RicelandMeadows

                                                   May 14, 2012

      Our boar Noah is content in his bottomless pen. I move this pen every day about ten feet. Noah attacks the new grass and sod. He eats the fresh grass and then starts rooting up the soil. He doesn’t realize that he is doing soil preparation for me.

      Hogs love to root. They go after tender roots and even worms and bugs. They turn the soil quickly destroying the grass well in a small paddock such as this one. The daily move keeps the mess to a minimum.

      Noah also gets fresh water and ear corn daily. The rooting for food is mostly just playtime for him. He does indeed eat the grass, but it is more like a treat, than his main diet in this setting. I am using him to get the ground ready to plant turnips for the sheep’s winter pasture. He thinks he is just having fun 😮

      In tomorrow’s post, I will show a picture of his efforts so far. The strip that he is cleaning up is eight feet wide. I will only have to disc it once then level it. The strip will be ready for planting. The seedbed is fine as if made by a rototiller..but in this case, I used a root-a-tiller.

      Many of our children have become gardeners. None are market gardeners at this point, but almost all of them raise some food for themselves and some to share. They are all proud of their efforts and I am proud of them!

      In the days of helping dad plant or mom husk corn, the kids thought it was only so-so. Now, as the food appears as if by magic in their own garden plots…the smiles go on forever … It’s no accident… It’s a blessing!