Water hoses and Pigs dont mix

I tried to separate Prince and Doreen so that I could give Doreen more food than Prince. Prince is on the podgy side and Doreen needs the extra sustenance to help her through her pregnancy. I tried shutting the gate, locking Doreen in the run and Prince in the field however Prince took advantage of a loose bolt on the gate and lifted the entire gate off its hinges.

Having fixed the gate today I successfully managed to separate the two for feeding time. Doreen however was in the run and had finished her feed and must have been looking for some fresh water to wash down the feast down with and sussed out some pipes running under the run that feed the chicken shed, a few quick nosed digs and she had successfully located the pipe and managed to bust the pipe from the join and struck water.

I rushed to turn off the water at the mains and Scott and I diverted the pipe up over the run and into the top of the chicken house. Problem solved I hope. Now to install a water feeding device on in the pigs run.

The circle of life

After returning from the Ararat Farmers market today I got back and put some more water in the pigs wallow to their appreciation and then rounded up the chickens to put them back in the coup for the evening. It was getting a bit dark and there was a dark shadow in the corner of one of the coups. For some reason the gate was shut on that pen and one of the chickens was motionless with its head stuck under a board looking like it was attempting to escape and had probably snapped it own neck. Amanda mentioned later that the black chicken was acting a bit loopy recently.

After disposing of the carcass I went to feed the Silkies which were still sitting on the eggs we planted under them and well over the 21 days that we had read about in terms of the incubation period. We did some reading last night about natural incubation and all articles pointed to leaving the hen to do what she does best. There was a broken egg lying next to them and my first reaction was the bloody things have eaten one of the eggs. I then noticed a little head poking out of the other side of one of the silkies. I did try to pry the silkies off to establish how many there were but was given a sever pecking as a reprimand.

Ararat Farmers Market

Today was the Ararat farmer market and we set of from Greenvale around 10:30. Just out of the gate and not 100 meters onto the Willaura-Wickliffe road and we encountered 6 of our heifers grazing on the side of the road. They had been put into the paddock next to the road which didn’t contain alot of feed as they were on the heavy side and needed to loose a pound or two . The grass wasn’t actually greener on the other side of the fence but there was a lot more of it which was appealing the cattle. We herded them back up, 5 made a run for it and hurdled the fence back into their paddock and we escorted the other through the gate.

We got to the Ararat market, parked at the football ground and wandered into the very pleasant Alexandra Gardens. There were approximately 20 or so stalls selling everything from home made jams, garments, herbs and spices, vegetables and a butchers selling magnificent sausages which we had for lunch. In the background was live jazz and all by the gardens lake.

There was a vendor selling pistachio nuts and she had some unprocessed which you had to first peel the husk then remove the shell and then take out the nut which was a lot softer and I think more tastier than the processed variety.

Today was the day my father also decided to loose his keys at the market. We searched around for them and made some enquires but to no avail. It didn’t help that there were no contact details on them. He also took two trips back to his house to try to locate a spare set, the first trip returning with my brother spare set. Resigned to the fact that he was going to have to wait until Tuesday, Monday being a public holiday he made a chance trip to the police station where low and behold they had been handed in. Lessons learnt; a. join the RACV (AAA) and, b. put a phone number on your keys.

Sir and Madam have arrived.

Today my brother Scott and I were up before the crack of dawn for the 2 hour drive to Fiona and Nick Chambers property Fernleigh Free Range farm to pick up our new additions to the Greenvale Homestead, Prince and Doreen. Prince and Doreen are Wessex Saddleback pigs, a rare breed that is believed now to be now extinct from England but prior to the Wessex and Essex Saddleback being merged a herd was imported around the early to mid 1900s from the UK. We arrived early to avoid travelling with the pigs during the mid day heat. Doreen is due to give birth around the 14th April is approximately 10 years old and Prince nearly is 2. We were to have taken another sow Betrice however where as we believed she was "in pig" as it turns out it was a false alarm and Fiona has kindly offered to keep here on for a while while she mates again.

Loading the two was an adventure in itself. Im sure they were just playing with us as it took us what seemed forever to load the pigs, Fiona, Scott and I tried Prince then Doreen then Prince and then Doreen, Bernie one of the stockmen from Fernleigh Farm also came to assist and finally with a combination of bits of zucchini torn up as enticements up the ramp and with some prodding, pushing and pressure being applied from the rear we finally got Doreen up there, she had travelled before on a number of occasions but this was all new to Prince as such he took a little longer. As soon as Prince was up in the back of the ute he thrust his nose under the unattached crate dislodging it from its base and we all frantically and manically dove into action to tie the crate to the ute before any more damage could be done. Unfortantely in the disruption Doreen tried to dive under the wire mesh divider and scratched her back.

Nick then showed us how to trim both the razor sharp tusks from Prince and clip the nails after which both Prince and Doreen settled into the shadecloth covered crate for the ride back to Greenvale. After the paper work was filled out and Fiona dumped a mountain of information on us from feeding to, ear clipping to tattooing and the list went on. No doubt some of this went in one ear and out the other but Fiona kindly offered to act as consultant when ever we had questions.

Doreen and Prince travelled well all the way home albeit standing up most of the way and the only incident was Prince getting slightly randy, something I wasnt comfortable with only because with a combined weight of over 400 kg and a lot of jigging about we might find our selves in the ute upside down in a ditch. Fortunately Doreen wasnt having any of it and managed to fend off Prince.

Back at Greenvale the two had only just laid down, something they really should have done the entire trip. We backed the ute up to their new accomodation and put up the bobcat ramps for them to disembark. I had visions of having the same troubles getting them down as we did getting them up however fortunately they were eager to sus out their new surroundings. Once in there new shelter they ventured out the back door which opened to a run to their paddock. The first wander along the run prince dug his nose into the ground digging it up as if it was butter. Both Prince and Doreen then both independantly wandered around the perimeter, Id imaging to check the fencing and as yet there is no electric fence to which they are accustom to having.

The water containers full of water which we provided were tossed in the air like a beach ball so we fetched an unused cement water trough, placed it in the paddock and filled it with water allowing some overflow to be used as a wallowing area which they seemed to really appreciate.

As they dug up the soil I noticed how dark and rich it looked, now Im wondering if I should reneg and take back the paddock for my own and plant some veggies. I think Ill give them time to settle in before thinking about any moves.



While they wallowed about and munched on the green grass I tightened up some fencing an activity Ive only ever observed Scott doing, it took me a while but not a bad job if I do say so myself.

Later in the evening Amanda went to offload some corn on the cob but the two were snuggled up fast asleep like an old married couple.

Willaura Hospital Outdoor Market

Today we ventured off to the Willarua Hospital outdoor market the proceeds of which were raising money for the Willaura Auxiliary East Grampians Health Service. There were around 30-40 stalls selling fresh produce, art & craft, fine food, bric a brac, a couple of wineries were represented and lots more. There was a kids bouncy castle that was a spiderman theme and the obligatory sausage sizzle. The biggest hit though had to be the ice cream truck. Not only did Ben devour his soft serve ice cream but took turns between Amandas and my ice cream also.
The State Emergency Services were out in force donning the orange uniform recruiting for volunteers. My only disappointment was that apart from a couple of honey producers there weren’t really any food producers selling there wares.
A successful day, I came away with 2 nectarine trees, a couple of rosemary bushes, a mint shrub a couple boysenberry vines, some brussel sprout and pea seeds, some mulberry and plum jam and some plum sauce.