No More Surrender

We raised pigs for a while, the American Guinea Hog. It is a standard breed, just smaller in size by nature. 

Well, the day of my uncle's funeral, six months after my double bypass, we were feeding the pigs that night, which we had done every night for a year or two. The male pig decided he wanted to get a little aggressive. His weight was around 250 pounds, fully grown. I felt a nudge on the back of my leg, then I felt a nudge again, a hard nudge, which is not really uncommon, our pigs just did that. But on the third nudge, I realized he was biting me about knee high. I hollered at him and he started to circle me. 

Being the prepared person I am, I pulled out my pistol and fired a shot into the ground in front of him. This did not deter him, he continued to circle. It was still daylight at this time and I knew what was coming, so I shot him right behind the head, which ended the circling.

Here is food for thought. When I drew my pistol, I did not have to think, is my gun loaded? Is my safety on? You see, my gun is an extension of my hand. I didn't even have to think about where it was pointed, where it was aimed, it was second nature. I know my gun. I know it well. I have shot this same brand of pistol for decades. You need to practice and you need to train. You don't want to be fumbling for a light switch in the dark, you want to know where your flashlight is. You want to know that your radio is charged and what frequency it is on. Your life my depend upon these little, bitty, simple things. An animal circling is looking for a weakness. Don't give your enemy a weakness to exploit.

So, you say what's the problem? A 250 pound pig, the way pigs are built with their neck strength, if he had gotten me to the ground, he could have killed me. That's the problem. So we waited a few months to see if any of the girls were pregnant, which they weren't. We hauled off all of the pigs to the butcher, therefore, no more pigs. No more surrender. 

Frank & Fern 1997

If I had not been carrying my gun, well, we can speculate all we want. We are a gun carrying family. When Fern leaves the house, she is carrying a gun, and I don't mean leaves the house to go to town, I mean when she leaves the house - to work in the garden, to take care of the chickens, to go to the barn, or any other household type chore that takes her outside. Fern is very capable and competent with her pistol. She is one of those people that knows which end of the gun the bullet comes out of. She knows that a gun will not fire all by itself, and she knows that her little 40 caliber Glock will stop a 250 pound beast from doing her damage, or worse, killing her. Fern lives in reality. A gun is a tool, just like a shovel, or a flashlight, it is a tool.

My pig story, it could have had a horrible outcome, and it did for the pig. You see, there are people out there that say I can't carry a gun, and there are other folks that say I could have handled the pig situation different. Well, let me be very simple about this. I don't care what those people think, and I know they don't care what I think. But if anything messes with my way of life, I'm going to stop it, by whatever means necessary. On occasion, we'll have a dog come through. What if that dog is a drunk, meth druggy piece of crap in the form of a human? Some people call it the Castle Doctrine, it used to be called Make My Day. But God, through the Constitution gave me the right to protect myself, be it man or beast. Rights come from God, and if you don't believe in God, then your rights come from the Constitution, which by the way, those rights came from God.

I refuse to let some beast rape or kill my wife because some bleeding heart liberal refuses to accept his responsibility to defend his wife and family. I call these people cowards, among other things that I shan't say here. A tool. It's just a tool. Can a hammer be deadly? Absolutely. Can a diving board be deadly? Can a kitchen knife? How about that 4000 pound piece of 70 MPH projectile sitting out in your driveway?

I refuse. Listen to me very carefully. I refuse to surrender my right to protect myself and my family. There are more commandments than just the Big Ten. I'm leaning heavy on God here, but it is my right as a man, and a warrior, and it's my God given responsibility to be a man and protect and defend those that I am responsible for.

I can hear the snowflakes screeching now. This beast is a barbarian! So be it. We are losing our society. Some people would say we have already lost. I'm one of them. If we do not get up off of our fat, lazy, stupid butts and take this bull by the horns, then in a generation or two, we will not even recognize our neighborhoods, our society, or our culture. Don't think it can't happen, because it is happening, while we sit and watch TV, laugh as we watch the perversion, and stuff our fat faces with Cheetos. Read your history. It has happened many times before, people have lost their cultures by idly sitting by. Once you lose, you lose.

