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AMAZING BABY PIGLETS
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Oct 14, 2005 9:50 am
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For those of you who have never witnessed a litter of piglets being born, let me tell you it is quite amazing! The mother sow is laying on her side while the piglets are expelled from her womb. Within a minute of birth, the piglet stands up a bit unsteadily. Then it immediately goes around her hind legs, and latches onto a teat. The newborn starts suckling right away and continues to do so while their siblings are being born. Mama pig merely lays there while this is happening!
The piglets always move away to the far side of the pen to relieve themselves. They instinctively keep their sleeping area clean. They also do a lot of "follow the leader" games as they get a little older. While we sold most of the piglets between 6 and 8 weeks old, we got a real edcucation while they remained on the farm.
Our pigs had an electric wire which was about 12 inches off the ground on the hillside to keep them confined. Their were three enclosures made of 2 x 6's for the larger hogs when we wanted them confined for various reasons.
Soon the baby piglets were running and squealing all over the place. Ronald and Sherilyn, the youngest children, would often take a baby apiece out of the pen to play with them. One day I was watching two piglets, a kitten, and two puppies with the children. I grabbed my camera and got several photos of them ALL playing "follow the leader" with a cardboard box turned on its side. The kitten was first, followed by a piglet, then a puppy then another piglets! Those photos remain in an album in Alaska. The 5 animals were nose to tail, very close to each other!
We noticed they were very careful to stay back from the electric fence for a couple weeks. Then, a "daredevil" piglet ran at the wire. He squealed loudly as the electricity hit him. BUT he was free! The others watched him roam at will. Then a second pig ran at the wire, was zapped, squealed mightily, and joined the first escapee. After that, it was a regular occurance to see them line up and run at the wire!
As I said in an earlier blog, Babe our Holstein gave out 8 gallons of milk a day. Friends would drive up with an empty one gallon glass milk jar, come into the house, and leave with a full gallon of milk. They were NEVER bothered by the baby pigs when they arrived with the empty jars.
BUT the moment the person came out of the house with the full container of milk, we would hear the squeals of every pig hitting the hot wire, and then see them stream over the hillside and surround the milk customer! Somehow they must have smelled the milk, and they did NOT want to share their food supply.
There was a 4-plex appartment about a quarter of a mile away. Ronald and Sherilyn would go there to play with some young children living in one of the apartments. With their great sense of smell, the piglets trailed the children one day. Soon it was a regular sight to see our children and the apartment children playing in the yard with all the piglets!
Oh, for the person who asked if they all were named in an earlier blog, the answer was NO. It would have been impossible to tell who was who as they were all the same color and close in size. Also, they were very active and with litters of 12 to 18, they would have needed numbers painted on them to tell them apart!
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ROJO DIABLO...A HORSE
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Oct 13, 2005 12:12 pm
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The first time we saw Rojo, he was dripping wet and tied to the trailer porch rail. The rider was a neighbor who lived down the road at Snow Goose Ranch. He was a bright sorrel with a clipped mane, and a big white blazed face. Also, there was drops of blood coming from his mouth.
The rider was a wild acting man who generally raced the horse several miles down the highway to a bar in Palmer. He had no regards whatsoever for this 3 year old who was born across the road from us.
It took a couple weeks, but Jim finally traded the man a very nice heifer calf for the horse. It was then we learned Rojo's tongue was nearly sawed in half from a Spanish curb bit that had been used on him.
While the horse was gentle around the children, he went wild if anyone tried to ride him. Older son Elton managed to get on him once, and the horse returned moments later without him. He had raced at a tree, veering suddenly and letting Elton hit the tree. After awhile, no one tried to ride him.
Doris REALLY wanted to ride him. Near Christmas, Doris and Sherilyn went down to the barn area. The snow was about three feet deep.
Doris gave Rojo a hard Christmas candy. He liked it. She gave him another candy, and put little Sherilyn on his back. He quietly stood there and took another candy. Doris got on his back behind Sherilyn. The horse turned his head, and she gave him another candy.
