Monday, January 18, 2010

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.

5 comments:

Colleen said...

It was very nice to visit you again Janice! Since we live closer now, you can expect to see me more often.

The pigs are quite, quite lovely. VERY good looking and healthy. Sweet little buggers! And Buddy looks fantastic too, what a nice boy he is. And Dior and Lacy are stunning and so friendly. Nice group of animal friends you have Janice!

Jean said...

Glad to hear things are going well, Janice.

As for the kettle - time to find one with a whistle on it? I found that was the solution for me, after burning the bottom out of the silent kettles more than once!

See you next week!

Janice Gillett said...

I enjoyed our visit too! Do you think Buddy looks too heavy??? He is so wide in the shoulders!
I will tell the horses and the pigs what you said in the morning ;o))
Thanks Colleen, what did you think of the pigs set up compared to the old place?

Janice Gillett said...

LOL Thanks for saying that Jean , i know i am in good company!! hahaha

Right a kettle with a whistlte!!!

Yes i can't wait for you to see it as you spent the night here even BEFORE I DID lol But you will get the real before and after !!

Colleen said...

Buddy could stand to lose 5 pounds. No more though, he's a big ole Rotti X and should be blocky and solid like he is. And remember all dogs gain weight during the winter.

I LOVE the new digs for the pigs!! The pigs have more room for rooting around in the pens and out. Really well thought out plans there Janice.

And omg, I LOVE your home! And you're right...that games room is big enough to turn into a barn!! Easily 8 stalls.

See y'all Saturday noon. :)