Pig Gardening Gone Wry

First thing we want to do is put their mobile shelter in there. We need shelter for our pigs before we put up the fence. Hey, have we tried the ramshaw on pigs? It's probably too light, they'll probably move it into the net. Let's try it again.

Let me be free.

That was our pig sled, but it needs a little repair and it made me remember, hey, we got the ramshaw. Oh. Oh wow, look what the sheep and cows have done. Mowed our bank nicely. Here at Burl Holler, everything must be shoveled.

Okay.

Ramshaw becomes the pigshaw. Where are you going? Would it be easier just to get a— where's that corner? Shoot. Would it be easier to just get a BCS and just do the initial till job on this than to put pigs in here? Probably. I don't have a BCS. That's like a walking tractor. We need to have some place for these piglets to go, so why not put them to work in this nice little grassy patch. We've marked our corners. Now I can get an idea where I need to string trimmers and put the tents. Now, isn't this fun? I mean, there's an advantage into the process of this style of working. The boys are working up wood, excuse that noise. At least I'm not running another machine over here. There's something special to be said about working an animal that's on the farm. So we're putting up the Premier 1 pig net. I actually like the smallest one they've got. I mean, it seems counterintuitive, but With less strands to power, more electricity gets to it, the more powerful it actually is. So, and what do we do right here where we need a corner but we don't naturally have one? Premier One has these fiber tub posts, and now we have a handy corner. You'll not believe this. I've only got about one length and a little bit left, maybe 12, 13 feet from being able to do this with one net. I just thought of something. I was trying to think of ways to just— I mean, maybe cut one net in half. They're 100 feet long. What's the problem with just winding it around? You can do that. It's just more strands to ground out, more strands to power. It's gonna make it less powerful. I just thought of something though. That's half this size. It's better to have them in a smaller area anyway and move them more frequent. It gives them a concentration of their till because they're going to have favorite spots in here and they'll only work those spots. So making it smaller will help, then more of the area will be their favorite spot. Let's do— let's do half. Stakes in halfway. Mark will still have to do some overlapping, but we're still only powering one fence. We did it!

Wahoo!

Oh, that's good. Smiley one, everyone. I don't like this. I think she's figured out how to make us die. Oh, is that working, Annie? A water coming through a hose for them so that we can steal this water. I could use the other side.

Well, I— what in here? It's like, it's like, um, rolls. I don't want to get caught in the roll.

And oh no, he loves it.

Oh, like his little skin crinkles.

He loves it.

Look, he like moves his body.

Oh yeah, Rebecca and her pig. That's some pig. I don't think we could do two. Because it doesn't arch enough. We're gonna have to put a— we have to put a third on here and we'll have a little triangle. That'll work. We're gonna transport these piglets in this makeshift portable pig pen. All hands on deck for this. And hold the fence, and then we'll cut her back in. Oh, it won't fit. Okay, oh, check it out. There you go. Okay, so these will be—

because I wanted more garden beds, and then this will be the pumpkin arch and the walkway right through here. Correct. And then this will be our only walkway through the garden.

This was kind of dead space, such a big pathway.

Was— will this fit a mower?

Uh, it's 6— I did 6 feet. That's a good question. Oh boy, hey boy, we're gonna have to string trim this section.

Look at that! Oh, I'm gonna turn it on. I'll let them out.

They already tilled. Yeah, yeah, um, you're not turning on, Mama.

Don't— you'll zap me.

Don't, don't spook them. Well, you don't waste no time, do you guys?

I thought they'd eat grass first.

They're looking for those worms. It's not just right. Munching on the grass. Look at that, Beck. Perfect. Oh, here we go. That's good. Do you jump, Annie?

No, but I feel bad for it.

It figured it out real quick. That guy got shocked. He ran and he ran right through this. Okay, so somehow we just get him back in that, uh, cage. So I think they're Remembering the fence now, huh guys? All right, they're all kind of staying in the middle. They'll learn to get right up to the edge. They get with it, don't they? For feed, they're 2 pounds old, so that means however many olds they're gonna be— so they're gonna be 3 months old, they get 3 pounds a day. I'm gonna put it right on the ground to encourage their chilling. We got them food. There's one other thing. Aha! This is an old burn pile. This is some charcoaled pieces of wood. Charcoal is literally just the minerals left in the wood. What do we do? Have an escapee? Okay, maybe we should open it back up to the whole thing and then double it up. Yeah, and that'll make it—

yes, I agree with that.

He hit that and ran, didn't he? Yeah, he did. He walked right into that trap. They don't like different textures on the ground. We have another escapee.

No, it's the same one.

They turned off the net. One girl. We're gonna have to try something different. All right, they keep getting out. Should we try to try it again and let them train in here, or get some pig panels? They haven't figured out the shade yet. Rebecca's keeping them cool. Hurry up and get him some water. I don't know why he won't just go right over there and lay in this— lay in the shade. I'll move the shade. Now it's in the shade. I thought pigs were smarter than that. We got Mama Pig's water and we're gonna get her hooked up to a hose. This was empty. I mean, it was just above the nipple. I'm thinking they figured out how to make themselves a wallow and they've emptied this and they're thirsty. So I think they're just thirsty out there, so they're searching. Did they drink anything?

Drink again?

That'll be until we can get them a— we'll get them their drinking barrel. They seem to have calmed down. I think I can go with y'all, or you think—

well, as long as the boys are keeping an eye on this.

Okay, can you check on them? Sure.

