Boar and Sow Tusks and Teeth
This is a test post. Test posts are fun. Right?!? Well, they should be. Let’s talk about something interesting. How about them Red Sox! Never seen them. Okay, how about something interesting that I am familiar with… Weather. We could talk about the weather all day long. In fact, the weather changes so much that it is worth talking about. Each week for the past month we have had a snow storm. Just when you start to relax and think spring is here, whammo! More snow. But that is par normal. No conspiracy. No global warming or climate change. That’s just the way it is. Today was balmy, breezy and wonderful.
So, what did I do today? First I rewalked a mile and a half of fence line with Ben. He and I both worked at clipping back the brush of the new perimeter fence around our new pastures. I also permanently set the corner attachments. Previously many of them had simply been tied to trees which was leaking electricity and I’m sure the trees didn’t like it. The fence is up to 3.6KVolts at the far end. That’s 3,600 volts. That’s one heck of a big ouch! I touched it and got the full shock through my rubber boots three different times. It would have been more interesting bare foot. See this post about testing fence lines by licking them.
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
Hi Walter!
This is a test comment.
Delete this line.Cheers,
-Walter
Hi Again!
Just leaving another test comment but this time I’m not logged in.
-Walter
Test from FireFox.
Another test from FireFox. By the way, WP3.0b2 does not appear to work with MS Internet Explorer 5.02 on the Macintosh OS10.4.11. FireFox and Safari render it fine. Looks like it is a CSS issue.
Test test Hope this works cause i sure enjoy reading your blog!!!
Test comment. Weather here is near record low–we have a freeze warning tonight!
Hi Walter, I have missed your posts. I have this site saved in my favorites just in case this blog doesn’t appear in My Yahoo home page. But I guess the post on there will be there for a while until they take it off so I can head over here. Hope this one works for you for a long time!!! Thanks for sharing the “teeth” photo. Interesting. Have a wonderful Sunday. Hoping for good weather for us all!!!
My mother, who says she knows you, was here for Mothers day looking at goats. She went to lean on the fence for support, not knowing that our fence is hot (5-6 Kv with my cheapy fence tester). When she grabbed, I yelled “Hot fence! Hot Fence!” She didn’t get it at first and held on for a moment. Then she let go, unscathed. I thought maybe the fence was off, but a kid got wacked a little later. She must have amazing timing.
Do pig teeth just fall out time to time and grow new ones or do they fall out when they grow old like dogs teeth do?
Sometimes they come out in the fields and we find them. One thing pigs do is chew rocks and they break some teeth that way. When examining the teeth of slaughtered pigs, especially older slaughtered pigs, I find a lot of cracked teeth and I suspect that is from chewing rocks. At one point I had the pigs trained to bring rocks and drop them in the bath tub when they wanted to be fed. It would make a clanging sound. Actually, one might question who was training whom and if it was a chicken dance. Perhaps even a pig form of religion with them bringing sacrifices of rocks, and sticks, to drop in to make a noise that would bring manna and whey from heaven, or the farmer.
Other teeth come out because the pigs fight. Pigs are often not the nicest of people. They are highly hierarchal. Do not ever step out of line. Never challenge a higher pig, unless you’re sure you can win. But they do. They have a drive to be the top pig. Same as other animals like wolves, lions, horses, cattle, sheep, chickens and humans. This results in fights where tusks and teeth break. On occasion the big boars have lost a 6″ or 8″ tusk out in the field this way. I wish we could find them. We keep our eyes out when walking fences and such.
Most of the teeth come from post slaughter, pulled from the skulls. That is certainly the easiest way to get them. Hope made a necklace out of them. The little barbarian girl that she is.
*pent-up curiosity from the last week or two of downtime–
Come back, Walter’s blog! Come baaaaack!
Ok, that’s better.
testing just fine here
i recently came into possession of a pig’s head after it had been skinned/defleshed during a butchery demonstration. right now it is in my freezer since i am not sure what to do with it. any ideas? does one eat the brains and eyes? i had in mind a sort of head cheese but i don’t know if i can just boil up the whole thing for a day or two :-) then discard the bones………
thanks
Irene, boil the head at a simmer for a long time. The meat should fall off and the fat dissolve. Pick out the bones and such. Skim off excess fat and save that for cooking. Use the meat and broth as a base for stew or soup. Delicious!
YAY!! Nice to see your blog has survived all the upheaval. Thank you for your awesome stories!
I’m glad you have the new blog site!
Welcome back, I have missed reading your blog.
Hi Walter and family. Glad to see you’re getting the site up and running. Any tips on how to access it easily. I had to arrive via your website. The link on the old blog didn’t work for me. Thanks for all the info and entertainment. JohnL.
Hi John, Soon I’ll have the transfer to WordPress finished and then the links will work properly. -Walter
Looks like the test is working.
Good luck with the transfer :-)