Duke

Ever since Geo died, we have been thinking about adding a second dog.  When we saw the grey wolves, we decided that the want had become a need. So we began a search for just the right dog for our family.

The first dog that we found, actually found us.  I had posted something on craigslist about wanting to find a farm dog, and someone responded.  They had a heeler mix.  She sounded ok.  We agreed to meet with her.  But after a couple of days of her neurotic behavior and chasing (and catching) a couple of chickens, we decided that it really wasn't working out.  She went back to her previous owner.

The next dog we found was actually all the way in Portland.  I knew that it was a long shot since we lived so far away, but we have always really enjoyed the shepard mix dogs that we have had, and this was a purebred German Shepard.  I wrote to the owner about our family and situation.  She wrote back that our home sounded like just the place for their dog Duke.

One thing that I didn't ask was why she wanted to rehome the dog.  I assumed that since he is a big dog and they live in a city, it was a matter of room.  Well, that wasn't exactly the story she shared with me.

Duke had been trained very well by his owners.  He knew all of the basic commands, plus he was great on a leash and went running with the husband almost daily.  He was a gentle dog at home, played with the family cat, and took orders from the seven year old niece.  But Duke is a German Shepard.  And that is a problem for some.

One day, Duke was out for a run with his owner when they ran past a child and the dog spooked.  He nipped at the child, leaving a scratch on his butt.  EMS was called but no treatment was administered.  The father was livid.  Strike one for Duke.

A couple of times, Duke got out of his yard (the gate was left open) and he barked at a neighbor and her kids across the street.  The neighbor freaked out and called Animal Control.  Duke had never even left his yard, but he was now seen as menacing the neighbors.  Strike two for Duke.

Finally, Duke and his owner were out for a run.  An off-duty police officer, wearing all black and running swiftly, yelled to the owner that he was passing on the trail.  As the officer ran by, Duke nipped at his hip.  The officer moved and there was little contact.  They stopped and talked about the incident, both owner and officer agreeing that Duke was acting in a protective manner when he was surprised by the passerby.  But the officer had to report it.  Strike three for Duke.

Animal Control put Duke in doggy jail.  They labeled him as a "bite dog" and the only contact that he was allowed was to be fed and have his cage cleaned.  He wasn't allowed outside for walks or exercise.  He wasn't allowed attention from the volunteers.  For 16 days, Duke sat in a cell - condemned for being who he was, a Shepard.

Animal Control explained that Duke would have a hearing where the judge would decide if he were a "dangerous dog" or not.  If convicted, Duke would not be "allowed to live in Washington County."  Read that statement as "Duke would be euthanized."  Because what else would happen to Duke?  He was in jail.  He was untouchable.  He was unadoptable.  There were no options.  His owners were fighting this whole thing with a lawyer, but the code is what the code is.

We were somewhat concerned about Duke's past, but we know how things get blown out of proportion.  We also understand the breed.  Until the head of Animal Control called us directly to "warn" us of this dangerous dog, we had no reserves.  After her phone call to us, we felt we needed to see the police reports ourselves.  And we did.  Nowhere did the reports sound like a vicious dog.  Nowhere could we see this dangerous animal.  We decided to take a chance.

We met with the owners at Animal Control.  Animal Control had to release the dog to them with the agreement that we would adopt him immediately thereafter.  Which we did.  We put Duke in the back of the car and started the drive home.

About halfway home, we stopped to let the dog out to go to the bathroom.  The kids got out of the car to say hi to him.  There on the side of the road, this menace to society, this dangerous dog that was going to be euthanized, rolled over in the grass and begged for a belly rub.  Of course, we obliged.

When we got home, Duke met Dobby.  They got along pretty well almost immediately.  There was a little bit of territorial show, but soon enough, they were settled in side by side on the bed with me.

Duke is a great addition to our home.  We were so lucky to have been able to rescue him from the maltreatment of an enforcement agency that never looked at the individual dog, only at the code in a book.

Homemade Hog Feed

I want to start by reminding everyone who might read this blog that I am in no way an expert on swine nutrition, nor do I profess to understand nutritional values of common foods (for that matter, I'm shakey on the math involved in the whole process as well).  With that said, I have been trying to find a way to feed our pigs whole foods instead of store bought grains.  Here is the stream of consiciousness that I have been processing...

We know that pigs need a varied diet.  They are not garbage disposals and will not perform well if fed incorrectly.  At our house, we only feed our pigs scraps that came right off the table and are still basically edible to humans.  We don't buy hog racks of day old bread because we like to have a lean pig at the time of butcher and we don't want our breeding stock to get fat because it inhibits their reproductive abilities.  Grocery stores tend to recycle their produce cullings through the store now, so we don't really have that as an option either.

So, I also know that the pig feed we buy contains about 19% protein, a variety of vitamins and minerals, and a source of amino acids.  In doing research, I found someone that said they need about 1800 calories per day.  I would guess that nursing, pregnant, or growing pigs need more.  The percentages I encountered suggested 50% energy (calories), 20% protein, and 30% vitamins and minerals.  When I look at the "Sow and Pig Complete" bag, I have 16% protein, 2.5% fat, 7.2% fiber and the rest is vitamins and minerals - so about 74.3%.  I'm not exactly sure where the "energy" comes from.  There is no calorie count on the pig feed.  So my assumption is that the fat and fiber content will somewhat imply the caloric intake and it must be enough to sustain pigs, because mine do very well on it.

