When it rains...it rains some more

Since the Marines illness and  hospital stay.  We have fallen behind on a lot of our must do projects.

First of all I thought Miss Piggy was due to give birth the first week in February and we had not built her a separate pen and shelter from our boar.  As it got closer to the date I saw no signs that birth was imminent so we didn't get in a hurry.   Not that I or Papa Bear are experts.  This will be our first rodeo but according to everything I read and pictures I saw she wasn't close.  Thank God I looked at the gestation chart wrong. 

In November Miss Piggy became so frustrated with Kermit our boar that she tried to show him how the deed is done.  OK...she had it backwards too,  but you get my meaning...hahaha  piggy porn!

If they finally got it right and the deed was done during this time, I should have piggies the first week in March.  If she didn't get pregnant during this heat cycle, then 21 days later will be toward the 3rd week in March.









When we got home from the hospital we had so much rain that the pen Miss Piggy and Kermit were in had massive mud puddles.  I had nightmares that Miss piggy was going to give birth and all my new piggies would drown.  Papa Bear and I recouped a couple of days from the day and night shifts at the hospital and then got busy.  We got a new pen put up adjoining the one shown in the photo above with a gate separating the two.  A larger shelter was also built.  

This is Miss Piggy in her new digs.  I had to put a bucket in the corner and tie it to the fence until I can get an automatic waterer installed.  I have to fill it up a couple of times a day.

This is a picture I took today on the 26th.  Any piggy experts out there who can guess if she's due anytime soon?  It is supposed to freeze here again tomorrow night.  Murphy's law and all you know.  I will get as much hay as I can moved in there with her tomorrow.....just in case.








I told you when it rains, it rains some more.  Yesterday I noticed Calico, one of my pregnant does limping.  I am way behind on trimming goat hooves.  I know...bad goat mama.  I brought her into a stall and put her up on the milking stand so I could save my back from breaking.  Sure enough.  She had a lot of extra growth with dirt packed under it that was causing her to limp.  I got the hoof trimmers and pick,  got one front hoof done when Papa Bear handed me a new pair of trimmers.    I trimed her back hoof and went to the other side and got the back trimmed and started to do the front and saw a pool of blood.  OMG.  I thought I was extremely careful not to cut too close.  I called Papa Bear and told him to bring me the ground Cayenne pepper.  He wanted to know if I had cut myself...I said no...the goat.  I got a bucket of water and paper towels and still could not see anything on the hoof and then I felt the blood oozing through my fingers where I was holding around her pastern.  I had cut a nasty gash with those new clippers and didn't even know it.  Calico never flinched or anything.  I got it washed and poured the cayenne pepper on the gash.  It clotted the blood in just a few seconds. (Cayenne Pepper is a great item to have in your survival gear.)  I have used it on myself.  It does not burn like you think it would.

Once the bleeding stopped I put some Colloidal Silver gel on the wound and wrapped it to keep the dirt out of it.  Today she is just limping slightly.  I'll take the bandage off tomorrow and see how everything looks.  I probably should give her a tetanus shot too if I can remember.  She's just going about her usual business like nothing is wrong other than the small limp that I caused!  Her kids are due in March.  It's going to be a busy month!

While running back and forth between the goat shelters, pig pens and house I noticed the pear trees have started blooming.  This is what happened last year.  The trees bloomed out, we had a late freeze that killed the blooms and had no pears.  It is supposed to be 29 tomorrow night.  Such is life.

On a brighter note.  The Marine is doing well.  He is sleeping here through his Nebulizer treatment.  He told me he didn't mind being a lab rat...More on that later.

His fur babies are glad he is home.  We only allow one at a time to sleep with him since his illness instead of all three of his babies piled up with him.  It was Freeway's turn last night.  He just propped up on the Marine's leg and decide he wasn't moving!