Ferdinand was a Boar

I was very sad when I found out that Ferdinand was a boar.
Most male piglets are castrated, before they are sold, but Ferdinand was not.
And Ferdinand being a boar instead of a barrow makes him much more aggressive.
So I've sent him to the  butcher, to be ground pork, and now i make very delicious sausage when ever mom needs some. I use my own recipe, and it tastes a little different every time I make it.
We had sausage, eggs for breakfast today.

Reptiles and amphibians

                   Here are some of the different reptiles and amphibians that I have caught, 

and all these pictures were taken by me.

 This is a baby black rat snake. I found him on a walk down the road. The baby black rat snakes have a different coloring than the grown ups to help them hide.

                                           Here is a yong male fence lizzard.(Rebeckah helped me catch this one.) I have caught a lot of Fence lizzards. I can tell he is a male because of the blue on his belly, females don't have blue. Fence lizzards are very fast so they can protect themselves.

Here is a good example on how to tell male from female, the female has a white underbelly

                and the male has black and blue on his underbelly,

                        and here is the tops of them, the left is the female and the right is the male.

                       This is a Leopard frog, they are called that because of their spots. I have caught lots of Leopard frogs.

                                   Here is a tree frog he has sticky feet so he can stay on the tree even when upside                                          
                                  down.(I took this picture on mom's bed, so he could have a nice white background. Hee hee!) I've caught lots of Tree frogs. They sound like toads, with a trilling noise.

                               This is a black rat snake, it's a small one compared to others I've seen. I've caught lots of Black rat snakes. They aren't bad except they do love to get in our chicken coop to try to feast on eggs. Dad once was bitten by an 8ft long blackrat snake. We killed copperheads- it is illegal, but the only ones we have come across have been on the front yard and close around the house when little kids are playing there and the kids startle them. And it's preparing to strike. They can really jump high.

                                                         That's jessa behind the tree. The snake is going up to check out a nest with eggs. It's weird to see a slithery scaly tree trunk moving, until you figure out it isn't the bark-(on a bigger tree), it's a snake.

                           These are mole salamanders. I found them underneath a stone behind the chicken coop. I have also caught some newts but I don't have any pictures of them.

                                          This is a ribbon snake, and I have also caught garter snakes before.(they are the                                
                                   most common arownd here. sometimes we mow them up and that's sad.)

                                             On a camping trip I  found this young female five lined  skink under a log. You
                                               can tell the females from the males because the males have red heads in
                                     mating season, but you can also tell by the five lines the males will have all year                                          
                                     round and the females are alll brown.

                             Here is a female box turtle. It is only one of the 96 that I have caught. You tell the
                                      females from the male by looking at the tail, the females will have a bigger tail for    
                              eggs to come through. And the males have a smaller tail.

This is a red clay toad, we can find them in our garden all the time.

We once had a cat eat a toad and we thought that it had rabies, because the poison from the toad made its' mouth foam, and it got sick, so we kept it in a cage for two weeks, 

and of course it wasn't rabid.

               Now this isn't a sight you see every day. This is Shea, she is a common snapping turttle,  I found her in a small steam that runs in back of our house and I was on a walk with Tali and Beckah. When I caught her I wasn't thinking, I just picked her right out of the water like in the picture below.

                 I have only caught three other snappers and Shea is the biggest. Of course, they can get much bigger. When I came home with a snapper, Jo was thrilled, and went to work at taking measurements,(even with Jo being a boy- he never picked her up They do have a bone breaking, snapping bite.)

Here are the mesurements-shell 10" long 8" wide and 5" tall. Wight 6 1/2 pounds. Tail 9" long. Front legs 4". long. Back legs 5" long. Claws 1" long. Head 3" long. Neak 4" long.  Gape 2" wide. Age 9 years old. You tell that by counting rings on the shell, that layer up as they grow, like trees.  And Shea can jump 2'. I'm very glad  that I kept this information.

Here at home, I put on some gloves and we took the mesruements. She snapped that stick in half. It's fun to observe them, of course, after keeping them a while, I let them go. Sooner if they won't eat, later if they will. We had a little pet fence I would put around the tiny waterpump pond feature in front of our house, and that's where they would stay. Mostly box and red earred slider turtles.

Riding Lessons

I've had other riding lessons then this, but wow did my legs hurt afterward!   I'm riding Lady she is the old fashioned morgan.