When I started looking for homemade pig feed recipes, I found some suggestions, but nothing that talked about numbers, percentages, or amounts.  So I had to create it myself.  I made a list of the items that seemed to be common on most pig feed lists and added dairy for the amino acids (something that most "recipes" seemed to lack).  The following is a list, including calories, carbohydrates, and proteins for my first recipe attempt.  I cannot seem to get the chart to show in the blog, so this is in a list format instead.

Pinto beans, 1 lb, 1560 cal,  286g carbs,  91g protein,  Lysine, $1.50

Oats, 1 lb, 844 cal,  152g carbs, 28g protein, Carbs, $2.50

Carrots, 1 lb, 182 cal, 42g carbs, 3.5g protein, Vitamin A, $0.53

Squash, 1 lb, 117 cal, 31g carbs, 3.9g protein, Vitamin A, $0.99

Cottage Cheese, 1 lb, 790 cal, 39.5g carbs, 110.6g protein, Amino Acids, Vitamin D, Calcium, $1.25

Cabbage, 1 lb, 112 cal, 25.5g carbs, 5.1g protein, Vitamin C, $0.79

Broccoli, 1 lb, 152 cal, 29g carbs, 15g protein, Vitamin C, Iron, $1.99

Totals: 7 lbs of feed, 3757 calories, 605g carbs,  257.1g protein, $9.55

Ok.  3757 calories is too much for one feeding, so we need to break that down a bit.  But the percentages of carbs and proteins are about right (60.5% carbs and 25.7% proteins).  So if I divide the total in half, I end up with the same ratio of carbs and proteins, but fewer calories...1878.5 calories to be exact.  Just about right for the 1800 calorie per day requirement.  I don't have any way to determine the percentage of vitamins and minerals, but I know that I have a variety, so I'm gonna hope that I have a bit of everything.

In the end, this is the recipe I came up with:

.5lb uncooked pinto beans (cook them after you measure)
.5lb whole oats (like for cereal - don't worry about cooking them)
.5lb raw carrots
.5lb raw winter squash (acorn, pumpkin, or butternut have the most meat)
.5lb raw cabbage
.5lb raw broccoli
.5lb 2% cottage cheese

This makes enough feed for one hog for one day.  If you have nursing, pregnant or growing hogs, I would increase the cottage cheese and oats to 1lb per day each.  That will add another 817 calories, 95.75g carbs, and 69.3g of protein. The ratio of carbs and proteins will be different, but this group of pigs (nursig, pregnant, and growing) can easily use the added protein.

In addition to this recipe for daily meals, I would include grass hay and the occassional apples (mainly as treats).  You could add variety by purchasing the veggies that are on sale or are in season, but you need to make sure that you are including all of the big vitamin/mineral needs - A, C, D, iron.  Always include dairy and beans for amino acids.  I looked at whole milk, but cottage cheese gives you more bang for your buck - milk is almost ten times lower in protein content than cottage cheese and about a third of the calories.

I will be trying this recipe out with my piggies today.  It certainly costs a bit more than our average feed costs now, but in the summer, it might be offset with the produce that we grow ourselves.

Broken Trailer

This is another example of the reality of living off grid.  Last week, the only water hauling company that would deliver water to people in our community decided to quit business.  That meant that we would need to get our own water up the five miles of dirt road to our house.  This isn't an impossible feat, but it does take more work than just calling the water guy and telling him that you'd like a tank of water brought out.  When he delivers, your cistern is filled in one trip - 3000 gallons at a time.  When we bring our own water to the house, we can really only bring about 500 gallons at a time.  Remember, a pint is a pound the whole world round.  That means a gallon of water (8 pints) is about 8 pounds.  It adds up quickly.

We have...I mean, HAD...two trailers.  A big one and a small one.  The big trailer was occupied with something today, so J decided to take the small one into the community well to get 300 gallons of water.  He was actually pretty worried about using this trailer, as the tires were very worn.  But he figured he would go the back way and drive really slow.

Things were going well.  The cube (a square water tank that holds 300 gallons of water) was centered over the axle on the trailer.  The tires were holding.  J's plan to go very slowly up the back road was working.  Until he had to pull off the road (it's a single track) several times for cars to pass.  It is somewhat unusual to run into ANY cars on the back road, but tonight, everyone had decided to go this way. 

Even pulling off the road wasn't too bad until J pulled off into some sand and got stuck.  He had to "rock" the car back and forth in order to break free of the sand.  That shifted the tank forward on the trailer (moving it off of the axle).  A few minutes later, the trailer frame broke under the pressure of the water tank (remember, that's 2400 pounds of water).

That's when I got a call.  I went down the road to help.  We had to drain all of the water out of the tank in order to be able to move the tank or the trailer.  The trailer was bent at such an angle that it was impossible to hook it to the tow hitch and move it without the broken section dragging.  And this road is not smooth...every rock and boulder would dislodge the trailer.

Once the water was drained, we lifted the cube off the trailer and dragged the trailer off of the road.  We weren't too concerned about leaving the trailer overnight, but the cube was another story.  It would be gone by morning.  With no trailer, we had to think outside of the box (or cube, as the story goes).  J took the two tie downs we had and attached them to the roof rack on his van.  I held the cube up against the back of the van while J laced the straps through the frame of the cube and then under it, effectively strapping the cube to the back of the van like a backpack.  We drove slowly home.

The trailer isn't salvageable.  We will be using the large trailer from now on.  Lesson learned.