny out at all. I would tell him "there are no holes" and "follow the fence line out". He couldn't see well and i needed too assure him.

Thankfully it was a promise i could keep, there is no gravel on this driveway and it is paved. So the gates were left open for them on Saturday just after noon and about 2:30 i was making sure they all had gone back in as i needed to start all there dinners soon. Cpt Norm was in and so was Cassandra and Tuskers , they were milling around in there paddock . Where is Danny???? I looked in there house twice, around back of it too as they have a really large L-shaped pen.

Danny was all the way across the pasture just trucking home and wagging his tail like a windshield wiper. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Danny, look at you go!!
I found a picture of him taken in the back yard at the old place as that was a big deal for him too.

The pigs are happier here , Danny says so.

Great day!

Well things are starting to feel more comfortable around here now that i have furniture basically in its place. I can start banging nails in the walls and hang my pictures and paintings. My bazillion stuffies have a home in here and I think all those shelves behind my bar ( HA! ) will be used for my piggy collectibles.

I have two old farm house frames i am going to have glazed with mirror and I will hang them down my hallway to bring more light down there. Lots of cedar on these walls and with the big beams and huge rock fireplace it works in this place.

I try and get a good four-five hours in outside every day starting with the horses barn of course. And filling up the wheel barrow on the way to the manure pile cleaning up the pasture as i go. Got to stay on top of that it is too daunting when i leave it too long.

Saturday Mom and my sister arrived so we played in the house all day moving some of the stuff i couldn't do alone. I sold my rubber mats i don't use and bought this huge shag rug with the money. Listened to my Mom tell me how much she hated it , how would i clean it and i can't vacuum it blah blah blah. I told her she was starting to piss me off and she said your pissing me off too . LOL She is 87 years old we both cracked up laughing.

Brent who is doing community service's hours was also here and he helped us inside for a bit and then I got him to work on the manure out on the pasture.

Sunday i am trying to remember what i did oh i was talking on the phone for almost two hours about pigs and forgot i had put a kettle on the stove and melted it. Could of burnt the house down for crying out loud. I sure miss my gas stove, boiling water and cooking was instant!

Great day to today , more beautiful mild weather. I had to clean out Don Juan's house as i sneaked a peak in there while he was eating and it looked wet in there. I had one little window not covered so i got everything prepared on the outside so i could get him locked out while i worked in his yard. Kind of stupid but the little shit still wants to fight me. So i got him out and he had a fight with the cardboard box instead. I left it outside for him on the driveway. It had the left over treats in it from all the pigs breakfast. I had to totally clean out his house, as all his bedding was saturated from him using his house as a litter box. I had two wheel barrows with me so that was good and i dried it out by pouring a bucket of shavings on the floor. I had a bale of straw there too , fixed his window with plastic, gave him a great straw nest and used the rest on Norms and the Butter cup kids.

Not sure why he is going in his house again. He did this when he first moved in with us and i think it was because of where he used to live . He must of had a barn big enough for him to potty inside. He stopped doing it after we replaced the floor down there and gave him a cover. This house is no where near as big as his old one so why is he doing this ??? I think his house needs to be lowered as his ramp is too high and i guess i am going to have to get him a cover as he appears to rather sleep in his shit then get his bristles wet.

I raked all the pens on that side , the ones i am showing you in the pictures. Dons house is the second one in . The first three are about 16 feet x 50 feet , they looks small in the pix, but the space goes behind each of there houses too. And then I scrubbed all the dishes and did all fresh waters for everyone. Ton of work when you can't bring the hose with you. All these paddocks are huge so the distance is further , and hooking up two 100ft hoses isn't going work for me here. Its too much work to get them around this and over that , it is easier to hand pail right now.

What i would like to do is set up some rain catchers at the furthest points and then i can get water closer to some of my pigs.

Colleen (SAINTS) arrived for a visit and with some dog crunch for the pigs so we had a nice visit and a cup of tea. It was perfect time for a break too before i feed dinner to them all. The pigs haven't had dog crunch since last summer i think so i will treat them that for breakfast tomorrow. I don't like to feed it too much as it makes them more thirsty, it would be like us eating chips every day.

What a great day , i got so much done and it makes me feel good to know all the pigs have fresh waters!! Treats in the cupboard, great weather and a nice visit from Colleen, perfect!!

But i am cold, wet, and my back hurts so i am going to jump in the shower before i feed all my inside kids oh and then me.

Tomorrow i will rake the rest of the pens and add straw to every ones houses so i know they are comfy and warm and good for the next few weeks again.

