Hope Marking Pigs and Flowers
Counting pigs out on several tens of acres of pasture requires some form of marking. Rather than Photoshopping photos, since they’re not all together, our simple solution is Halloween hairspray. This way we don’t end up counting the same pig twice. We paint a stripe on them as each pig gets counted and its characteristics noted such as pregnancy status, weight, health, markings, etc. Admittedly there are a few pigs who do not get counted but we’re close.
Carrying some treats helps to convince the pigs that the process is indeed a fun one. The treats and a trained call of “Peeeg-Peeeg-Peeeeeeeg” tends to bring them running to us even from a one or two thousand feet away.
When we got all done painting pigs purple Hope asked if she could spray paint some flowers on the brush and thus the photo above.
Outdoors: 75°F/59°F Sunny, Hazy
Tiny Cottage: 70°F/65°F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
Thanks for the comment on my blog. It’s usually a lot more interesting than that. You life, your family and surroundings sound wonderful. Good for you Walter. I’ll stop by and help you count those pigs. Regards, Jane/Frugal Queen
I read some previous posts. Tiny cottage? in the UK that is the size of a normal house, give it a full upstairs with two bedrooms and a room for a shower and that’s home. Also are you going to make sausages with your pigs? Or Haslet? Or Brawn? of pate? or Hog’s pudding? or black Pudding? (hog’s pudding is a big white spicy sausage) black pudding is a big black spicy suasage made from the blood, rusk and fat – called bloudin noir in France) what about salami? Look up pork sausages UK for some ideas. We also eat thick slices of smoked pork belly, which is dry cured and chopped into cubes for cooking, the French call that Lardons… and the whole joint ‘poitrine fume’. Also we eat ‘faggots’ which is minced: heart, liver, minced belly pork, sage, finely diced onions, breadcrumbs and egg, formed into a ball, slow roasted and served with thick onion gravy. You may have to change the name in the US. We even eat the skin roasted and bag them into a snack called ‘pork scratchings’ – we buy them in the pub and eat them with a pint.
Hmm… According to the BBC article I found the average sized house in the UK is 834 sq-ft which is 3.3 times larger than our tiny cottage. Realize that the 252 sq-ft is square feet, not square meters. Our cottage footprint is 23.4 m2. That conversion might cause confusion across the Atlantic although I thought the UK still used feet too.
We make cracklin’ which is what you describe as pork scratchings. The pork belly Lardons we call side pork here in Vermont. Interesting how there are so many names, and uses, for the pig. Good eatings.
You guys have all the fun! Do you dress the piggies up for Halloween? That would be the parade!
Hi Walt – don’t forget the average is skewed by rich ba888888 living in mansions with hundreds of acres for grounds and the Queen owning half of Scotland, Norfolk and London. Most UK rooms are 10 by 10 feet, and most UK houses have 2 bedrooms. In new homes the bedroom is hardly larger than the bed, the kitchen and hall are the same and the lounge and diner are the same room with the stairs to the upper floor in the same room. Believe me, by UK standards your house is not tiny, but perfectly adequate and it would have 40 other houses attached to it and you can hear neighbours walking around on either side. Sorry to sound like a Monty Python sketch but we dream of houses like yours. Mine, by UK standards is opulent and people think I’m a lot wealthier than I am. BTW…………loving the blog and loving the pigs. Froogs xxxxxxxxxx
Jane the houses in the article walter linked to were new houses not mansions like the queens palace. The article said the average room size was 160 square feet which is more like 16 feet by 10 feet. I think you are getting confused about the size of walters house. I have not seen it in person but just drooled about how efficient it is here on his pages. Walters entire house is 20 feet by 13 feet or something. That is just a little bigger than the rooms in the BBC article.
By the way walter I hope you will give us an updated photo tour of your house as I am sure things have changed since the last time you did that. I love seeing how you fit things in and make efficent use of space! Adam in Alaska
Most of the new projects in our cottage are bookshelves, hangers for pots, musical instruments, etc. There is one innovative bookshelf that spans across the bedroom ceiling and another up near the ceiling. Otherwise quite run of the mill. A place for our stuff.
Thank you Walter! You have solved a problem for me. I love it!