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[Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>]

Plan would be to stock my own fridge...
 
I don't think I would want a gigantic pig for slaughtering.  It is likely 
that I wouldn't have any help on slaughtering day.  I was thinking along the 
lines of having two adults for breeding, and slaughtering the younger smaller 
pigs.  Any reason not to do this?
 
OK cheap food,,,, would leftover plate scraps from resturants qualify if I 
could convince a local resturant?  I'd have to calc out the fuel costs to 
drive to town on the scooter - but that is probably doable...  While I don't 
drive to town often, mom usually goes to town 2-3 x a week, and my brother 
maybe once a week.
 
I don't have a source for milk --- unless I get goats.   Would goat milk do?  
How does it change the flavor of the meat?  Sweeter?
 
 I think a cow would be too much to handle given desert limitations, although 
many around here do have 1-2 heads of cattle in the "back yard" which are 
raised on locallyl grown alfalfa.  Not sure what the finished cost 
is......... but my dad actually wants me to do that.  
 
Yes, it is common sense that pigs need a lot of water... just like other 
animals.  
 
On agression in animals, totally agree.  I did the same thing with agressive 
roosters.  I know they couldn't understand me, but I would flat out them 
them, "attack me once again and into the stew pot you go."  The warning 
usually lasted all of 24 hrs....  LOL.    
 
 
Found out yesterday, my dad has rigged up a hoist thing to pull engines out 
of cars.... and I think that will be quite suitable for letting some pig meat 
age.... if that is needed.  Is it needed?
 
Hopefully, since I've been the pied piper of animals before, that pigs and/or 
goats won't be too much of a challenge.  Now gardening......... that's a 
whole 'nother story.

--- On Sun, 1/18/09, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:


> >Do they like raw onions?

They are very individual in their tastes.  Some pigs will crash through the 
fecnce to get at an onion and some will not touch them.  

We have the image of pigs wantonly and indiscriminately scarfing down all and 
sundry, but they don't.  They are acutally very picky eaters, the just have
a 
very wide range of things they will eat (including you, if they got the 
chance).  One we raised did not like fava beans.  When I had a five gallon
bucket 
of scraps, grain, etc. all soaked in milk, the pig flew into it and in the 
end 
the trough had every single fava bean still intact but nothing else.

Now here's my addition to the pig discussion:   If you have enough feed and

rich enough feed, a pig will get enormous.  Pig feed is among the pricier 
things at the feed'n'seed.  BUT you don't necessarily have to end
up with a 
gigantonormous pig.  Feed the pig what you have or can get cheaply or free. 
Instead 
of the pig dressing out at 400 lbs, suppose you "only" get 250 lbs of
pork, or 
100??  

The agribusiness model says:  400 lbs of pork for $500 in feed and expenses, 
$1.25 a pound!  Not bad.

The pastoral model says:  100 lbs of pork for no money at all.  Even better!

If the plan is to sell some of the pork (and this is easy and legal to do), 
then shuffling some money around might make some sense.

But if the only goal is homestead pork, the pastoral model, says I, fits best.


Let me emphasize what has already been covered, pigs need LOTS of water.  In 
hot weather they will die without it.  If a pig shows aggression, kill it and 
eat it right then and get another pig.  Life's too short to deal with 
aggressive farm animals when you don't really have to.  Pigs are indeed
like 600 lb 
puppy dogs.

You can keep a pig in with an electric fence ... right until he doesn't
want 
to be kept in badly enough.  That is, when he's mad or frightened.

Pigs are intelligent, but 98% of that intelligence is geared toward getting 
food.  In other matters they are often as dumb as dirt.   If food is 
involved, 
give it up, the pig knows many more tricks than you can even imagine.  In all 
other matters, expect instinct rather than reason to prevail.


Pigs will eat grass and hay, they will chew twigs and branches.  If you are 
where you can gather acorns, you can add lots of pounds to a pig.

