Pig Preparation

Pigs, pigs, pigs!!!

That's been our focus as of late!  I can't really do much to the house until I figure out what the plaster repair guy says, so we are just focusing on the outside!  Which is fine by me!  I would live outside if I could!  I actually didn't even set foot inside the farmhouse today, although I spent hours at the property.

First, this morning I finally picked up the 55-gallon drums that I have been looking for for awhile.  I had only wanted three, but the guy didn't have change, so I grabbed a fourth.  He was only charging $5 apiece, so that was hard to beat.  So today's goal was to get more fence up, and build a waterer.

I purchased all four for $20.

Welllllllll, today didn't go exactly as planned.

It was another chilly day, and Dad and I started working in his garage.  We decided to do inside work instead of fencing due to the chill and winds.  I thought the pig waterer was going to go super fast (maybe 20 minutes?), but we had problems from the get-go.  I had originally used too small of a bit for the first hole, and I wasn't able to get a great second hole.  So the nipple didn't want to three very easily.  I finally got it in, but it leaked.  I changed drill bits, and the second nipple went in quite easily, but I'm not so sure about that first one!  I might have a wasted barrel here.  But I can use the nipples in another barrel.

It was just a frustrating start to the day!  What should have been SUCH an easy project turned out to be quite difficult!

The pig waterer.  We installed the nipple there on the side (actually two were installed).

After the waterer, we actually decided to work on the pig feeders some more.  I was kind of done with those in my mind, but they did need some finishing touches to make them perfect, and Dad held me to that.  I was eager to get out to the property and get some fence installed, but we had a disciplined day inside working on the finer details of the feeders.

The first feeder I bought needed cleaned out with a shop-vac, which, of course, was an easy task.  But the bigger project was installed skids on the bottom.  The bolts were still there where the skids used to be, but they are looooooooong gone.  Had Dad not been around, I wouldn't have known that the skids even existed!  That wood had rotted out a long time ago.  But the wood is actually quite crucial, as it keeps the feeder up off the ground.  If more people replaced these when they went bad, the bottoms of these feeders probably wouldn't be so rusted out!

So we cut 2 x 4's and installed new skids.  We needed some bolts, nuts, and washers, so Dad went to the store while I made another drop-off at the property of some of my personal belongings. Today it was pig water barrels and patio furniture as well as a few other items.  I just try to make sure that I take something every time I drive out there.

The bottom of the first feeder...before skids.

We met back at his house and completed the first feeder.  This feeder is by far the better out of the two.  I pounded out a couple of dents in the feeder, and I tested out the turn-lever that controls the amount of feed that comes out.  It works perfect!  So I now have a nice pig feeder on new skids with a working feed control mechanism!  Perfect!  It was time to take it to the pasture.

So we drove out the first feeder as well as the stock rack that we had built.  And we tried out the machine shed sliding doors for the first time.  They work great!!!  I was actually kind of nervous about that!  But they slide great, and they shut tight!  That machine shed is such a nice building to have.  I dropped off the stock rack in the machine shed, and we dropped off the pig feeder right smack dab in the middle of the pasture.  It's so fun to think that pigs will be eating out of this soon enough!

The feeder with new skids and the stock racks being taken out to the farmstead.

This picture warms my heart.  The first feeder is in the pasture and ready to feed some piggies!!!

All the hard work of the weeks past is getting closer to fruition!

I also met an interested buyer at 3:00 P.M. in all of the fence paneling that I had listed last night.  He had said that he wanted all 30 panels.  Well, unfortunately, I learned that I don't know everything.  I had listed them as corral panel when in all actuality the fence is actually all swing-gates tied together with braces to make it LIKE corral panel.  Oops!  So he said he wasn't interested in any of it!  "But had it actually been corral panel, I would have taken it all!"  The guy had $1800 in his pocket, I think!

Agggggghhhhhh!!!  Live and learn.  He did say he was interested in a horse panel, though.  He offered $100, but I was pretty sure it was worth more than that.  I passed but said we would be in touch.  He was a talker, though, and stayed over an hour!

But Dad and I had work to do!

While Dad was walking around the property as the guy was talking to me, he did find out a HUGE surprise for me.  "Andy, your concrete grain bin pads aren't concrete at all."  Say what?!  "They are sand."

No kidding?!  Well, that is a HUGE savings in money!  I was going to have a guy come out and demolish those...and that would have been a chunk of change!  If they are only sand, then I can either offer the sand for free, dig it out myself (yuck!), or have it hauled off with a loader (though cheaper and easier than breaking up concrete).  But that's great news!  The large 18-foot grain bin did have a concrete pad, though.  A big one!  I will probably need a guy to come in and break up that concrete pad, all of the concrete on the east side of the barn, and then remove all of the junk on the southwest side of the property.  And haul it all away!

What I thought were concrete pads are not concrete at all!  Woo hoo!  I will remove this sand and turn it to grass.  But seriously, doesn't it look like concrete?!