Finally, Doris ran out of candy! Rojo then realized there was nothing more to eat, and very gently reared up just enough so both girls slid off his back into the snow! Neither was hurt, and they were so excited when they came back to the trailer to say they had "ridden" on Rojo!
Amazingly, Rojo seemed to love Robert. When he was ten years old, he wanted to join the 4-H Pony Patrol. He got on Rojo, and the horse was so gentle with this child. Before long, Rojo and Robert were in all kinds of 4-H activities and events.
In the Alaska State Parade that year, Rojo pranced sideways down the main streets of Palmer while Robert rode him bareback. The judges actually awarded him a blue ribbon that year! He even raced him on the quarter mile race track at the fairgrounds!
After that wonderful summer of riding, Robert turned to music and no longer rode at all. A few years later Christopher took a red ribbon riding in the parade, but this time under saddle.
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SHALINDA....DAUGHTER OF BORIS AND YOLANDA
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Oct 12, 2005 12:34 pm
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The children soon found the piglets to be bright, loving playmates. Though most were sold by the time they were 8 weeks old, a few remained on the farm.
My youngest daughter, Sherilyn, was particularly fond of the pigs. Sometimes I would find her asleep on the hay surrounded by the piglets while Mom Yolanda seemed to be enjoying a quiet time by herself.
Shalinda was only a week old when Sherilyn brought her up to the house, gave her a bath, and then wrapped her in a baby blanket because she wanted to show her friends at the Palmer Pioneer Home this baby.
There was quite a stir at the home when she came in and showed her baby to them! Many ooohs and aaaaahs were heard. Some of the women and men talked about their experiences with pigs when they were youngsters. Some begged to hold the little Yorkshire in their arms, and of course that was allowed.
John Hale, the Alaska State Fair manager at the time told me Shalinda had to be entered in the fair! Unfortunately, when he told me this just about every horse trailer in the area was in use bringing horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and other entries to the fair that day as all live animals had to be in place by Thursday evening as the fair opened on Friday.
Naturally, the children were adamant that Shalinda HAD to get to the fair as soon as possible. I find it hard to believe now that we were able to get Shalinda loaded into the back seat of my old Chevy impalla. By this time, she was a substantial 200 pounds. She SAT on the backseat!
It was a warm day, and we had the car windows down. Slowly I drove onto the fairgrounds past streams of people bringing other entries into the fair. Majestically, Shalinda nodded her head and made snuffling noises as we passed the astonished fair goers. "My, GOD!!! Is that a PIG?" I heard someone say. People turned around and stared, excitedly saying, "Look! A pig sitting in a car! It is riding in a car!"
Finally I made it to the barn, but by then the barn had every stall in use. I was going to have to turn around and take her home. When I told John, he said, "No, way! She is staying."
He found a piece of wire and nailed it outside the barn and onto a post, and then onto the barn in two places. It ended up looking like a large triangle. He had hay brought into it, and a large container for water. I thought he was crazy because there was just a single wire about 18-20" above the ground. He opened the wire at one end, and said, "Put her in here!"
I told him he was crazy! No way would she stay in that enclosure! Thinking back, John probably hoped she WOULD leave it and cause some extra excitement on the fairgrounds. However, Shalinda acted like a perfect lady. She never attempted to knock down or jump over the wire. I know thousands of people came by and talked to her, petted her, and gave her food! For 11 days she remained at the fair, enjoying the good life!
She had cotton candy, cabbages, partial sandwiches, and anything else a fair visitor might wish to share with this very friendly, happy pig.
When it was all over, she calmly climbed into the backseat of my old car, and once again came home to a more normal life Not long after that, one of those who saw her wanted to buy her and have her live at a village where few natives had ever even seen a pig. She was pregnant then. We made a metal cage and put it on a trailer. She rode in this to the Anchorage International Airport. There, we said goodbye to Shalinda as she was loaded into a small plane.
I don't remember the village she went to, but am sure anyone who was there will never forget this most unusual pig. I know none of us ever forgot her.
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THE MOST STRESSFUL NIGHT IN ALASKA
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Oct 11, 2005 11:16 pm
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Both Melinda and Doris had a dairy cow as their 4-H project. One meeting night in Palmer, they planned to show everyone how to make butter using some of the massive amount of cream from Babe, and an electric butter churn.
