Pigs thrive in this GREENHOUSE (in winter)

You guys see the pigs out there? You guys hear them? You guys hear them in the greenhouse? Still very dark outside. This morning, we got a very special day. Day one of two of our mini farm tour. This is a local one. This one, going to town. A little Christmas gift from Grandma. You quite the builder, buddy. We are at Hickory Nut Gap Farm. Local farm to us. We're going to get some hay. We got Walker here, the farm manager, going to take us around. They're all layers, and we don't have any more meat birds right now. We only do meat birds up until November. These are golden comets. Going to feed the goats and the sows now. Grabbing some hay. We pretty much keep these guys in here in the winter just because they have a house. Keep them out of the wind. So we put them out in the field in the spring. We're going to go load up on some feed down here, the silo. We used to do all of our feed out of those bags, those one-ton bags, and I hate those things. We still use them for chickens and stuff, but man, this silo changed our world. It's so much easier. You can auger it into another auger to feed the pigs. And then we've installed this thing back here, which just saves so much wasted feed. You just don't waste nearly as much, and the mice don't get near here. That's true. I like your farm truck, too, up there. This thing got wrecked. And so we figured we might as well turn this over. It's a nice, covered farm truck. That car's on its last leg, man. Yeah. I think we're feeding the sows now. Yes, it looks like it. And he's got them out on pasture. That's awesome. Yes. Reminds us of our time in Honduras. I used to keep the pigs. This is what it sounded like every morning before they got their fat feed. Sometimes this would happen at night. Scary. Three to five pounds each a day. Yeah. Because you don't want their body mass to get too big or they have trouble with birth. He hustled right there, buddy. Yeah, he did. Yeah, and that'll get you. I say, if you didn't feed them, they'd turn on you, buddy. We are going to overwinter them here. We just got the tarp on, and so they're dried in. Better conditions for them. We need to spread a bunch of corn stalks in here. We started yet the other day, but we aren't quite done. And then we're actually going to move our other pigs in here, too, so that we can farrow overwinter and have babies in here overwinter and not have to have them get too cold, was the idea. We're hoping. We had this hoop house built last year, and when that big snow came, it had big winds, too, and it ripped up, completely ripped the plastic off and destroyed half of the hoop house. Just took it out of the ground and flung it. So these are your mamas? These are some of them. These are the ones that just had babies. And you got another one. We have another six of them. And you were telling me about one named Sassy. Yeah, there's one named Sassy. You'll see her. She's huge. She's massive. She's also the oldest mama we have, but she probably weighs 750 pounds or something. And you call her Sassy for a reason. Yeah, well, she's the boss, basically. She's large and in charge. The nice thing is, if you heard these guys squealing, if you stick her in with these guys, they shut up. They won't squeal. So we're thinking about changing her breeding pattern so that we can put her in with this group, because we alternate. We breed this group and then that group. And just so that we can have some peace. Where are the boars? He's up with them right now. Have some peace. That one's named Chopstick. And this is Sassy's baby. This is Chopster? This one right here is Chopster. He's Sassy's baby. These are the guys that are growing up for meat, right? And he's super friendly. You can pet him. You guys, you want to come pet the pig? He's too curious for everybody. Don't get too attached, Walker. Yeah, he's our favorite pig. He's so funny. He's been like this since he was a little baby. You'll keep him as a mascot? I wish. If it was a dog, we would have totally kept him. Kept her as a breeder, because it's such a good pig. They'll just come find you out in the field and just want to hang out. See, these ones will let you kind of pet them, but not for too long. Are they doing any work in here? Are you going to plant something after them? Or what's going on here? Usually, this is our corn maze. We put the pigs through here, tear it up, basically, as our natural rotavators. And then we actually come through with a rotavator and tear it up the rest of the way. We plant the corn maze. Oh, buddy. And then, come on, come on. You can pet him. He's really nice. I don't think you've ever petted a pig. See, he just wants a scratch. There he goes. Come on. You can get over. We're trapped here. Come on, buddy. This one, you're like, let's pet him. No, this one just is not nervous. You notice they only have two strands of electric on those pigs. I asked him if that's enough to keep them in. He said, yes, but you've got to train them. This is their training pen. So they have the hog wire around. And then they have just a short strand in the middle there that's hot. And they run into that. And they quickly learn. Yeah, they learn quick. This one's on our tailgate. I'm just afraid they're going to bite me. What do you want? You need something to eat? Do I look appetizing to you? Walker, we've got to see Sassy now. Sassy is, she's a tabletop. I'm telling you, she, we, so you don't want, I was telling you, you don't want their body mass to be too big when they're having babies. But her body mass, we just can't get it down. It just stays big. So this is the big guy. This is the boar. Boy, you got the life, buddy, all these ladies. And that's Sassy down there, the striped one. Sassy's down there, the striped one getting a rub. They go a little crazy in the beginning. We're going to be moving these guys into the hoop house, actually, pretty soon. Hey, Sassy. See how much bigger she is than you? She's huge. She's massive. You could ride that pig, Walker. You ever been bitten, Walker? Not very much. So usually they give you a little nibble to test you out. They don't have fingers, you know, so they can't. The only way to assess things is to nibble on it. So they'll come and give you a few little play nibbles and testing nibbles. And if you let them get about three of those in, then they'll bite you, just because they're not sure what it is at that point. Oliver the boar has bit a couple of people. Sassy. What do you think of these big pigs, guys? You like that? That's cool, isn't it? No, mine's this way. You got to look over by it. They're kind of scary because they're coming this way, but they really won't hurt you. They're just curious. Remember, guys, they'll nibble you three times. You got three chances. In the fourth one, they'll get you. Oh, boy. And this is frost-free water, right? Yeah, it's actually called Mirko water. And we have pig ones and cow ones, too. We're done with the pigs. We're about to go over and feed the mama cows. He's got some hay for them. You want to feed the huge cows? I want to pet the cows so bad, but I don't know. They seem a little bit wild. And they seem a little bit unsure about me. And they're hungry. Nobody ever wants to be petted when they're hungry. If you roll it out, you really end up having a better field, less waste on the hay. They can eat it more freely without having to compete with each other. We fed the cows. Now we're going to move the steers. The grass-fed beef here. You a little hesitant about this? Listen, the cows aren't going to eat you like the pigs will. We're moving the cows to new pasture. He's put up a strip wire right here to let them graze in here a day. And then he'll move them. He'll gradually open this up. And he thinks this field will last about a week. Walker's about to move these guys. He's got us standing here so they don't go up this way towards the road. They are definitely ready to get out of here. Look how they've mowed this grass down. And now these guys don't understand. You've got to go down and then back up. There they are figuring it out. All it takes is one to get figuring it out. Here they are in their new grass. Don't follow us. Stay there in your grass. Say bye to Hickory Nut Gap Farm. Bye. I think that was fun. I think that's a good tease. The kind of things and places and people we're gonna see, don't you? Oh yeah. It got me really excited. I know. Yeah, I think this is gonna be great. I enjoyed seeing just how they do things differently than we did. Yeah. Well, of course, they do it on a much, much bigger scale. Yeah. Tomorrow, we continue this mini tour. We're going over to more of the homesteader folks. They've got some goats and they've got to move their goats. Wild Roots Homestead near Hot Springs, in Hot Springs, North Carolina. It's near where the bus is, so we're gonna knock out Two Birds With One Stone, the Wild Roots Homestead with the goats, and then our bus.