It's raining at my house today. A good day to sharpen your kitchen knives. A good day to sharpen your skills. Just look around Ladies and Gentlemen, 90% of the people will never fight, 1-2% of the people will fight. King George had the overwhelming majority of people on his side. If you don't know who King George is, then you should. He had the overwhelming support of the people in the colonies and 1-3% of the people overthrew his local government and his trained military. These were tough people in a hostile environment. Do not believe a word our government says. You know we need leadership that I do not see stepping up. Our last president, Mr. Obama, said that we are not a Christian nation, he was wrong and is wrong. We ARE Christian and we are in need of those 1-3% of the people to do what the majority will not do.

I refuse to surrender. You should refuse to surrender also.

A shift here. You've got to have food and water. You have got to have shelter. It is imperative that your head is screwed on right. You need the ability to protect yourself. You've got to have water.

Next. Quit trying to change the minds of people that you're not going to change. You're wasting energy. I have tried for YEARS and the government and the media has convinced the people that everything is just fine. So quit wasting time trying to get other folks to see it your way. Be very careful who you do trust because through the kindness of their own heart they may tell someone what you're doing and that person may not be a kind, gentle person. I have heard people in church stand up and ask for prayers for when they go on vacation for two weeks. Great. They just told a whole church full of people they'll be gone for two weeks. If one person, in light conversation, mentions that to the wrong person, their house could be empty when they return. 

It's time to quit talking and thinking about telling people what you're going to do. A veteran street fighter knows that when someone tells them what they're getting ready to do, it's not going to happen. A veteran street fighter never tells someone what they're going to do, they just do it. Trust me. Remember the last presidential campaign when Mr. Trump said we are going to quit telling the enemy our plans? Word to the wise.

It was me or that pig. I chose me. I am the person responsible for my house. I choose life over death. Our mindset is strong. Plan to feed those you can, but if you can't, don't worry about it. Do not put your family in jeopardy for the fool next door that didn't prepare. It's your choice.

Choose wisely.

We'll talk more later, Frank

Fern, the Pig Trainer

Just typing the title for this article makes me laugh. If you've been reading here for long, you've read that I hate pigs. I'm afraid of pigs. I want to raise pigs for food, but don't like them at all. I'm just not a pig person. Or wasn't until recently, as recent as May 15, 2015, five and a half short months ago.
 

May 19, 2015

Well, after we decided to add pigs to our homestead for the benefits they will provide after the SHTF, I decided it was time to change my tune. So I did. Now we have pigs, and they're decent enough animals. I'm not afraid they're going to bite me all the time anymore. I've realized that their behavior can be shaped, similar to any other animal, whether it is a dog, or a goat, or a pig.

I admit, I do pay more attention to Lance, the boar, and Liberty, our gilt, than I do the barrows, our future dinner. We plan on having Lance and Liberty around for a very long time, so we want them to be relatively tame and easy to work with. This is very similar to the way I treat the goats. I pay a whole lot more attention to the does and very little to the buck or wethers. It's just the nature of things. American Guinea Hogs are smaller pigs, 150 to 250 pounds full grown, and known to be slow growers. We originally thought about butchering the barrows in December when they will be nine months old, but there is just not a lot of meat on them yet. For now, the plan is to wait until February or March when they will be close to a year old.

barrow

We still feed the pigs very little grain. They get scraps from the kitchen, stuff out of the pantry we don't eat anymore, like macaroni or cereal, old powdered milk mixed with water or the liquid from a jar of green beans or squash. Stuff like that. In the morning they get two small green bean cans of dairy goat ration. We don't by pig feed specifically for them. They graze to their hearts content in their one to two acre pasture, and appear to be healthy, happy pigs.

We have been asking folks questions about pigs, their health and behavior, since we have never raised them before. The consensus appears to be that Liberty looks pregnant, which is good. We are hoping she is, and have a rough guesstimate of a January 10thish due date. With that in mind, seeing how she is low pig on the pecking order, um, make that oinking order, I wanted to make sure she is getting enough to eat so not only can she feed her growing babies, but continue to grow herself since she is not an adult, or sow yet. Thus the title of this article.

Pigs are strong, quick, scrappy creatures. Once the feed is poured out in the pan, it's every pig for themselves. Since we haven't raised pigs before, I'm not real sure how to think like a pig yet, but I'm learning. Lance is the largest of the four and can easily move the others out of his way to get the most food. I noticed this a month or so ago and started feeding in two pans instead of one. This resulted in Lance eating out of one pan, while Liberty and the two barrows ate out of the other. I used this observation to try to develop a way to feed Liberty by herself.