I had told Jim I did not want all the hamburger from another butchered animal in 2# frozen packages. Instead, I wanted to make some of the meat into hamburger patties before it was frozen.
It came as a horrible shock when he arrived home about 6 pm with nearly 150 pounds of ground beef that was unfrozen! He could not have picked a worse time. We got the girls to their meeting and I was making patties like crazy.
About that time, one of the boys came running into the kitchen, saying Yolanda was having her piglets, and she was really mean!
Immediately Jim raced to the barn with several children in tow. Yolanda usually was calm, but tonight she was in a terrible temper. As each piglet was born, using the pitchfork, Jim would grab the newborn, hand it to one of the boys, and they would run up to the house with it. The piglet was put into a cardboard carton in the living room.
I continued to make patties and wrap them in the freezer paper while listening to the squealing piglets. The door slammed over and over again.
By now it was nearly 9pm, and the girls were still at the meeting. I needed them home at once so called the police department in Palmer to go to the 4-H building, and to have someone bring them home.
The first carton was full of piglets, and a second box nearly full. So far, 11 have arrived.
The children said Yolanda was still very upset, and Jim had to use the pitchfork every time to get the piglet out of harm's way.
Piglets continued to arrive, filling a third carton. Finally, I was told that Yolanda's 16th piglet was born dead. After that, she settled down and peacefully delivered piglet 17 and 18.
The girls were home now, and I had them helping with the meat. Jim came up and decided we needed to break off the sharp canine teeth on each piglet before returning them to Yolanda. He grabbed a pair of pliers, and snapped off the two teeth which would have become fangs later on as they matured.
The squealing was high pitched, and as he finished each piglet, he put it into a different box. This soon turned to pure bedlam as the piglets now were jumping out of the boxes and running all over the mobile home! He often picked up a piglet he had already snapped the teeth from, and there was no way the piglets would stay put anymore.
It was almost midnight when the 17 live babies were returned to the barn where they greedily grabbed a teat for their first taste of milk. I guess for some reason, the dead piglet was causing her pain as after it was expelled, she became the pleasant, wonderful pig mamma once again.
About that time, my youngest boys tearfully asked, "Mom? Aren't you going to give us any supper tonight?" Sigh, so of course hamburgers were cooked and devoured by everyone in the family many hours after the nomal suppertime.
One of those piglets was Grand Champion Barrow the next year and another became Grand Champion Sow at the Alaska State Fair.
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ONLY IN ALASKA!!!!!!!
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Oct 11, 2005 8:33 am
578 Views
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Before I even came to Alaska, Jim was there 6 months before me. Shortly before I sold the home and packed for the move, Jim had to have surgery on his leg. Some old schrapnel wounds he got in Korea were really bothering him.
He chose a wonderful surgeon in Palmer, Dr. Hal Bartko who came originally from Pennsylvania. Hal and his wife Margaret became wonderful friends. He had worked hard while raising his sons, and had a young daughter Ronald's age. I think he was near 40 when he obtained his medical degree.
One evening while we were visiting in their home, Margaret was telling us about a Republican convention they attended in Fairbanks. There had been a raffle there, and Louise Kellogg had won the airplane! Now at this time Louise did not have a valid pilot's license anymore, and really did not want an airplane. Hal always wanted his own plane, and she agreed he could take it back to Palmer.
This left Margaret to drive their car from Fairbanks to Palmer. Everything went along smoothly UNTIL Margaret found herself with a flat tire along the sparsely traveled Parks Highway. She got out of the car, opened the trunk, and found...NO SPARE TIRE.
Well, that created a big problem and Margaret settled down to wait for some passerby to help her. About that time, Hal decided to fly back and see how far she had driven. When he flew by and saw she had stopped, Hal immediately prepared to land on the highway. After landing and learning of her problem, Hal removed the bad tire, put it into the new plane, and headed back to Fairbanks to have it repaired.
