Lady and the mischievious pigs

I know, I know, it's a never ending diatribe about goats. But there is so much to talk about. I found out that our baby girl goat has been named Lady. She continues to spend her nights indoors but we put her in the barn with the goats during the day. Her mom is still hostile towards her so they are in separate pens. Unfortunately her brother, who was very active this weekend can no longer stand up. We think he was injured by one of the goats jumping into the pen. It is really heartbreaking to watch him crawl/drag himself to his mom so he can feed. But because he cannot stand up he sort of just whimpers a bit. I have picked him up twice today and held him so he could feed off his mom. Not only is this an awkward job holding this thing in my hand up to the tit, but I also have to dodge droppings, chase after the mother when she decides to move every two minutes, and endure the horrid stench of corn-induced goat farts. We are feeding Lady every 3 hours (using 1 part powdered sheep milk to two parts warm water) at the same time one of us is holding up the little guy to his mom. Definitely not ideal.

Lady with her goat Snuggie

We have two types of pigs on the farm, Oldspots and Tamworths. We keep the Oldspots near the chickens and the Tamworths near the cows and goats. I much prefer the Oldspots because they are much friendlier and most of them are still under 1 years old. Whenever I go in their pen the little ones try to chew on my rubber boots. But they love to be pet and scratched. These guys are playful, and unlike the 700 hundred pound Tamworth named Peter who makes me crap my pants every time I go into feed him, these guys I am not afraid of. Their playfulness though can sometimes get expensive. For instance, in the past three weeks they have managed to tear out the heating element in their watering trough, for the second time. These things cost $50 bucks a pop.

In order to deter the pigs from destroying the new heating element, we decided to outsmart them. Using two by fours and screws, we anchored down the trough. We will see how long this lasts...