I moved the feed pans over by the pen we have set up. If I could get Liberty to go into the pen to eat, I could shut the gate, let her eat, then when she was finished, let her out. First I tried feeding everyone in there and running the boys out. That definitely didn't work. Then I tried feeding everyone right outside the pen in one pan, and trying to get Liberty to go into the pen to eat. That didn't work. I ended up waiting for her to be on the pen side of the feed pan, they always go around in a circle as they eat trying to get to the 'good stuff'. At first I kind of lifted Liberty's front end by the shoulders and aiming her at the pan in the pen. This didn't work for a day or two, then all of a sudden it did. Yea!

Lance

The next day, Liberty walked right into the pen and I shut the gate, fed the boys, but when I opened the gate to feed her, out she came, not to go back in. Humphf. Now what? Keep trying. I did the lifting by the shoulder thing for several more days. Sometimes she was willing to go in and eat, and sometimes she wasn't. After about 10 days there was around a 60% success rate. Not bad for a novice pig trainer, I thought. I realized that if I put food in the pan closest to the pen, then in the pan farthest from the pen, Lance would go to the far pan and the others, including Liberty would stay closer to the pen. I stayed consistent in this routine for a few days and it worked.

Liberty

For the last few days I have been pouring out some feed in pan #1 by the pen, then pan #2 for Lance, then pan #3 in Liberty's pen. As I pour out Liberty's feed, I tap the side of the bucket to draw her attention, then I walk out and pat her on the shoulders and tell her to come on. For three consecutive feedings it worked great. Then, this morning as I was tapping the side of the bucket, in walks Liberty to the pan at my feet and starts eating. Hallelujah!

Twirling barrows

Liberty

At first Liberty was fussy and anxious when she finished eating and found herself penned up alone. Now she just talks to me as I come back to let her out. Once I open the gate she walks right up to me waiting for more food or a pat on the back. Now that we've reached this point, I'm hoping she continues to trust us a little more. It will be very interesting to see how birthing and raising piglets works out. The docile nature of this breed of pig is well documented. Most folks don't even separate the sows and boars during, or after the piglets are born. Since Liberty is getting used to eating alone, I should be able to continue this routine while she is nursing, insuring adequate nutrition for her and the piglets, at least that is my theory for now. Again, we'll just have to see how it all works out.

Fern, the pig trainer. I never thought in a million years I would ever be doing anything like this, or writing about it either, for that matter. Just goes to show that you never know what life will bring you. Sometimes it something that will increase your chance of survival, and in that case, it's a gift for which I am truly thankful.

Until next time - Fern

 

This is not Liberty.

This is not Liberty either.

This is Liberty.

Homestead News, Volume 15

It's raining here today, which is expected to continue for a number of days. That's good, because it was very dry here. Since we have been doing a lot of tractor work in and around the garden and antenna tower locations, much of the ground was just dust. We didn't want to have any of our new topsoil wash away again like it did in the spring, so I took what was left of an old bale of hay and spread it out pretty thickly in the bare places. Then we turned the sprinkler on for a little while to mat it down and hopefully hold it in place. We got a good rain last night that wet it down even more. So far so good.

Lance, the boar

Our pigs are doing well. Their behavior is acceptable, and they like their routine. I have been watching Liberty, and petting her more than the boys, to see if there are any signs of pregnancy. She seems to be getting rounder by the day, and if I'm not mistaken, I think her teats are developing. Maybe some of you that are experienced with pigs can give us your opinion of these pictures. I can only guess at her condition based on a goat's body, which is woefully inadequate since one is a ruminant and one is not.

Liberty, our gilt

 









In between antenna towers, the steps for the outdoor kitchen were built. The two posts to the right will host a handrail once the concrete at the base of the posts cure. The metal for the roof and lumber for the framing is in. Depending on the amount of precipitation we get early next week, we may see more progress on the kitchen.
 

Tower #2

Antenna towers. We now have three concreted in the ground. The main tower was the last to go in since it necessitated taking the radio shack off line for a while. We had our third Survival Radio Relay Net this week with another increase in participation from around the area. There are even folks that are starting to try to contact each other every evening at the same time, just to check in and see how well their radios are working.

