Q & A and a GIVEAWAY / OFF-GRID HOMESTEAD

[@christinegrabau7981]

Merry Christmas! I am pleased to see you are spending Christmas with your son and his family.

[@monalingan9523]

Thank you Cindy for your 2024 videos. I enjoy watching you tackle the homestead life. Best wishes for a prosperous new year. I bought your book! 😁

[@CindyVine]

Thank you so much!

[@ronelsmith6906]

Merry Christmas Cindy and family. May everything you wish for yourself in 2025 be achievable and given with many blessings.

[@CindyVine]

Wishing you the same!

[@daffs0]

❤😁🎄merry Christmas Cindy and family

[@CindyVine]

Same to you!

[@WendySchofield-tg8dc]

have a lovely Christmas Cindy.

[@CindyVine]

Thank you! You too!

[@jackvanleeuwenkamp4706]

Merry Christmas ❤️🇨🇦

[@CindyVine]

😍

[@cushyco]

Happy Christmas Cindy.

[@CindyVine]

Happy holidays!

[@larah287]

Thank you Cindy! Your content is so interesting, informative and honest. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2025. ❤❤❤

[@CindyVine]

Thank you so much!

[@moniqueslikkerveer6158]

Yes please! You once adviced me to get some land in Portugal. And go there for vacations. I did ... and now I live there. I will not go back to the netherlands. OMG ... am I happy here!! Thank you for your good advice! Happy holidays.

[@CindyVine]

Sounds great!

[@elainekaufman2264]

I'm in Ohio too! Bowling green

[@CindyVine]

Middletown

[@RheaLewis-v3g]

Can’t wait to catch up with all your videos, I am behind

[@CindyVine]

Hope you enjoy!

[@portugal1969]

Life lessons, no pigs

[@CindyVine]

😂

[@suzetteduplessis5409]

Cindy thanks for all the precious experience videos throughout the year...highlight of every week; all the insights into DIYs, daily challenges and the good with the bad on your homestead. Have a wonderful Christmas time with your son & family in OHIO. 😇😊🙌🙏

[@CindyVine]

Thank you so much!

[@melanierawlings35]

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the Q&A. Have a happy New Year!

[@CindyVine]

Same to you!

[@Dol367]

Merry Christmas Cindy and God bless you and your family and farm. ♥

[@CindyVine]

Thanks so much and merry Christmas to you!

[@AnneHeyns]

I think little Velvet is the cutest and smartest of all of them...♥ Merry Christmas Cindy♦

[@CindyVine]

Thank you! You too!

[@loriboles8382]

Have a very Merry Christmas with your son and family Cindy.

[@CindyVine]

Thanks and happy holidays to you!

[@sandrawray542]

Merry Christmas Cindy

[@CindyVine]

Thanks and to you.

[@squeaker2000]

Happy Christmas Cindy ❤

[@CindyVine]

Happy holidays!

[@pamarabenton9039]

Thank you for the Q and A. Merry Christmas and safe travels. Looking forward to your videos next year.

[@CindyVine]

Thank you!

[@attract1234]

Have a lovely Christmas Cindy with family. Thanks for all the videos.

[@CindyVine]

Happy holidays!

[@lisacraig4585]

What a rich tapestry of experiences you’ve had. I was interested to read that in Australia, wool producers are switching to raising Dorpers because of falling wool prices and the Dorpers adaptability to dry conditions. I know Freckles can be a pain, but she’s lovely. A peaceful Xmas Cindy and a prosperous New Year❤.

[@CindyVine]

Happy holidays to you!

[@marierobinson2681]

Hi Cindy hope you have a great time with your son and family I wish you all the best for Christmas and the new year

[@CindyVine]

Thank you! You too!

[@juliad1768]

Merry Christmas Cindy have a blessed and peaceful celebrations xxx🎄☃️✨

[@CindyVine]

Thanks and to you!

[@mgp1953]

Merry Christmas🎄

[@CindyVine]

Wishing you a great Christmas!

[@celiapereira5223]

Great Q & A Cindy, thanks for sharing ❤ wishing you and your lovely family a very Merry Christmas you 🎄🧑‍🎄🎉🎊🥂🍾

[@CindyVine]

😍

[@EmbracethechaosPortugal]

Oh my gosh it was just me..its in the first part 😆

[@CindyVine]

Me too!