While he was gone, two older tourists came driving up to Margaret's car which was sitting on three wheels. They were quite concerned about her and offered to help in any way. She told them she was fine, and help would be there soon. Knowing Margaret, she would be telling them more about Alaska.
About that time, the sound of an approaching plane was heard. Hal skillfully landed again on the highway, and taxiied up to the disabled car. He then hopped out of the plane, carrying the repaired tire. After a brief greeting, Hal put the tire back on, kissed Margaret, and once again took off for Palmer. Margaret said the two tourists were totally stunned! They could not believe someone would land a plane on the highway, pick up a bad tire, get it fixed, and re-land on the highway to help a motorist!
Hal actually saved many lives by landing in remote areas to treat very ill or injured Alaskan patients during his carreer there.
One of his dreams was to run the Iditarod race, and finally the year came that he actually entered the race. Depending on your view, this was either a fortunate or unfortunate event for him. Hal finished the race weeks after the winners had their prizes. As he drove the dogs the 1,049 mile race, he often stopped to treat injured and sick racers AND villagers along the route. He was totally dedicated to those that were in need of medical help.
A story Hal told us about Margaret had us in stitches one night. He was very tired, and had Margaret pilot the plane on their way to Nome. He said he awoke to hear frantic calls from the Nome airport. They were yelling, "TURN AROUND, MARGARET! TURN THE PLANE AROUND! YOU ARE FLYING DIRECTLY TO RUSSIA! STOP!"
At this time, Russia was NOT friendly. Planes could be shot down or confiscated if you went into their air space. Hal said he grabbed control of the plane, turned around, and landed safely in Nome much to the relief of the people there!
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BORIS ..A REAL CHARACTER
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Oct 10, 2005 11:17 pm
545 Views
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I am not sure WHAT Boris thought he was, but he was a real character of a Yorkshire hog. He was huge, weighing 750 pounds. He roamed freely on our 6 acres, and often wandered down to the driveway when he heard the Collies barking at anyone who drove up to the place there.
Now people were not intimidated by the Collies, but when this giant hog came down and imitated a fair "bark" most people did not want to get out of their cars!
At this time, the mobile home was in front of a low bank which curved upwards and then down into the barn area. The cows used to sun themselves on the bank, and Boris would join them. You may find it hard to believe, but this cream colored boar sported very large PINK colored balls! I have no idea why they were this color, but more than one person commented on them!
Boris was particularly fond of the young bull John. John was Ivy's brother, also born on Mother's Day. John seemed to find Boris a good companion, and he learned to appreciate taking a cooling mud bath in the summertime!
By now, it was a practice to take the cows along
the Fishhook to graze by the side of the road. Of course Boris went with the cows. One day while the kids were at school, the cows took off to graze on their own. Jim went after them, and soon was leading them single file across the road. I could see he was not happy as finally Boris came trailing at the end of the line, effectively stopping any traffic on the road.
One day our neighbor a good quarter of a mile away called and said, "Congratulations! You're going to have piglets!" I asked Betty what she meant? She explained that Boris and Yolanda were on the white line of the road, mating, and that there were a number of cars stopped in both directions with some motorists using their cameras to mark the unusual event on the road!
Sigh. She was so right! Jim and the boys went down to the corner and drove the "lovers" home.
And some five and a half months later, on a day I shall NEVER forget, Yolanda had 18 piglets. I might add that Yolanda took Grand Champion Sow at the Alaska State Fair while Boris merely got the blue ribbon instead of the purple one.
Another time one of the cows had gone a mile down the road in a back field while in labor. The other bovines went with her and so did Boris. I drove several of the children down the Fishhook to where we spotted the animals. Thank goodness the calf had not been born. The kids got out of the car, and started herding the animals home again. I was astonished to see young Robert who was about 8 years old riding on top of Boris! When I questioned him, he said it was a long walk and he figured it was easier to ride on Boris!
We had this animal several years, but finally he was getting too difficult to handle. He was sold as none of us would have enjoyed eating him.
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OUR FIRST ALASKAN COWS
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Oct 10, 2005 4:36 pm
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Jim used to have a dairy in Colorado, and he decided we just HAD to have a cow for our family.
