The Truck Ride Home
Today we added 4 ten week old Vietnamese Pot Belly Pigs to our collection of animals. We now have a virtually complete food chain. We grow grass and vegetables that feed the animals. The hens lay eggs and the goats provide milk. The milk, eggs, chickens and rabbits feed us. The leftovers and excess milk, whey, eggs and veggies feed the pigs, the pigs provide pork. Nothing is wasted. Everyone has a job and a purpose. Speaking of waste, the animal waste becomes fertilizer and compost that feeds the soil that feeds the plants. I can almost hear Elton John singing, “The Circle of Life”.
Brittan is especially excited as she has wanted pigs for a while. They are a bit wild right now as they have been pasture raised, but knowing B, she’ll have them spoiled in no time at all.
The little squealers will live in an old chicken tractor for a few weeks until they become accustomed to us and their surroundings. Then they will be released to roam the ‘baby pasture’ with a group of broilers. Once the pigs get large enough, they will go to a special pasture enclosure we are building just for them. It’s a bit of bottom land that is rough and weedy. We want them to root it and till it up so we can plant it with clover.
We chose Vietnamese Pot Belly Pigs because of their small size. They go well with the size of our farm and our collection of other miniatures, like cows, goats and donkeys. For some reason we have normal size sheep, chickens and turkeys. Our dogs are giants. Ok, we’re not exactly consistent, but in general terms we have miniature animals and it’s pretty cool.
Sometimes all this gets a little overwhelming, especially when its so hot that the chickens have stopped laying. But today, when a middle aged couple out walking their German Shepherd stopped to talk and say, “We just love your farm”, I was reminded of all the reasons we do what we do. We are healing the earth while we’re feeding the world. And we’re doing it by being good neighbors right here in suburbia. We are blessed.
Our Edible Suburb 