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The Mystery of the Tipping Bucket
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| Gruffy's water bucket |
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| Gruffy, 18″ at the shoulder |
I have two kinds of water buckets, big ones for the big goats, and smaller ones for the shorter goats. I check them all several times a day and clean out and fill as needed. I became puzzled when I kept finding Gruffy's small bucket knocked over. If he'd been with the other bucks that would explain it; they often knock things over in their sparring over who's the most macho he-goat. But Gruffy was by himself in the buck pasture. The other bucks were in the front. Gruffy's only company (besides hanging out with the other goats through the fence) was the chickens and the pigs.
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| Waldo, growing daily |
Several times I refilled that bucket and each time I later found it knocked over again. It wasn't until I saw Waldo bumping it that I realized he was one knocking it over. Was he having trouble getting his own drink? I kept a pan of water nearby for the pigs; maybe he was just clumsy? I decided I'd better secure Gruffy's bucket. I found a hook, installed it in the buck barn at Pygmy goat height, and hung the bucket on it. Hopefully that would solve the problem.
I brought a clean bucket of water and Waldo came running over. He immediately started pushing on it. Suddenly, I realized what he was wanting. I hadn't refilled his piggy pool. I had cleaned it out during an autumn like cool spell earlier this month and forgotten to refill it. What was I thinking? It was hot again and of course the pigs wanted their water! So I filled the “pool”. Waldo came, gave it a sniff, took a drink, and then proceeded to knock over the other bucket and flop down in his DIY mud. It wasn't water that he wanted, it was mud!
We hadn't had much luck at a proper pig wallow because the ground soaks the water up plus it evaporates too quickly. After a quick discussion with Dan, we came up with this …
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| I took the piggy pool and somewhat sank it in the ground. I filled it with dirt, added water, and there you have it – instant pig wallow. |
Both Waldo and Polly are perfectly happy with their new mud bath. And Gruffy's happier too.
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2014/09/the-mystery-of-tipping-bucket.html