Well its about time!

What a difference in weather compared to last year,and i hope i don't jinx us by saying that. We were under three ft of snow last last year and it sure looked beautiful in the pictures lol. Well it is a tad wet here right now but i keep telling the pigs it is better then snow!

The area of the acreage i had built all the piggy paddocks on is a wetland. I go out there and i keep telling the pigs they are not moose , they are pigs! I guess i should be talking about ducks but moving from the worry of flood to this all I can say to the pigs is "what have I brought us too???".

I have plywood and walking boards in the big pigs paddocks as try feeding a 700 pound pig with a bucket in your hand and your boot stuck in the muck. Can you hear me telling them "DON"T BUMP ME". And three of the pots paddocks have them knee deep in water at the gates too. Thankfully where i placed all the houses are in the highest areas and room to feed and potty. I would also like to add had of these pigs not been the rooting machines they are it might of been a tad better to deal with. But they were so happy to have so much room and grass they couldn't help themselves!!! And even though i knew it was going to be bad one week into building them all i didn't want to cover all that grass with gravel or sand and take that away from them before they got to destroy it LOL . Okay then, it is all my fault...

Something major has to be done but we all will have to deal with it until dry weather as there is nothing i can do or bring in when the ground is saturated everywhere. ugh ugh and ugh And the reality of it is i couldn't of dealt with it in the time frame I had or the weather we were already in.

I did get my computer repaired by a great guy who came over the night i called him who worked for 2 1/2 hours on my system and only charged me 75.00. My camera was back in action until yesterday when i was going to take some pictures and now my camera says "card error" WTF now??? So I will share some of the ones i did get before my system got messed up.

Mouse is still in the house ..LOL and Penny is doing awesome!!! My horses are good too and my cats are still scared to death to come out of the living room. They have the entire two bedrooms in the attic and the living room but wild as they were when i brought them in the wild fear is still in them. I can't wait until they see the big room. lol

That has been an on going dilemma as what to call this games room. The den, the big room, the games room the bat cave??? I wish i had of taken pictures of this room to show you. Its HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to find some help here fast as i have no one coming to help here any more with the physical work besides my sister who comes half a day on most Saturdays. I could get that pig our of the shelter if i had some man help here for a day. But i can't do what i need to do by myself or pay any more out for help here and it will take a few of us to do what needs to be done. Lucy Lucy Lucy.. sigh...

The pen work cost me 21000,00 , the well pump 3100.00 , add two vet bills 3100.00 and i am tapped out as far as the loan goes. Can you imagine what it could of cost with me without all the help i got ??? Man oh man!!!!!!!! The crane trucks all those horse trailers and moving trucks!! And all the food, help, labour whewwwwwww thank God and my spirit herd!

Bosleys donated about ten bags of feed and that helps big time and friends are still helping by bringing apples and carrots when they can. And leaf bags of french bread is always a hit and great for the cold winter months to keep the fat on my kids to keep them warm. Yesterday the pigs not only had breakfast they also had blueberry's for an afternoon snack! So we are doing well with support that way and the donations are keeping the feed bills paid. Oh that reminds me to call back a friend who is pitching our cause to one of the grocery stores , i need to do a letter!!!

Ps i need to find a home for three rabbits FAST. Two lop ear and one friendly black. There little selves will be toast if i don't get them out of where they are. Thankfully they are being given a chance so I can't mess around here.

Happy New year

Today a little pig who was found abandoned and starving is on his way 'home'. The emergency only came threw a few days ago when my good friend Maggie wrote asking if there was room at the Inn. She lives on one of our Vancouver islands and this little pig was discovered by one of the neighbors, alone and starving.

Enter Jean our foster Mom to the Super Wee's here who moved to Crofton who jumped to work for this little pig. Net working with her new friends over there and knowing of someone who had spoken to her about getting a pig one day. Well today is the day!! LOL

Maggie, Bob and and Gail over there made arrangements to transport today and when the crate went down that little pig walked in knowing and trusting those around him that he would be going to a better place and he walked right in. ( jean called me first thing to let me know)

Jean will meet up with the rescue team in Crawford and transport the rest of the way to a piece of heaven near Crofton. There awaits Pat and hubby with a house full of straw , a large area to be a pig, mini goats, a horse friend and a small herd of mini dogs lol. And i am quite sure a bowl of everything a pig desires.

Pictures to follow once this little pig is 'home'!!!

Edited to add Jeans Blog who laid out the yellow brick road... http://mylifewiththecritters.blogspot.com/