Moving the pigz

I moved the pigz the other day - it was kind of an emergency "Oh no!" kind of thing. They had started to dig a big hole right under the gate!

 Hog happy in salad.

They had basically eaten everything in their current yard and we need to do a progressive yard by yard move down to the deep woods anyway. So the other day was the perfect time to go and find me fencing tools and get at it. 

Mostly I just needed to string up some field fence along the current hotwire we'd set up for the goats. The goats hadn't been interested at all at grazing down the hill....until I was working down there then they were all "But this is MY yard!" and the crying started. Too bad goats the pigz are moving in!

The hardest part about this fencing project was getting all the materials. You'll remember that I received the most romantic gift ever ...so I had plenty of field fence. But I didn't need that long of a section and I remembered there was some behind the Turkey House. Unfortunately it was in the weeds.... and I had to drag it out thru the brambles and down the hill. This really was the hardest part.

Make sure you turn of the electric fence first! Then set up the field fence outside the hotwire.

All I did was get my fence post pounder and whack in some tposts on the outside of the hotwire. I had to set up a couple hog panels to "close" this yard where the goats could previously just walk thru to the next yard. I also need to set up a panel near the "gate" section. I used the same gate we had to get into the pig yard - now it just swings the other way. I added a short section of hotwire across the inside of this part and added a fence connector and there you have it.

You can see the moonscape of the old yard. They had picked it clean.

The pigs had to figure out how to get up and out of their yard and I lured them with corn soaked in goat milk. But once they were in... they were in. There is a lot for them to eat and they are pig-dozing all around the stumps.

That's some happy pork.

This weekend we'll move them along to the next field by running the rest of the field fence to the next "yard" and doing a similar field fence with hotwire on the inside set up. Once they are all the way into this next yard I'll go thru and till up their old yards and plant turnips and pumpkins to keep them happy this fall.

Technically we should have moved them a couple weeks ago but that's OK. We'll get them moved soon enough.

Happy Friday everyone! Are you moving pigz?