Not the rain again!!

[Lordcluck]

jc, I lurve the smell of Pigs ( Hogs)!! a clean pig smells a little like musky coffee grounds, it's only when theyre allowed to wallow in their own filth do they stink to high heaven!
I help maintain a small herd of mongrel hogs, Wildboar/Duroc/Berkshire/Tamworth/saddleback/Landrace mixes, who live a pretty much free range existence, literally as they are born escapologists!, and on a warm spring day, theres nothing like the aroma of clean, warm Pigs, wafting on the breeze, as they snooze in a heap on a deep bed of straw.
They also taste DEEEELICIOUS!!!

Meet some of the gang. . . .

[javacock]

Ohhh. .   just look at all that bacon a la hoof!  I am getting hungry.  We lived on the farm for years and the farm next door, west, was sold to a fellow who put in a hog farm.  Well, he was not the most fastidious keeper of swine, and when the west wind blew, it was something awful!  The hogs we had in my youth didn't ever smell like that! Could almost make a feller swear off hog meat.

javacock

[nankin3]

 Javacock, I see someone is stilll on the onery side.lol
When I was growing up our neighbor used to raise hog's and we had the same smelly problem as you it was terrible in the summer after a rain shower.
 Lordcluck, thanks for the pic's that first one is truly a face only a mother could love.lol
But I sure would like to have some fresh sausage and cracklin cornbread right now.
Danny

[javacock]

Nankin3:  Ornery?  You ain't seen ornery, YET.  If this were not a public forum, ornery would slide out of me like gas through a tin horn!  Ask Mary Ann if you don't believe me! Might just be a little dab of ornery hidin' in me somewhere.  I reckon if a feller can't have a little fun going down the road of life, why bother?  I am forever giving someone a bit of jest, as I figure folks don't laugh enough as they go along, so I just do it all the time (unless I'm really peeved at someone, and then they get the sharp side of the tongue) and the tongue has a very sharp edge to it.  I just call em like I see em, and if someone has a problem with that, well, scuuuuse me, just put on your big girl panties and move on!  I always figure folks can get happy in the same shoes they got mad in.  Life is too short to be a grump all the time, so yea, I reckon I'm still a bit ornery.

And, I hope it continues for a long time.  Getting older next week, and like I tell folks about that:  If ya ain't gettin' older;  YOU'RE DEAD!  So, kick up yur heels and get on about livin'!

No bad weather in these parts yet, but I hear other parts of the country are wishing they lived elsewhere. I am sure that before spring arrives, we will have a dose of something here in Kansas.  Just hope it isn't too soon or too long.

javacock

[javacock]

All you folks on the east coast of the US best be hunkered in well.  I just saw the news reports about all your weather in that part of the world, and was glad I was not there!  Hope you all get along well with no power outage troubles.  If you are in an outage area, I hope you have plenty of fuel for the generators.  Mine is parked at the back door, fueled up and ready to run when and if we need it.  We are thinking good thoughts for all of you over there

javacock

[Mary Ann Harley]

Ornery?  Actually Monte is a real sweetheart.  Not an ornery bone in his body.  LOL!!

It has been raining here to beat the band.  I thought my Dominique Bantams were going to drown.  As soon as everything dries out I'll be putting out fresh wheat straw.

Lord Cluck, loved the pictures of the pigs.  I visited a goat farm two years ago  & saw a pot belly pig that was as big as a small cow. It was a pet, but could hardly walk.  It's belly was almost touching the ground.  A waste of good meat.

Mary Ann

[nankin3]

 Javacock, love your phillisophy on things sure wish more people shared it. If I'm reading it right sounds like a Happy Birthday wish is in order for next week so here it is early. Hope the weather stays good for you also.
 MaryAnn my poor Buff Brahma Bantams have forgotten what the ground feels like I'm sure. No way am I going to let them in the run way the mud is now! Feathered legs and mud just don't mix.lol
I wonder if a pot belly pig tastes like a regular pig?