He went to a dairy a few miles down the Fishhook to the Muth farm. They were willing to sell him a huge, ugly Holstein that we named Herman! She had always been with a herd, and living on our property with no other cows was not to her liking at all.
Jim and the boys gathered brush and limbs from the property and made her a fair sized coral. They also built a small 12 x 24 barn where she could get out of the weather and be milked. She was used to a milking machine, and did NOT want to be milked by hand. She fought and kicked through each milking, and after two months she became freezer meat. Sigh. And the fire after Christmas prevented us from even getting to eat her miserable carcass!
Early in 1972, Jim was looking for another cow. Don Breeden was picking up a cow from Louise Kellogg's Spring Creek Farm to be butchered. They said she was only giving 2 gallons of milk a day, but was bred to Bootmaker, a premium Holstein dairy bull (via artificial insemination). Jim told Don he wanted the cow, so he dropped off Babe that same day.
Babe was a mellow, friendly cow. She was gentle and seemed to enjoy the attention from the children. On Mother's Day 1972 she presented us with a mostly white heifer that we named Ivy.
Then the most astonishing thing happened when we started milking her. Babe consistently gave a full eight gallons of milk every day. Not only that, but it was exceptionally rich milk. We put the strained milk into gallon glass jars.
Babe's milk was exactly 50% cream and 50% milk after 12 hours in the refrigerator. I have no idea how many pounds of butter was made from that cream, but it was a lot of them.
Some of our friends started getting milk from us, and soon there were often people coming for gallons of fresh milk. When you consider that this cow gave 8 gallons of milk a day, it counted up in a hurry. Imagine trying to use 240 GALLONS of milk a month!
So Jim bought a Yorkshire sow we named Yolanda, and a Yorkshire boar called Boris. They happily slurped up hundreds of gallons of milk during their lifetime there. Yolanda was a "pig factory" who brought as many as 18 piglets into the world at a time!
More about the hogs later. Most of the children soon learned to milk the patient and loving Babe by hand. Then Jim bought a single Surge electric milking machine so the children would not have to spend so much time in the cold barn.
Babe was the mother of the twin calves featured in an earlier blog. And her first calf Ivy was named Alaska Grand Champion Dairy Cow two years later at the Alaska State Fair!
Oh, Babe gave us a bull calf on Mother's Day in 1973. How she managed to give me a Mother's Day present of a calf several years in a row is a mystery! Babe's photo also graced one of the Alaska State Fair premium books one year.
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1972 PAPER ROUTES IN ALASKA
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Oct 10, 2005 8:52 am
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The winds of the Matanuska and the Knik glaciers must have been fighting over our property for centuries. Winds remained steady at 40-45 miles an hour for days and nights on end. I had a wind gauge which actually clocked one gust I saw at 78 mph. With the snow outside, I now find it hard to believe how Michael, Christopher and Melinda managed to walk their newspaper routes 7 days a week. They lost very few papers though sometimes the wind would wrench a paper out of their hands as they attempted to hand-deliver it to a customer.
One elderly lady always had a cup of hot chocolate waiting for Chris at the outskirts of Palmer high above the town. One day she phoned me to say how wonderful he was, always with a smile and a story to tell her. She told me that he had explained all about the theory of relativity to her the prior day. "I didn't understand a word of what he said, but I was so proud that he took all that time to tell me about it," she marveled! Thinking back, how often the children expected everyone to understand what to them was crystal clear!
Unfortunately, there were problems on the routes
though most were minor. There was one huge St. Bernard male that would race up to Chris barking and growling. Despite the heavy clothing, Chris was bitten by the dog. When it came on our property after him, Jim shot the dog in the leg. It never bit him again.
And once I became enraged at a shop owner who emptied my daughter's pockets, saying she was shop lifting despite the child's protests. What was in her pocket was a small wrapped Christmas gift from a newspaper customer. Melinda was in tears, and I drove back into town to talk to the woman. She defiantly maintained "everyone" shop lifted in her store despite the fact nothing of hers had been found on my child. From that time on, I ordered all my family to stay out of her store. Many years later I learned the woman was an alcoholic who drank heavily throughout the day as well as evenings. She was a sick lady.
