Adopting pigs and finding a well

Harley (black) and Chloe (white)

We adopted a couple of Pot Bellied pigs this week. One male and one female, and because we have them in the same pen, most likely we will be seeing baby pigs in about four months.  It was traumatic picking them up. They were scared, we were unknown, their nails are way too long and the female, Chloe, got her toe stuck in the trailer ramp. She screamed and screamed, but we got her out. It took three of us maneuvering her around to do it, but she got free. The two of them together were the hardest things to catch I have ever dealt with. Worse than llamas. We ended up putting cardboard and a rubber mat down on the trailer ramp, and eventually got them in.

At home, it was much easier to deal with them. We just put an old rug down on the ramp and opened into their new pen. We are all getting used to each other now. They are calmed down and let us pet them behind the ears. In a week or so we have to start working on their toes, which are just in horrendous shape.

poor Chloe's toes

Those two pigs have rooted up almost all of the soil in their small pen and turned hardpacked rocky dirt into pretty brown plantable soil, minus the rocks of course. We plan on using them in the garden, like Joel Salatin's pigerators, to turn the soil and mix the compost. But we won't eat them in the end...just keep them around to mix the soil. They are ugly cute, I have to say. We have big plans to teach them to walk on harnesses. Won't that be entertaining? Then we can walk our pigs and llamas. But, maybe not together. And not here, with the crazy running dogs, but up on our new land where there are no dogs to be seen anywhere.

As if that wasn't adventure enough, before we picked up the pigs, we went to our land near Alamosa to put up some fence posts and mark the northern boundary before the driveway goes in. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but there was a mix-up with the culvert, so maybe on Tuesday. We put tall posts with pink flags in the four corners of our lot and used binoculars to stake a line. We got a few fence posts in, but most all of our fence posts are being used here, at the rented farm. Oh, this is a process! Taking fence down, putting fence up...so much to do now.

While we were stumbling through salt bush and chamisa, we happened upon a well pipe, just ten feet or so on our property, but it is ours! It appears there is a well there and we may not have to drill at all. So now, we have to research that and talk to the well guys and figure out what to do next. Is it a usable well? Is the water any good? There is standing water in the pipe, about three or four feet down, so there is water there. How deep is the well, I wonder? So many questions, but I'm not complaining. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon that pipe sticking up out of the ground!

Also, I have cleaned turkey feathers this week, using a couple of methods, and now have some for sale. Check it out at our farm store page (tab at top of page). Some of them are really long...nearly 16 inches!

I washed some llama wool this past week too, and hope to try felting again. Always busy. The kids and I are working on a clay project again and I hope to get the kiln dug out of the garage and get this stuff fired before we move into the RV.  I'm working on a incense burner for sage and what not for my shaman stuff. Exciting! The motif is all about snakes who represent healing and transformation. I'm looking for a rattle snake rattle too, just because it seems to be filling my ears lately (in song, and thankfully not in a reality full of live rattlesnakes).

We may also be adding a miniature horse to the farm in the near future. Why not? Horse medicine is running strong these days.