Today we weaned 2/3 litters of our little pigs off of Oink and Cinnamon. It is certainly time to do that and it was fairly easy. The two big ladies were excited to be out of the smaller barn and about in their larger quarters with plenty of room to run and do their ‘modified pig-bucking’.
The Mamas are doing well and Oink is asserting her authority over Cinnamon. After a very short ‘brawl’ between the two of them Cinnamon the-young-powerful-oh-so-could-whoop-Oink’s-butt, tail down, succumbed to the Alpha female of the place. Oink reigns again. She’s tearing things up a bit as usual but really does enjoy being outside in the sunshine and wheeling around like she were a 3rd parity sow. (She’s at least 9 years old that we know of.) She’s randy and has already cleared the fence to get in with “Fatty” my FAVORITE boar pig ever.
I love him. (Fatty) I never speak much of him because I always figured my husband would get rid of him (sadness for me) so I never talk about him much. He’s my favorite guy that’s ever been on the place. He’s an easy keeper and I love the way he looks, plus he foams for me. Ha.
Meanwhile back in the little pigs ‘bigger pen’ there were plenty of shenanigans going on. The poor little white gilt got ridden around by her brother the entire time I was in the barn. Sick. Yes, spring means that ‘love is in the air’ but why do pigs do that? She gladly obliged but I kept tapping him off her back, only to have him jump right back on. I took 65 photos of the little pigs in the pen (yes 65, the lighting is terrible so I have to take a lot). Well I can assure you that in at least 25 of them the ‘sibling love’ was apparent. Like this…
See what I mean? Thanks for ruining my pictures you silly little pigs.
My little friend ‘Caramel’ as my daughter calls her, loves to jump up and get her scratches and petting first. She’s so pretty. I LOVE those little Duroc ears.
And I couldn’t forget to show you one of my favorite little ones out of Diamond’s (York gilt) litter. Isn’t she so sweet?
Another of my fat faced boyfriend, Fatty. He’s just too much for me. I love him!
In other news… we smoked some meat today (ICK, terrible transition from pig pics to spare ribs I’m sorry for that). We got some spare ribs (they were cheap) and some chicken quarters and smoked them on our little Brinkman Gourmet Electric Smoker. It was dirt cheap (less than $90) and we use it often. The meat turns out delicious and the smoke flavor is perfect. *This isn’t a paid endorsement, just my own opinions and you need to know that achieving great smoke flavor and smoking/bbq-ing meats well, IS attainable without breaking your bank.
We just seasoned the meat with a killer Sweet and Sassy Rub Recipe (I’ll share this when I come up with an actual recipe, I just use a dash of this and that… I’ll have this before next week!)
Then off to the smoker for about 4-5 hours (chicken) the spareribs needed about 6-7 hours. We sprayed with apple juice a couple of times during the smoking process to keep things moist (I’ll show you a step by step of how EASY smoking can be when I share that rub recipe with you). We pulled the chicken off of the smoker and it looked lovely. (sorry the ribs were gobbled up before photographing).
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