Excited, but almost overwhelmed! But Pig changes are next.

  Everyday after my morning chores, I sit down and read about Homesteading! I love to read about all the people that are doing these things that I want to and am working towards doing. I get so excited, and I wish that I was already there and doing it all.
  Right now the Chief runs his Construction business from home, which is great. But as for me, I have only got as far as having two pigs and 5 chickens of which only two are laying every few days. What do I mean by doing it all? Well, I would like to have at least 10 laying hens, two pigs a year, 2 dairy goats, a pair of breeding rabbits for meat and my own great lil garden of Eden! To go along with that, I would like to learn how to can and cook, jar my own spices for cooking and anything elts I can think of along the way. Then I get to thinking about it all at the same time. For some reason I can't just stay with one and I get overwhelmed. I don't even know how I came to want all of this. Yes I have always LOVED animals and always will, but I was not raised on a farm. No one in my family has a farm and neather does the one friend I keep. I live on a 7 acre farm that happens to be right in the middle of Richy rich town and know no one of the same thoughts as me as to how I want to live. I have no one that has done these things before to guide me. My husband is a great help as much as he can be, but again he has never done any of this. I just feel a bit boxed in. But hopefully through other blogs that I read and books I might be able to pull this off myself.

  Other than all that babble you just read, my thoughts for today are my realizing that I need to move my pigs from the all dirt area right behind our house, out to the lush green Field that is not being used for anything! There is so much free food for their enjoyment, I just need to figure out how to get to that point.

  This is what they have for now, and I can't just pick up the fence and move it. My father in law and the Instigator set this up for me. the fence panels are buried 2 1/2 feet down so the piggies could not burrow under them. Then I had the thought that this would also be great for our first garden area, obviously because it is now very fertilized and tilled as well as all the big rocks have been brought to the surface for easy removal. But also because I do have dogs that are not use to living on a farm and do not yet understand that there are going to be things that they will not be aloud to pee on. So the fact that it is already fenced will help with keeping them out and other pesky lil things that might want an easy meal! I am luck that these guys have not begun to stink to bad.
  My biggest dilemma about moving the pigs to the front pasture (which is 6ft chain link fence with a barb wire top) is that our property ends right on the road. All though this is a dead end road it is the beginning to a very popular city walk way. Not only are there always people on this street walking but there tend to be lots of teenagers who these days are not ones to respect peoples properties, which has resulted in our front property house (waiting to be remodeled and lived in) with many broken windows and stolen doors ( not sure why they would steel the doors, it must be a cool kid thing lol). So I do worry about putting animals our there. But even if they were not messed with my other larger concern would be that many moms walk down here with their young children and hardly anyone knows that pigs can and will bight. I don't want some lil munchkin running up to reach in and pet the cool looking piggies as mommy takes a picture and chomp, baby has one less finger. I really do need some help with ideas on this one. I was thinking hot wire, and I would set it up about 2ft back from the fence so no one could reach it or the pigs but I don't have the means for that right not either. Arrrg, what to do???????
 

Also, I was having problems with my hens roosting on top of their nest boxes that had no lid, so they were pooing in them. Eeww, I was having to got out and clean them out twice a day, which as you can imagine was using up quite a bit of hey. So I went out and had my brother in law (The Instigator that we love so much) show me how to use the saw and I made some changes to my coop! Sadly one thing I did not read before we built the coop was to have the roosts up higher than the nests so they would not poo in the nest boxes. I have sense come across that information!

 This is before, see no top and oh what is this..... Well it's Not an egg!

  So I did this! Ta Da, I added a top that they can't roost on, also there is now a roost in front of the boxes for easy access. Yeah me! Next I will be making them a feeder because they tend to poop in the bowl and that just does not work for me either.
  Now my other challenge that I need to concur is how to organize this blog of mine. I am not sure how to go about that.