[Falling Tree Farm]

We just missed a major snow storm here in the Taconic Mtns of New York State.  The big storm was basically a coastal storm that put 1-2 feet of snow in the area south and east of us.  It is cold here with night readings in the low single digits and highs in the teens.  I got oil filled electric radiators in with the Nankins so the temp stays between 20 and 35 degrees -warmer nearer the radiators, colder further away.  It does not take them long to figure out the good spots to roost.  The standard size mixed layer flock manages without heat but there are enough of them to generate body heat enough to generally ward off any badly frozen combs.  I used to keep the Nankins without heat and while they survived fine all the points on the combs would get frozen off-if you have Mark Field's Nankin Book you will see a SC rooster with no points in one of the photos I supplied for the book.  Keep warm and keep safe.  Take the weather seriously so you can get to enjoy another Spring!  Howard

[nankin3]

Howard,
 Glad all the storms missed you but those temps are enough to make me glad I'm a southern boy.lol I was just happy to actually see some sun here today it's 32 here right now but feels warmer because of the sun.
 Danny

[Lordcluck]

Mary Ann, don't be deceived, those morbidly obese Vietnamese Pot-bellies taste rank! a friend of mine was 'given' or should i say had foisted upon him, an unwanted castrate VPBP, that was SOOO fat it was incapable of walking, and had to be lifted on a gate by eight strong men to load it up.

He slaughtered said porcine behemouth, and set about boiling, rendering, roasting, smoking, grilling, barbecuing and frying the animal to feed his family. suffice to say the flesh, what little there was buried deep within the fat, was inedible, even his pack of farm dogs turned their noses up at it, and he was left with a vat of lard big enough to deep fry an entire steer!

[javacock]

My goodness!  THAT is a lot of lard!  Just think of all the lye soap one could make with all that. 

Nankin 3:  Thanks for the b'day wish.  Yes, you read right.  29th I turn older (about the same age as Mary Ann, and I ain't tellin' you how old she is!!!!!)  I enjoy life too well to do something that silly.  And, I have not suffered a severe brain trauma recently which would render me sufficiently idiotic to do such a thing, either!

Howard:  Glad you missed the worst of the storms.  Hope they stay away from you.  They could just blow out to the ocean and dump snow out there somewhere BETWEEN thee and Lordcluck.

Weather prognosticator tells us we may be in for something here in a day or two.  I hope they are incorrect, but if not, we shall weather the storm as always and just remember gang, today is the first day of winter, so. . . WE ONLY HAVE 89 DAYS UNTIL SPRING  !!!  HOORAY!!!!!

javacock

[nankin3]

Lordcluck, I have wondered when seeing VPBP's if the were good for anything.... Now I know lol.

Javacock the more I read your last post the more my ribs hurt.lol

[Mary Ann Harley]

I didn't realize that a pot bellied pig would taste bad.  That is a lot of lard.  What in the world did he do with it all.

Birthday wishes to Monte.  Folks I will be a young 60 on March 13th.  My daughter, Crystal, & my dog Obie were both born on March 13th.  So we will be celebrating three birthdays that day.

I hope all y'all miss the snow.  Despite the joking around I do get concerned about everybody getting bad weather.

M A

[javacock]

WELL, THANK YOU MARY ANN FOR SPILLING THE BEANS ON THE AGE THING.  I shall be eternally grateful to you for that one.  And, remember those "paybacks"!  You scamp! Guess that makes me about 2 1/2 months older than she. As I said before, at lease we ARE getting older, and if you ain't gettin' older == YOU'RE DEAD!  I believe MA and I have not made it to that stage, yet, and hope it is many years before we get there!

Foggy and dampish here this morning.  No moisture falling, but one can feel it in the air, so I know there is something on the way.  As an old friend of mine once said when we were talking about the weather:  "It looks like we are gonna get something".  No telling what something is,but we will no doubt get it.

Been to the gas station (25 miles east), to the bank (1/2 mile east of the station) and the feed store (7 miles east of the bank) and got all the "business" taken care of, so now I have all these things laid by, I can stay home, go to work, and do chores if the weather turns nasty, as the weatherman says it shall.  We are currently in a blizzard watch area, according to the weather map.  So it goes.  Winter is here, and we have only 88 days until SPRING!!!  Hooray!!!!

javacock

[Falling Tree Farm]

Happy Birthday to Mary Ann and Monte and thank you for all you do for the Nankin Club!  Howard