Altivo

The last few weeks have been all about pigs.  Now it is finally time to get back to something we started last year and had to set aside for awhile.

Altivo is learning to pull a cart.  Altivo is our little 10.1 hands pony.  He was just ready to be hooked up to an actual cart when we stopped working with him last fall.  So today Stephanie and Kylie gave him a refresher course.  He did really well!

They hooked up his harness.

Then had him practice pulling things around the pasture. 

Things that made noise

Things that were heavy

Over smooth terrain

And over rough terrain

He did awesome with all of it.

In the next few weeks we will hook him up to the cart for the first time and will blog about it.

Little Boars Become Barrows

Congrats Stephanie and Jacob for castrating your first piglets! 

Warning!  Extremely graphic content to follow!  (Mom- you will want to skip this post)

I think maybe our children were born for farm life.  Clara sat and ate lunch and watched Stephanie and Jacob do the deed.

We gathered supplies.  Some old towels, a scalpel and iodine.  Stephanie and Jacob took turns.  Jacob did two while Stephanie held them and Stephanie did 3 while Jacob held them.  I would like to say I was a big help...but I would be lying.  I mostly helped hold the heads and squirt iodine at the right times.  Oh and took pictures.

It takes at least 2 people.  We let ours get a little older than we should so it took a couple of us to hold them down.  Two men could have probably done it, but we had two women and a young man so it took all of us.  It was much harder to cut through the sack than we all expected.   The sacks were very tough.

When you finally get the incision open enough you can squeeze the testicle out but it is still attached to the cord at this point.  

 Cut through the cord and you are done with the first one.  Unfortunately you need to make a 2nd incision to get the second one out.

  Then squirt the area with iodine and return pig to his mommy for some love and you are done.

Piglets See the World

 Agatha took the piglets out for the first time Thursday morning.  They followed her around and copied her.  Nosed up some dirt.  Ate some roots.  And chased each other through the grass.  They are so cute!   They are also very strong and getting hard to hang onto when they don't want to be held.

Flowers and Friends

A special day at the retirement home.  Arranging flowers with new friends.  

We got there early to help divide them up and take them apart from the arrangements.  They are the the donated leftovers from QFC so they need the mushy ends all cut off.  It was hard work and very messy. 

 But then the fun began

Some little ones weren't as excited about flower arranging as others.

We will have something for boys next month Nathan!

Ouchie for Elayna

Being three and laid up with a minor sprain is tough.  

But it helps to have good friends to hang out with.

Anna and Bandit

You know in Heidi how Peter takes the goats out to grazing pastures each day?  Well that is Anna's job at our house.  Each afternoon she takes Bandit out somewhere were there is new fresh weeds and brush and stays with him while he munches down some vines and weeds for us.  They are such a cute pair I just had to take some pictures of them today.

Does anyone know the link to farmville?

This Little Piggy Went to Warm Beach

Two of the piggies got their first service opportunity today and they aren't even 2 days old.  They went to special friends camp so the special needs campers could meet them and pet them.  As you can see in the pictures it made the day for some of the campers.

Jacob did a good job showing his pigs and explaining things.

This gentleman was so excited about the the piglet that he couldn't stop himself from kissing it.

This is the friend Stephanie is paired up with this week.  She loved the pigs and liked to tell us that the pigs liked her.  

 "I've heard you can fly with these if you fold them just right.

"Wake me up when we are done, this is all too stimulating for me."