This one is most definitely concrete.

Once he left, we headed back to Dad's house and worked on the second feeder.  If you recall, this feeder was basically junk.  But we tried to salvage it.  Well, it also needed some skids.  So we tackled that project pretty quick since we knew what we were doing now.

Well, while working on that, I was staring at the last remaining rusted-out hole in the feeder.  I knew it was there from a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't have time to tackle it then.  Well, a job that's worth doing is worth doing right, so I said we needed to patch it.  We didn't have a ton of time, but I just hate not doing a project right.  So I took the time to cut out a patch panel, and we secured it with metal screws.  It fits and looks great!!!

Our little patch job over the last rusted-out hole.

"A job that's worth doing is worth doing right."

Well, if we were going to make this feeder work, we might as well do it ALL right!  So we re-secured the brackets that raise and lower the feed-control mechanism, and then we had to work to get the lever used for that to work.  It was rusted tight!  I had sprayed it with penetrating oil a couple of weeks ago, but we still had to get out the hammer and pound the lever as the other guy held the nut!  Well, with a little bit of ambition and grit, we got her loose!

I am happy to report that the feeder is now ready for business!  The feed-control mechanism works great, the lid works great, the feeder stands on brand-new skids, and it's ready to feed some hogs!!!  Dad says I should sell it and get my money back out of it (and a profit), but I think I might hang onto it for now to see if I open up a second pasture for the pigs.

New skids installed!

With the day drawing to a close, we quickly drove that huge feeder out to the farmstead and dropped it off.  Dad had to get ready for church, but I still had another hour-and-a-half of work left in me, so I headed back to work on the barn.

The feeder inside the machine shed.  Sell for $350 or hang onto it?!

I installed new light bulbs (I took down eight bad ones) and cleaned up the stalls.  I am still amazed at how much this barn offers from the inside.  It really doesn't look like much on the outside, but it offers so much space and functionality on the inside!!!  With the new lights installed, all of the stalls took on a fresh look!  I had cleaned so much junk out of them yesterday, and tonight showed me that more needed to be done.

All the old light bulbs!  This barn was dark!

She isn't going to win any beauty awards.

The barn is set up so that the entire south and east sides are stalls.  The south side has four nice stalls, and the east side has two.  For the pigs, I plan to use the four south stalls, so my focus was on cleaning those out.

Stall one had a huge hole that almost looks like a gulley had been going through here and draining underneath the foundation of the barn.  But I couldn't make sense of that.  It also had broken straw bales.  So I filled in the huge hole, removed the rotting pieces of wood from old pallets, and moved the straw to another stall.  It's now ready to go.

Stall One had a massive hole and all kinds of loose hay.  I filled in the hole and raked the hay away.


Part of the "washed-out" hole in Stall One.

Stall One is ready for pigs!

Stall two had a huge pile of dirt mounded up that would let the pigs escape over the wall.  So I dug out all of the dirt and spread it around the barn.  I also uncovered an old wooden V-trough, so I cleaned that out the best I could with the tools I had on hand.  Stall two is now ready for pigs!

Stall Two!  This one was work!  I had to shovel all of that dirt out on the right side.

Stall Two is ready for pigs!

Stall three was mostly clean, so I just threw the straw from Stall One in there.  This is the stall that has the homemade feeding trough that will be perfect for slop for the pigs.

I threw the straw bales from Stall One into Stall Three.  I left the bales like this so that the nieces and nephew have a chore to do to get the place ready for pigs.  Notice the slop trough.

Stall Four is a work in progress.  It has a large mound of dirt, as well, as well as some wood that has collapsed from up above.  But I ran out of time and didn't get to it.

I pulled out more rotten wood.  Some of it is from water damage.  Some is from termites.  But it all went on the burn pile (which has been going for a couple of days now!).

More junk wood leaving the barn.

Various metal pieces removed from the barn.

But the barn is a real gem.  I just LOVE the inside.  I even stuck my head out the south windows a couple of times and enjoyed the view from there, too.  It certainly needs re-enforced in some areas, but this is probably my favorite part of the property.  I just love hanging out in the barn!  And with the new lights, it's really neat to see all of the different rooms!

The hayloft needs secured from the bottom, and all of the rotten hay needs thrown down and spread out in the pasture.  But that will be for another time.

The view from the hayloft.  What to do with all of that loooooooooooooong wood?!

Yet more barnwood!

I can't figure out this bracket.  It was mounted onto some type of door perhaps?

The sides all have various surprises.  Here are some REALLY old bottles.  Likely medicine for animals.

What started out as a slow day ended up being a pretty successful day.  A pig waterer is built (and hopefully won't leak).  A pig feeder is installed in the pasture.  A second pig feeder is complete and stored inside.  A barn is clean and ready for little piggies and nieces and a nephew.

All that is remaining is for a fence to be installed from the west side of the property to the barn.  Maybe tomorrow?!

Then it's time to hunt for pigs for sale again!!!

Is this perfection or what?!