Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Farm Chores: Feeding the Pig and Chickens!

My super nice neighbors who live in a house on the same property as I do are moving out! Totally sad. But I inherited 10 chickens and one hell of a rooster, plus the job of feeding the HUGE pot belly pig who lives here. Since I have celiac sprue and can not touch or be around gluten grains, my part of the job is gathering other healthy foods for all the animals to eat- so everyday I take this huge black bucket up the hill into the apple orchard and start filling it up with small apples falling early from the trees. There is also a tomato garden up there that the deers come down and share, usually leaving half eaten tomatoes hanging on the vine - so I pick the funky ones off and bring those down in the bucket too! :)
The pig LOVES loves loves himself some apples! So I give him a big tray full of apples and a few tomatoes (plus my own food scraps). The nastier the food , more he loves it - and when I say nasty, I mean foul, gross, fermented, rotten, sick & even molded or seasoned with maggots. So I bring him rotten apples too. As sick as all that is, I eat myself a yummy apple too while watching. :)
See how excited he gets! A big smile of thanks everytime.
The chickens love the tomatoes most, and the apples not so much unless I cut each one open. A little whistle, and seeing me coming with the black bucket and they all haul ass the the edge of the fence in anticipation of the special treats!
In the words of Weird Al Yankovic "Just EAT IT!" I mean, it's all organic after all!
XoXo

2 comments:

Lou Cheese said...

That pig makes me laugh every time I see him. Who said it was a dogs life anyway....

Pigs will eat just about anything, including bone. Some of the big farms will feed them spoiled food, but they boil it first to kill the germs.

Maybe there is a restaurant or grocery store in town that will save the throw away food until one of your neighbors can go into town for supplies. I raised a German Shepherd on the food scraps from an American Legion, and there probably hasn't been a dog that has ever eaten so well.

10 chickens, a rooster and a pot bellied pig. That's quite a score.

Miss Voodoo said...

Hey Lou Cheese!
I was just thinking of you today and wondering how you were doing!
That is a really good & clever idea you had for your dog, and for feeding the pig.... chickens eat scraps too.
:)
Now all I need is the farm animal I really want - and that is a donkey!!! My donkey is going to be my baby- literally. They live up to 40 years!
xo