 

 Katy (my riding instructor) is one of Tali's grown up friends,  Tali is  almost done with her lessons, she rides very well. Tali goes on trail rides, and I will soon.

 This lesson was mostly on turning the horse(with out using the reins) and stoping her.

                                                   After my lessons Katy, let every one (exept for joseph because he wasn't there)on to ride around her front yard.                                                                            

 here is Jessa with me in the sadle,->

 and there goes Benji,

                 
       

and now Beckah, hopefully beckah will soon have horse riding lessons.

 

Pregnant Eva

 Eva got really fat and I knew that I wasn't over feeding he so their was only one solution "She had to be pregnant" When I found out that Eva was pregnant (which was about two weeks before she had her puppies) I made a big box bed in my room closet, Eva liked that very much. I kept checking Eva's temperature, and I stayed up late manny nights hoping that tonight would be the night.

 Eva had her pups on march 4th. I was with Eva when she started to push, I called mom down stairs (that's were my room is)I said to mom "mom Ithink Eva is having her puppies to night, her temperature 102 this afternoon." together we sat for a moment then we heard a small noise, it sounded like a kitten, and it was comming form Eva's tummy! We realized that it must be a puppy, watched closely as a very little tri colord nose appeared.  I ran up stairs as fast as I could and told evrey one the news, I even called dad at work to tell him. All the kids came down stairs to see a small tri colored puppy(that would later be named Fly) Eva kept licking it so it wasn't able to get to the milk, soon I saw that and helped it get to the milk. After about 5 minets Luka decided that it was a good time for him to come out(he was a giant) next came Kevien then Dalla and after that I lost track, all I knew was that their was 8 puppies when I went to sleep and when I woke up there was 12 puppies.

Check out my dog website at: onegoodfarmdog.wordpress.com

Ferdinand, my pig

I bought Ferdinand in the second week of July with money I earned from my farm collie pups (see last post). I carried  him on my lap for the whole  trip home. Here is a picture of  the new piglet.

 He, of course, was scared and pooped all over me. Now he is to big to hold!

And at first I kept him in the duck coop,then when he got used to his environment I put Eva's blue collor on him and a leash, I used food to get him going. From then on Ferdinand and I  took walks for acorns and exploring, before going to his electric fence pen. Here we are, on our way to the duck pen, where he sleeps on the side of the coop the poultry are not using. He loves his walks! 

Now Ferdinand is to big for Eva's collar so I tried a choke chain(it being the biggest collar we have) but he did not like the cold chain on his neck, so I just use food to lure him along with me. He trots by my side and I let him smell the bowl- and remember that he is heading to eat- when ever he gets side tracked.

 He loves spagettii and turkey sandwiches!

Ferddinand loves scratches and pets.

Ferdinand in the morning sun.

This is Ferdinand eating wild morning glorys (they are his favorite plant)

                                                                       

                                                                     This is Ferdinand enjoying a cool hose down.(some times he will drink from the hose). He is doing a great job roughing up a future garden spot! sometimes I put corn around the roots of the young trees and he digs to find it- and clears the area!

This is Ferdinand in his pig pen.

Ferdinand will lay down when I scratch right behind his front leg.  Even though I know his end, I love raising him and giving him the best life while he is here. Pigs are interesting animals, and smart. He sure won't be my last one!

A LONG STORY

I have a BIG story to tell. It is coming soon. So, I will give you the movie trailer version, first.  Go to my farmcollie website to see what I mean. The end of this story is I have had a great time- and worked hard- raising a whole smart and lively pack of farm collie puppies.
To see what became of them,
Check out my dog website at:
 http://onegoodfarmdog.wordpress.com

Eva as a Baby

When Eva was a puppy she was a little pill. She got out of any pen or cage she was put in unless I was there,(she even leaned how to climb ladders) she chewed up 2 pairs of shoes and a library book,(of course I paid for it.) and she went to the bathroom in the house in front of the door a million times. Oh well no Puppy is perfect. Now I have trained Eva out of those bad habits.

 Eva and I are ready for Halloween.(Eva didn't come to our halloween party)



          This is Eva about 6 months old playing in the snow with me.


        Eva.

Here is Eva in her own little hid away in the kitchen.

                                                

More Pictures Of Eva

More pictures of Eva.

In this pic Eva is begging to come in because it's starting to rain.

Here Jessa took the pose and Eva cooperated.





                   
        This is Eva on the barn roof ( I was writing in my journal  up their and decided to take Eva with me.)

                                             Eva is fetching a stick for me.