This is what we've done. I've just pulled this one, which I thought I was recording, but I wasn't. Collards are all cut up, and I'm coming inside this dark, cool, dark house to— I'm gonna start the bacon. All the collards are in. I'm gonna find my 5-gallon pot, which is right here. Got my 5-gallon pot. I'm gonna cut up some onions. Get the bacon cooking in here, and then I will check back in with you guys. Giving a quick rinse. Not a whole lot of— there wasn't a whole lot of dirt on these. This is something that my family eats. Like, we know we eat it. I, I, and I particularly out of my whole family, my kids do eat collards. But I would say before you grow anything in your garden, if you can um, grow a small— or not grow a small, but buy it at the grocery store or the farmer's market first. See if your family even likes to eat it, because this would be a whole lot of work to do if your family didn't want to eat this. I've got my bacon and my onions going. I've got this much washed. I still have a whole nother tray because I packed them down in there. And I'm just waiting for this. I thought this was on a higher setting when I was washing them, but it wasn't. So I'm gonna put some collards in to kind of mix with the bacon grease, and then I'll pour the water in and put the rest of the collards, wash the rest of them and get them in the pot. It's gonna be interesting to see if this is a 5-gallon pot, if this is that many collards and how much it is, because I have no idea. My bacon is nice and browned. I'm just gonna toss in some and then get my water going. Okay, we might have to do 2 5-gallon pots. I'm still catching the hang of this, this vlogging thing. So I thought that I was sharing this with you all, but I wasn't. So I've got all of— I've got all of it in the 5-gallon pot. Um, Annie helped me out, washed up some of the collards while I sent an email. We're gonna pull some of these collards out. Probably. I'm going to chop up this cabbage that we just pulled out of the garden. Look at that, isn't that beautiful? We're gonna chop that up, fry it up. Um, we've got potatoes cooking on the stovetop, we've got lamb roast in the oven cooking. Update on my collard greens, they've cooked down nicely. They're almost done. We're gonna, we're gonna eat out of them for dinner tonight, and then tomorrow once they've cooled, put them in the Super Cubes, and I will hopefully show you that. I hope I remember to. It's in my, it's in my to-do list. So we will see you tomorrow.

Oh no, I found our problem, Josiah. This thing's leaking. It's coming down. Yeah, it's pretty much gushing out. Yeah, that's bad. Okay, so we got a leaking That's why this is wet. That's good. I was thinking the pigs figured it out. Turn it that way. What way? Towards the people barn. I mean, pole barn. Lily went to Lily's horse lessons. We're gonna stay here and be able to monitor these pigs, I'm afraid, because what if they get out, we don't know it, and Mom's beautiful garden is right there? Yeah, so we We gotta make sure they calm down, but I think now that they know water's here, they're secure. Okay, I've come out here an hour later. It's much calmer. They found the shade. They're doing a little bit of work. Okay, this is much better. This is gonna work. Forgot to get them the charcoal. We'll give them something to do anyway. Nibble, push that around. Boy, they're jumpy. Sorry, sorry guys. Never have I ever seen pigs get out like this. Somebody's gotten out again. All right, we got the piglet in with mom. Then we need 2 more of these. I only have, uh, I only have 2. We need 4. 2 for each gate in order to do the pig port. I was going to hang a gate on the pig— we would need that to be able to move it. We need that to be able to keep the pigs in. It would be cool to use the pig port though, wouldn't it? No. No.

Well, I guess it would.

The only other idea I had was they had those finer mesh piglet nets that maybe will— they'll see better. Maybe this one. I mean, it's designed for piglets. These guys are a little beyond piglets though, aren't they? Just how you spot me, you kind of This off. We'll kind of put it— take that down as we put this one up. I think at least this is going to be more of a visual barrier because they're seeing that and they're thinking, oh, I can just hop right through it. We have this finer mesh one designed for little piglets, and I guess in this case, 2-month-old piglets. Pigs have bad eyesight, so maybe this will help them. I mean, there's more webs. So we're gonna try it. All right, let's go get the guy. I don't have to show you this, you know. I could easily show you it once we figure it all out, but that's not the reality of homesteading. And many of you guys are gonna have things that work one time and then not the next, and this is just how it goes. Here we go again, déjà vu. I think that'll do it, Josiah. Yeah. Yeah. Are we going to be able to sleep easy tonight knowing they're not going to get out? Yeah. It's been hours and nobody has gotten out. I think it's due to this more visible piglet net from Premier One. They found the shade, they've got water. Eighth of the way done tilling this already. I think they'll hit it hard this evening. And in the morning, definitely stay tuned to follow this progress in the next vlog. Happy day! I tell you no lies, we're doing nighttime routine. We're in the bath, the pigs are out, they're going, they're going back in with mom. Hopefully the beautiful one's garden is still intact. Those kids are good, they just ran out and did it. They got them right in there with mom. All right, you piglets, you're back.

Look at him, he's like, you really—

for whatever reason, they are not going to stay in that net. In 6 years of raising pigs, I've never seen the likes of it. I'm not sure any run of pigs have gotten that that out that much during their lifetime. The only thing I can liken it to is I train them to an electric fence just once. I'll let everybody get shocked just once. Perhaps I should have kept that trainer fence in their physical coop for 1-3 days. Looks like they went at the garden a little bit, but I think everything's going to be fine. Did somebody come turn this fence off? Because You win some, you lose some, and some are rained out. Tomorrow I have a solution. You gotta have to join us. Let's turn that pig port into a pig tractor and let's run it right down through here, see how that works. Let me be free. Be free.