M.L. McKnight at Rockin M Acres

This is my first farm journal, before you read any further I must inform you that I intend to post stories of the happenings on my farm, many will be out of order and rather random. I find humor in a lot of things that happen to me around the farm, sometimes it is dangerous and sometimes it is just plain silly. Sit back, prop your feet up and take a gander. If you like my stories then I will post some more until I run out!


The other night I went out to give my little bull calf his evening bottles and found him eagerly waiting for me. I put the bottles down and gave him a good scratch (which is mandatory if you want the little rascal to eat). While sitting on a 5 gallon bucket telling Bull what a good boy he was and scratching his outstretched neck I got face to face with him and got big wet nose smeared across my forehead.
It startled me and I jumped back which for some reason made Bull eager to want to get back in my face. I told him we had enough of that and it was time to eat. He played with the first bottle then started drinking like a champ! I told him what a good boy he was and how he'd grow up to be big and strong...then ,as calves do, he butted the bottle right out of my hands. I leaned over to get it and as I lifted my head back up he lunged forward and smeared his nose across my cheek!
Before I could react or even say "Eww" he shot his tongue out like a rocket and licked my eyeball! Imagine THAT! I fell off of the bucket I was sitting on. A wet-slimy-milky drool covered-hot piece of sand paper is the best thing I can think of to compare to that tongue! After the initial shock and yuck factor wore off I was laughing so hard that I could barely squirt the Visine in my eye to clean it out! Half of the bottle went on my shirt and into my beard.
I went back out and finished his feeding but kept a little more distance between my face and his.

Sounds like someone loves you!!! ....either that or he loves a good bottle!

Well he sure isn't shy about eating. As for loving me, he won't come when I whistle but I'm good enough to be groomed.

Too cute! Are you going to name him?

Yay! I was hoping you would put up a thread!

Laughed so hard reading that!

Too cute... And it wasn't hard to picture.. Gotta love those slobber kisses.

This is my second 'journal entry / story' on here. Gotta love farming!

Two and a half weeks ago my (then) Red Wattle gilt, Reba, had a litter of babies. I thought about hunting down the elusive Red Wattle boar studs that offer semen and going the A.I. route to get her bred- but before I went through the trouble I wanted to make sure that she was a true breeder so I exposed her to my old Chester White clean-up boar. Fast forward roughly four months and TA-DA...babies!
I tell you I was as proud as punch! I even went to the store and bought her the biggest juiciest peach I could find and gave it to her for her efforts. In all, she had 10 healthy babies- 4 boars and 6 gilts. They were all pink with the occasional red splash here or there and a few black specks.
When they were two days old they began to venture out of the farrowing hut and into their enclosure in the field. I noticed that four had wattles like their momma and, to my delight, they each had 14 evenly spaced teats! (Its a BIG deal if you raise hogs.) I fed Reba in the far corner and went to the other side of the enclosure by the hut to look at the babies. I leaned over the panel and tried petting a few of them, some shied away but a few didn't seem to mind. Well, since I had waited so long for those rascals to get here and their momma was clear on the other side, I decided that I'd try to pick one up...big mistake!
I told my nephews that I'd hold back a boar if he looked good enough and let them show it, it just so happened that the little pig in front of me was a boar. I reached down and picked him up, then started to look him over to see if he was a likely candidate to be shown. That little twirp looked at me, looked at his momma, then turned his head, narrowed his eyes and softly uttered the sound "Nugh-Nugh". He didn't squeal or get any louder than if someone had whispered in your ear, BUT his momma stopped eating and closed the twenty feet between us in two hops! I put him down quick fast and in a hurry! I hopped back and she snapped and snarled, her mouth was foaming and she was grunting and giving me what for! I stood there in shock that the cute little red pig that once climbed on my lap, ate from my hand and flops over on her back like a puppy when I scratch her belly- was going to EAT ME!

Now, fast forward two and a half weeks to last night...

I hopped in the enclosure and scratched on Reba, checked the babies, tossed extra hay in their hut, let the babies sniff me and just eye balled them. I hadn't picked out the keeper boar yet so I was doing some observing. I hopped out of the pen and decided that I needed to get a weight on them. Since Reba was calm and the babies were calm, I decided that I'd try to grab one...BIG-BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG mistake!
I leaned over the panel- again, grabbed a pig-again, saw that I had the SAME boar and that stinker went to squealing! Reba did her best to hop over that panel, snapped and snorted, foamed at the mouth and let out some vicious squeal-laced grunts! She bit the panels so hard that she left deep marks! This commotion caused my Hampshire boar and Spot gilt in the pen next to then to go ape and start snapping and snarling, not to be outdone- my barrow out in the pasture with my Berkshire sow went to acted up and pitching a fit and every pig just went bonkers!
What the heck was I going to do? Here I was with this loud mouth little trouble maker in my hands and his momma is trying to come over the panel to eat me, I couldn't get close enough. I went left and she went left, I went right and she went right...then a thought came to me, I faked her out! I went right, went left then faked right- she lunged right, I hopped to my left and tossed that little porker right behind her onto a pile of hay! She lunged left, sniffed him and snapped at me!
I cussed a blue streak so bad that it became purple! I know that momma pigs are protective but goodness gracious! And to top it off, ALL OF THE OTHER PIGS were giving me the business too! I tell you that I wouldn't have shed a tear if someone put that little boar on a bun and called him dinner last night! TWICE! Two times this little rascal tried to do me in!
I was pretty humbled to say the least after everyone cooled down and went to go gather eggs. I told all of the hogs that I couldn't believe they'd want to eat ME of all people in the world but I guess that was just part of their nature when they hear a baby in distress. I keep my younger Berkshire gilt, Lyndee, penned up by the chicken houses because she is smaller than the big hogs and needs to grow before becoming part of the herd. She is my little baby even though she is roughly 200lbs and almost ready to go to the pasture, I spoil her. She hops up and puts her feet on the top of the panels, lays her head on her feet and turns it to the side like a doll! (She is adorable!) Well, I thought heck- I am just going to go talk to MY baby since everyone else wanted to eat me. Sure enough, Lyndee hopped on the panel, laid her head on her feet and turned it to the side... I stopped dead in my tracks and felt instantly deflated... Lyndee- MY BABY, had a bottom jaw covered in foam!
I went over and gave her a scratch but that just hit me.

SO, I said to heck with them and went to scratch on my dogs, I even let my Yorkie (Scooter) slobber all over my face- cheered me right up!

I've said it once and I'll stand by it- 'Gotta LOVE farming!'

@M.L. McKnight - Thank you for your enthusiasm in journaling here on BYH! I've combined your 2 journal entries into one journal. Please just continue to post each entry here as if you were writing a journal or a diary if you will rather than posting each entry into a separate thread (that just gets messy). Let me know if you have questions.

You have wonderful stories to tell. I look forward to following your journal! I'd love to see pics of your Yorkie...I've always wanted one myself.

Em.