Moving The Bacon Bits to Pig Paradise

Yesterday we achieved one of this summer's biggest objectives....we finally moved The Bacon Bits to their new pig preserve - it was like they went straight to paradise.

For the last week or so we've been working very hard trying to fence in The Impenetrable Forest, much like we did last year. The new pig yard, sometimes called a pig "lot", has about 400 feet of fence deep in our woods down by the pond. Completing this project was a lynchpin in our strategy to eventually fence around the pond to make a safe place for our critters.

The most hated Fox Central is just on the other side and once we complete this fencing project (all the way around the pond) we'll have a great new barnyard that is safe for all and well patrolled by the dogs. The new pig lot is on the south side of the pond and extends just beyond it. The next pond-fence project steps will be to run a line of fence behind it and on the north side.

For this new hog area we put up about 200 feet of field fence - mostly tacking it up on the trees and a few tposts so that it joined the existing line of fence we ran a couple summers ago. This line of fence is not exactly on the south property line but is close enough so that when we fence the actual property boundary we'll have another dog moat on that side of the property. I'm thrilled - having a dog moat around the barnyard is one of my biggest goals.

You'll remember that we fenced last year's pigz in the woods and they did a great job of clearing the area - down the very last nub. We're hoping the little Bacon Bits will do just as good of a job. Once we released them into their new world they ran straight for the underbrush and started happily munching away.

Getting them down to their new yard required some careful planning. We couldn't just carry them down there, they are much to wild to 'herd', and heaven knows that some body's big idea of putting frightened, screaming pigz in wheeled garbage cans wasn't the best idea.

Since these pigz aren't very big we figured we could stuff them in our biggest dog carrier and....and... um... well.... After looking around and evaluating our resources we decided to use my water trolley.

This worked great. The dog cage was just big enough to be mounted in the wagon and all's we needed to do was snatch up them Bacon Bits and shove them in the cage. This part was largely successful.

Then we just trolleyed them across the yard, down the big hill, thru the gates, and over the bramble to the other gate, and tossed them into paradise. This happened without incident. Mostly.

The pigz took a careful look around, raced thru the underbrush, found out that the electric fence has got a kick to it, then settled down snuffing and rooting around. Once they figured out that when I yell "PigPigPig!" it means that their feeder will be verily overflowing with milk.. well.. they just knew they were in the garden of pig joy.

We set up a much more strategic feeding area than we've had before. For now we'll have to carry a bucket of water down to them, but I'll have the longest hoses I can find connected and run down to their new area by tomorrow.

I can tell you truly yesterday was my happiest day. Them little pigz finally got out of my turkey house - and out of my line of sight.....and smell. I can now happily go out and see my turkeys and my front gardens without having to smell the stench of pig awfulness. Never again with them little porkers rub their icky piggy noses on my legs again.

The next time they see me coming it will be with The Black Death and vengeance, and pork chops, will be mine. Smell ya later, oinkers!  My goal is not to have any contact with you until that glorious day when bacon shall be made. Hallelujah!

Have a glorious day everyone!