Pork from a milk fed pig looks, smells, and tastes very different from a chop 
fed pig.  The milk can be in the form of buttermilk from butter making or 
whey from cheese making or any other form.   If you are using simple detergent
to 
do your dishes, feed the dishwater to the pig.  Pigs love to eat coffee 
grounds and tea bags.  Spent brewing grains are also great so long as they 
have
not 
overly soured.  If they do sour, the pigs won't eat them.  Assume anything
in 
the kitchen that still has even a little nutritional value left is fodder for 
the pig.  
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>From Clansgian AT wmconnect.com  Sun Jan 18 13:23:07 2009
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>From Lynn:
> >Survivalists? No thanks. Bob; you don't seem to understand that
> survivalists
> >are the opposite of what homesteading is all about.

I left this in the inbox from a while ago meaning to comment on it.

I could not agree more or emphasize too strongly that there is a fundamental
difference between the underlying philosophy and motivation of homesteaders
and Suvivalilsts.

Fifteen years or so ago when I first came across this list, the world was a
very different place.  I mentioned in another post about making career choices
because one decision was not condusive to the notion of homesteading.  That
was more than thirty years ago when the world was more different still.

Back then homesteading was a curiosity at best.  It was an expression of
freedom and self-reliance but as an economic basis it made no sense, at least 
when
described in economic terms.  The Nearings (who were still living and
homesteading then) had begun during the great depression and while they made 
a good
case on paper that modern homestead living was a fesible and practical 
economic
model, they were none the less more like survivalists.  The homestead was for
them, as Scott termed it, a "cyclone shelter" against the economic and
political times.  They expected at some point to emerge from the shelter 
during a
time when  the political realities from which they fled had subsisded.  It 
never
happened.

During the early 70's when I was making my first attempts at homesteading,
making a non-homestead living was ridiculously easy.  Food, fuel, and building
materials were uber-cheap.    Yet homesteading was quite popular.  
Homesteaders
went into the enterprise for reasons of autonomy and self-reliance and they
did so whether the times were good or bad, that is, good or bad personally or
generally.

Homesteaders do not go into homesteading to weather a storm.  Oh, it's a very
good place to be during ecnomic or even personal storms, and no mistake.  But
 homesteaders expect to be there no matter the economic times ... and for
most, no matter the personal times either.

The survivalist sees havoc on the horizon and plans and prepares to endure
that havoc until the times get better.  This is reflected in the various
preparedness lists we see floating about, things you will need when you can't 
go to
the mart or utilities are not available.

Homesteaders aren't trying to weather a bad spot but rather to set up an
enduring way of life fit for every change and chance.

People used to ridicule both homesteaders and survivalists when they went to
the discount grocery and bought nine cases of canned corn as being some sort
of maniacal hoarding.  But it was pointed out that most commercial sweet corn
is grown in a relatively small area of the country where it is all processed
within a few weeks at facilities very close to where it is grown and then
stored at those same facilities until it is needed and called for.  As a 
practical
matter, what difference does it make if those cans of sweet corn are stored in
a facility in Illinois or in the homesteader's or survivalist's basement?
For the homesteader (who doesn't put up enough of his own corn) it means not
having to waste time, fuel, and money going to mart every time he wants a few
cans of corn.  For the survivalist it means resting assured that if fuel, 
money,
and marts disappear, he will still have sweet corn .... for a while.

But as far as it being lunatic fringe hoarding, there's little difference in
DelMonte hoarding it in a warehouse and the individual hoarding it in their
basement.

The survivalist hopes to buy time with his preparations until things return
to "normal" or at least he gets his bearings in the new order of things.

The homesteade prepares to continue unabated no matter the times.

Not all, in fact not many, of the survivalist or escapist mentality are
prepared to homestead.  But almost all homesteaders are prepared to survive 
and
escape.  It is not their primary focus but merely part and parcel of the
undertaking.

James