 

Tower #3

 









We will do an indepth article on the changes in Frank's antennas, the towers, their installation hows and whys, when we complete this project. If you have any questions beforehand, please post them so he can address them in the article. Our current set up surprised us with the number of people we could reach and the distance some of them are from us. We can't wait to see how the taller towers will affect our communication abilities. This is a very exciting project indeed.

Bucket with a hole for watering trees

When we put the lattice work up across the front porch, we had to move a small jungle of trees that had lived in pots for a couple of years. Most of them had died due to neglect, but some of them made it by growing out of their pots and into the ground. One of them was this mulberry. We had to lop off a very large root to move it out of the way, and I wanted to try to save it. We really expected it to die. I pruned it severely, planted it by the chicken pen, and watered it regularly when we watered the chickens. The leaves all gradually died and fell off, but then the other day there were new leaves. Yea! This tree can provide berries for us and chickens alike, and will also provide some much needed shade for the pen in the heat of summer. 

Our wonderful Pearl

Our critters are doing well. Here is a glimpse of a few of them.

The chicks are growing.

The chickens like pears.

Scruf is funny.

Patch

Lady Bug

Okra blossom

I have one more day of pear canning ahead of me, hopefully tomorrow. I have a few more green beans I can put up as well. It won't be long before the first frost comes and puts an end to the outdoor garden. Then I will really concentrate on learning to grow our winter food in the greenhouse. I already have visions of seedlings for spring lining the shelves. But first, we all need to weather the coming winter and whatever it holds in store. 

We continue to appreciate each and every day that we can live these comfortable, 'normal' days. That gives us one more day to prepare.

Until next time - Fern
 

Homestead News, Volume 12

It has been a very productive week in our little corner of the world. We seem to have a lot of irons in the fire, but at the same time, the progress we are making on a number of projects and tasks, not only makes the days fly by, but when we stand back and take stock, we are amazed at how much we are getting done. I'll probably forget something, but here goes with the latest news from our humble homestead.

  


We showed you the progress on the greenhouse door #1 earlier in the week. The next day the storm doors went up, completing the exterior of the greenhouse. The doors were trimmed to match the window trim that was used earlier when we had the new windows 

installed. Yesterday when it was 97* outside, it was 120* in the greenhouse. We have been trying to learn the temperature variations in there. It's too hot to plant anything in there now, but it won't be long.

Next we finished the new trim on the storage buildings. It's too bad the original trim was such poor quality. It rotted in just a couple of years in several places, so we replaced all of it before we had to deal with more rot down the road. We laid the cucumbers, trellis and all, down on this bucket so the trim on the window could be replaced. I was glad this worked and they are no worse for the move. Frank comes up with good ideas like this all the time.

Frank ran across an interesting article about canned food expiration dates, both store bought and home canned. It's very interesting and basically states, with a number of references, that there is no such thing as an expiration date. I agree. It's a very well done, interesting article that I recommend reading, Dispelling the Canned Food Expiration Date Myth.

We bartered the rest of the young hens and a few roosters, that we are not keeping for our replacement flock, to another young couple in exchange for help servicing our tractor. This young father, they just had their third child, has worked with his father in their tractor shop for years. His help will make for short, accurate work on our tractor. Another very good trade.

 
We found out this week that one of our American Guinea Hogs has greasy pig disease, or exudative epidermitis. See why I just called it greasy pig disease? From several conversations with our vet, and research in books and online, we found out that pigs generally have staph bacteria on the surface of their skin. As long as they are healthy and don't have any injuries, this generally is not a problem. The vet said staph is everywhere, on the pigs, in the ground, and very common. Well almost two weeks ago I noticed a few spots on a barrow's face. It looked like small, white bumps, but not anything important. We watched him for a few days, and when they didn't go away, called the vet and set up a day for him to come out and look.

