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[baymule]

I bet that's one cozy hawg hut tonight! If you had enough, it wouldn't be a bad idea at all to provide them some deep litter of some kind around that hog hut to keep that area less muddy and wet so they won't be tracking all that into the hut. I know it's pretty much a given that pigs are dirty but they aren't as dirty as most folks would imagine if they have good digs in which to live.

The whole area, 70'x100' is 6-8" deep in pine shavings from a horse stable. The leaves are added bonus. The pigs are rooting around, but there really isn't much dirt showing. This was my failed garden and will be my successful garden in the spring. I dumped more leaves in the pen today, they had a blast rooting through them.

And now I will have sheep poop too! They drop hay, pee and poop all over it and i don't see spoiled hay, I see growing vegetables. Plus, if I let the pigs have it first, they eat a lot of that hay. I pick up hay around the horses hay ring that they have stomped and pooped on and give it to the pigs. No waste here!

 

[Beekissed]

GREAT system, Bay!!! I can't wait to see that in the spring. The pig manure should really help those chips compost well and you should be able to plant dimes and grow dollars come spring.

I ever show you my self feeder I made for the sheeples? Almost zero hay loss/waste...just a little bit on the ground, enough to keep it from being too muddy there and give them dry bedding to sleep on. And the best part? No work on my part! I'm kinda lazy that way....

It's just a cattle panel kept tight against the stack with the use of big bungee cords and I just moved them tighter as they ate the stack. I didn't have to lift a bale all winter long.

If I were to ever get sheeples again, I'd do this again also...difference between night and day compared to the winter before.

 

[ninnymary]

I have been working on my containers, layering them with chips, horse manure, and leaves. I've put chicken wire on top to keep the leaves in and the squirrels out. Hoping this will improve their soil. I only have 2 more to go! One of them is my bay laurel but I'm not sure if it would like richer soil. It's doing great so I'm wondering if it aint broke don't fix it?

My husband keeps asking me how many more bags of leaves do I need. Claims he can't even walk into the garage.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Tell him it could be expensive bags of mushroom mulch or some such, but it's FREE leaves. That should keep the value of it all fresh in his mind.

I know what you mean about if it ain't broke....was really wanting to place wood chips around the clematis but it's such a healthy, thriving thing in the poor soil it is in that I'd hate to change that and cause it to be otherwise. In my mind I keep thinking, "If it's that pretty in nasty soil, imagine how many blooms it would have in good soil....".

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, I keep thinking that bay laurel could be a small tree! haha Maybe I'll put just a tiny bit.

Mary

 

[baymule]

Bee, I sure do remember your posts about your sheep. In fact, your hay feeding situation inspired me to plan on that very thing on one of the shelters I am planning on building. It will be in a difficult place to easily access so I am planning on big doors in the end of it where I can set 2 round bales with the cow panel set up you just posted. I have been trying to explain to my DH what I planned, but he got that glazed look.......... your pictures just cleared it all up for him.

I really hope you get sheep again.

 

[Beekissed]

Pictures always help, don't they? I'd love to, but Mom has no interest in it at all. She has no experience with sheep and thinks they'd be a big bother, but I've never had any livestock I've had less trouble with and loved more.

They just have a certain way about them that I admire...must be why the good Lord used them in many metaphors in the Bible~with Himself as the shepherd~ and it was always describing them in good terms.

Not so much goats, though, if you've noticed....

 

[Nyboy]

Bee childhood vision of the Devil was half man half goat.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep...the eyes freak me out, the exposed nether regions, the overly lusty behavior of the bucks, the foul smell.

 

[thistlebloom]

Images of sheep eyes and goat eyes.

Sure look pretty similar to me...

"I like ewe wether or not Bee does"