Itching to be Organic

Our 3 new little piggys are really starting to settle in! These 3 pigs were purchased from an Organic farm, they were born in June and currently weigh 40lbs a piece.

But on a side note, we have *finally* built a pig pen! Before, all of our pigs were housed in various pens & stalls inside our barn. But because of the heat, flies, and a pigs natural tendency to root- Having them in the barn became a real pain, real fast.

So... We built them what I have termed "The Shitty Shack". All of our other small out buildings were made really nice!... The chickens have an upscale condo complete with roof shingles, a larger than life vent, plus a window! The sheep have an enormously long beautiful shelter and the steer's shelter is so nice I bet that the steers down the road are envious! But hey, times are tougher now (Thank You Crap Economy!) and like everything else, building materials have become more expensive- AND I can be pretty frugal when I have to be :)

And so the "Shitty Shack" was made. OMG is this thing a hodge podge! The walls are constructed from pallets stood on end, and the roof is some weird piece of framed metal we had lying around the farm. It's a beauty let me tell you! (can you taste that?? That's the taste of sarcasm!)

I was so unsure if this whole hodge podge of materials would fit together correctly that I actually made a to scale model of it prior to construction. I sat at the table like a 5 year old with my scissors, tape and old shoe box. Plus of course I had to plea my case to my husband, so I needed a visual! I have to add that my model of it looks a lot nicer than the final product! (better materials with the shoe box! lol)

So hubby wasn't at all thrilled about my idea of the "S.S" to say the least, he even brought up how much of an eyesore it will be in our yard. That made me laugh! Like huh??? We suddenly became pretentious?? Because the cow shit, dog shit, horse shit, pig shit, flies, weeds, toys, a zillion vehicles and trailers, and chickens... Don't ALREADY make our place look like a dump?? *scoff!* That's OK though, I politely reminded him that *I* didn't have to look at it outside my back door- It resides on the other side of our pine tree line that runs between our property and the next door neighbors! They have to look at it!! Ooh oh! I better make sure my name doesn't come up on that rotten neighbor website! lol!

Anyway, let me get back on track...

Ok, where was I? Oh Yeah!! The 3 little pigs... The 2 men we purchased them from were "good people". I found myself chatting up a storm with them, really enjoying our conversation. We shared in quite a few philosophies about raising meat. They are strictly Organic, where I still consider myself to be more "natural" when it comes to market animals, hoping someday to become true organic.

This is where my loyalty to being Organic falls short. When these 3 little pigs came home, I had noticed that they were scratching their bodies like mad. I didn't do anything about it right away, perhaps I was over thinking it and they only had an itch. Time went on, and they still itched. More time, and still more dang itching! So I caved, I dosed them with some Ivomectin in order to kill whatever parasite (mites / lice) are bothering them. The nice thing is that product will kill two birds with one stone! It takes care of the internal parasites too.

So what's my point in all of this you ask?? My point to all of this is that it is a struggle to raise a market animal from start to finish being strictly organic. Take these pigs for instance... I'm SURE they are loaded with internal parasites from not being de-wormed (ever), and they came to me with some form of external blood sucking parasite. And if I didn't give them that product they would have continued to be driven insane by itching their hides off- Plus, my rate of gain for them wouldn't be that great (meaning it would take me longer to get them to butcher weight) because of gut worms. So all in all it sucks. I can't seem to become truly "Organic" all while maintaining a healthy farm. Some day I will get there- As soon as I figure out how to keep animals parasite free!