Vet's assistant

The vet took several little scabby areas of skin from these bumps, took them back to the clinic, looked at them under the microscope, then called to tell us it is greasy pig disease, which is very contagious. The good news is that it is easily treatable with penicillin. The bad news is that pigs are hard to catch. Last night the vet and his helper came out and we tried to trap the pigs in some panels to give them the shots. We were only able to treat Liberty, our gilt. We had not put the pig pen back together since putting the lean-to shed up on the barn because we hadn't needed it. While the vet was here, we got the pen put together. Then this morning when I fed them, I locked them in the pen and called the vet to let him know we had them up. He came out again today and cornered the pigs with a piece of stock panel, and the three boys got their shots. We talked about what could have caused this and found it could be anything from getting scratched or poked with a thorn or on the fencing. Afterward we had a conversation about what to do if this happened again and we didn't have access to a vet or penicillin shots. Antibiotics in water will work, iodine would work, or maybe something else with strong antibiotic/antiseptic properties. Interesting conversation.

By the way, there is a possibility that Liberty and Lance bred a few days ago. If so, we can expect piglets around January 10th, right in the middle of our first kidding season of the year. Piglets and kids in January will make for a fun winter addition to the homestead. We also found out that the reason Lance keeps poking the other pigs in the side with his nose. It's normal dominance behavior. He seldom does this to Liberty, but often does it to the barrows. He is a sexist pig.

I'm glad to report that Faith is recovering from the reconstructive surgery she had last week. She still has a way to go, but has a great attitude and looks forward to getting back on her feet and out doing things, like visiting with her goats again. Thank you for your prayers on her behalf.

We have a couple of new projects on the drawing board. The first one deals with the beginning stages of an outdoor kitchen, or what some might call a summer kitchen. This area right behind the porch is the location. 

For Frank to work over this weedy, overgrown area, we moved this section of antenna tower to an empty area of the garden, and this hay bale that is used for mulch into an empty area of the herb bed. We were surprised at how well the tractor was able to clear off the vegetation that was growing all over. 

 

While he was at it, he also used the disc to mix in the chicken manure we put in the garden last week after our good trade of chickens for a clean chicken house. 
 

 






After I raked and cleaned up what was left, I mixed some weed killer to spray down the whole area. It hasn't been applied yet, though. There were several other things to take care of at the time and I haven't gotten back to it yet, but I will one day next week.

This location is central to the garden, house, greenhouse, clothes line and in a very convenient place. There will be a water supply from guttering on the house and a large storage tank. Firewood will be handy since we keep it on the edge of the porch. Washing produce from the garden or

dressing out chickens will be accomplished here with a basin sink and work bench. Cooking can also be done here, along with a grid down laundry service. Right now, it's dirt and planning. This tree stump will have to be removed, but that will happen when we have the water line dug and installed. The radio towers that now sit between the two holes that will house the clothesline poles, will also be installed before long, some of them here and some of them in another location that will facilitate our community radio communications network. This is another upcoming project which will enhance our ability to communicate by radio.

 






The water line we are installing will go 400 feet from the barn to the house. Here at the barn the guttering on the lean-to shed will funnel rain into these three 1550 gallon water tanks. As you can see, this project is also underway. Frank and Henry installed metal trim on the edge of the lean-to roof yesterday to cover some bare wood. It was an oversight when the lean-to was first built, and more will be installed on the pig side of the barn next week.

We met with the man that will be digging the water line for us one evening this past week. He will also dig the trench for the electric line to go from the new power pole out in the pasture to the barn. Frank and Henry have already wired the barn and installed the lighting, all it needs is juice to the fuse box and we're in business. This will probably be accomplished in the next week or so.

We fired up the incubator again this week. We have a number of chickens in the freezer, but not near enough, and we haven't canned any yet this year. There are approximately 60 eggs in there and we hope for a good hatch to supplement our meat supply.

We also found out one of our young does, Easter, has a stifle problem. Her back legs have a wiggle to them when she walks which is not good. We asked the vet about it when he was here and we have traced it to our buck. According to the vet, since Easter's mother and grandmother were born here and didn't have this problem, more than likely it comes from the buck. Another interesting thing is that Easter's mother, Lady Bug, and her twin sister, Cricket, both had kids with leg problems this year. Cricket's boy, Bo, was the one with the severe bowlegs. There is always something new to learn when you have farm animals.

As you can see, we are trying to complete as many major projects as we can in a short amount of time. We are investing heavily in tangible assets and labor. This investment will pay off in untold ways once we arrive at TEOTWAWKI. Do all you can. Time is precious.

Until next time - Fern