Oldest son Michael continued to work as well as maintain top grades in high school. I think his quiet, dedicated behavior was noticed but he was not so outwardly friendly as the younger children. Anyway, it was during this year that the Anchorage Times announced the paper boys of the year. Christopher's smiling face greeted many of his thrilled customers when the article came out in the paper. He was the only winner in the Matanuska-Suisitna Valley. All the other winners came from Anchorage.
Michael, Chris and Melinda kept their jobs until they graduated from high school. The money they earned was strictly theirs. All three were national honorary society students, eventually winning 3 major college scholarships.
Needless to say, I was very proud of all of them.
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DISASTER AFTER 1971 CHRISTMAS
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Oct 9, 2005 7:12 am
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A few days after Christmas, I was thinking how far we had come in a year. The children all had good winter clothing and boots to handle the bitterly cold Alaskan winters now. The older boys were happy living alone in the 12 x 24 wooden cabin while the girls had their bedroom in the mobile home. Ron, our youngest, also was in the trailer.
Since the 31' upright freezer remained in the cabin now, it was full of a freshly buthered beef. I also had full cases of many fruits and vegetables. There would be no lack of good food for the family this year.
Unfortunately, Elton had been given a pet rat by some friend of his. He carelessly did NOT fasten the cage when he went to school. To the best of my knowledge, the rat got out of the cage and knawed on the wires connecting the freezer. Robert came charging over to the trailer about 4pm "There's a fire in the cabin!" he shouted.
I raced over to see a small fire behind the freezer. Thinking I might be able to smother the fire in that corner, I grabbed a sack of flour and threw it at the fire. I guess flour burns, because the fire just got bigger. I yelled for Doris to call the fire department using the phone in the mobile home.
She came back saying she had called them. We were only 3 miles out of town, but I did not hear any fire trucks. The fire escalated, and I got Ronald, Sherilyn, Robert, Doris and myself out before we became trapped as there was only one door and no windows in the cabin. I ran to the trailer and called the fire department again, asking why they had not arrived. They said everyone was waiting to find out WHERE the fire was. Doris had called saying, "Come quick! Our house is on fire!" and then hung up. She did not give our name or location!
Sadly, by now the cabin was fully engulfed with flames..the fire was so hot it melted plastic pipes inside the mobile home, too. A neighbor across the road came and took the smallest children, Ronnie and Sherilyn, to his home By the time the older children got home from their paper routes, and Jim arrived from a thawing call, there was nothing but burnt bits of wood and the charred remains of our freezer.
My oldest son, Michael, was in tears as all the books he had bought from his paper route money were gone as well as his clothing. We were stunned. The boys slept on the floor of the living room and kitchen that night without blankets.
The next day there was an article in the Anchorage Times about the fire, and the fact that the children had lost their Christmas gifts too. For the next couple of days, families from Elmendorf Air Force base and Fort Richardson army base near Anchorage came out with boxes of clothing and food for the family. They even brought a metal connex box for storage which is still being used this day in Alaska.
Things were rough, but no one was injured in the fire and we did have the 14 x 52 mobile home for shelter. There was no room for extra beds so the boys remained on the floor. We all went to bed by 9pm so the children would get enough rest before getting up for school and waiting for the bus out in the very cold weather.
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THANKSGIVING GUEST RETURNS AT CHRISTMAS
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Oct 8, 2005 8:07 pm
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By now 1971 is coming to an end, and a similar feast is set for Christmas. This time there are many shapes of Christmas cookies in addition to all the other foods that were part of the traditional holiday celebrations.
Doris remained a staunch supporter of the white turkey, often carrying it around or just holding it in her arms. Once again I buy a turkey at the grocery store to cook for our meal.
The turkey watched the children unwrap their presents. And again the white bird was perched on the back of the chair while we ate out dinner.
While he escaped being our dinner, once again he returned to the barn to sleep. A sobbing, hysterical little girl came back screaming a day later when she found the turkey had died during the night...frozen to death when she found him.
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