[@coby6417]

Have a very happy Christmas together with your family and a healthy and very happy New Year 🥂🎅🏻🎄🌟🎁👍🍀💐

[@CindyVine]

Thank you, you too!

[@MarianneHein]

yes please I will like your book😊

[@CindyVine]

send an email

[@elainefarr3155]

It sounds like Portugal has strangled the small farm market there, I hope the desire for locally grown meats can make changes in those crazy laws! I know it's a problem here in the US as well, although things are getting better. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I hope you all have a wonderful time together.

[@lisacraig4585]

As Portugal is part of the EU, it must follow its directives. Selling uncertified meat from farms could lead to serious health issues. Traditional owners of farms in rural areas would dispatch and cure their own meat. I feel the difficulties in having pigs being processed stems from the sudden growth of small farms in this district. I found the existence of a halal butcher nearby a sign of changing times.

[@CindyVine]

Times they are a changing.

[@MarizaRodrigues-mw4bn]

Small scale pig farming is not profitable now and has not been profitable for a long time. In the mid 1970s, more than a decade before Portugal joined the EU, the government introduced the minimum wage and most rural folks decided to move to better paid jobs with a guaranteed minimum salary. It is still the case today that breeding pigs in a small farm will never produce an income close to the portuguese minimum wage --- which is a very low bar. But since joining the EU Portugal has increased the production of pork exponentially for the domestic market and for exporting. We have less small farms but more production of pork. It would be interesting if Cindy made a video about how many pigs she'd need to sell to cover costs and earn the portuguese minimum wage every month. Hundreds of pigs?

[@squeaker2000]

Yes please Cindy

[@marlenegearon4709]

Is there any way you can donate a pig to a group like the firefighters, a church, a non-profit and let them process the pig for 😮fundraising event or celebration like Christmas? Have a Merry Christmas!

[@CindyVine]

You can't sell a pig for meat or give the meat away if it hasn't been sent to a slaughterhouse.

[@marlenegearon4709]

@CindyVine that's a bummer.

[@deborahwhite2339]

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family, and the best of everything in 2025. 🙂👍🇨🇦🎅❤

[@CindyVine]

Same to you!

[@lindagage7315]

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

[@CindyVine]

Thanks and to you!

[@EmbracethechaosPortugal]

Great q+a..is it just me or is your email address not in the description to enter the draw? I'd love a copy of your book 😅 going to loom again

[@CindyVine]

It is!

[@paulacunha6792]

❤❤😊

[@CindyVine]

😍

[@carlosvictor8679]

how much do u want for your baby dorper ? feliz natal

[@CindyVine]

He's being traded for some ewe lambs when he's weaned.

[@carlosvictor8679]

@@CindyVine ohh,i really like him,maybe when u have more cute babies

[@irislozinsky3960]

Cindy sell your farm and get that condo by the beach! You deserve to slow down and save your health! This is too physical as you age , Way too much for one person and not economic for the amount of work, life is short and you deserve a lighter load! Merry Christmas with your family and hopefully some changes in 2025!

[@CindyVine]

Gotta bit of work to do first before I can sell.

[@georgeamos8817]

I must have overlooked your email, but yes please enter me in your giveaway.

[@lisacraig4585]

Check out….more under video title. Email is on second line.

[@CindyVine]

👍

[@MarizaRodrigues-mw4bn]

One of the questions was how many pigglets have been born in your homested, but I am more interested to know HOW MANY PIGGLETS HAVE DIED? It looks like your death rate is very high, from what you've said in previous videos. You mentioned one of the sows had lost all but one pigglet, due to the bad weather. Cold and inadequate shelter, I guess? It's cruel that you are not providing the animals with minimally adequate shelter and many are dying because of it. In our family farm pigglet deaths were rare, mostly the occasional defect at birth, one or two in a litter, and never due to the cold. My parents and grandparents used to stay up all night to assist the birthing sows, the piglets were put in a large basket full of soft straw and kept in a warm area for a few hours to let the mother rest, drink and eat. After a few hours the mother would be rested and ready to receive the pigglets. While giving birth they can roll over their pigglets and kill them. Someone must be present, same with lambing, as quite often they come the wrong way, get stucked, and need to be eased out quickly to avoid distress and save both animals. I remember once on a bitterly cold night my grandmother brought the pigglet basket to the kitchen to keep them warm and I found them there in the morning when I woke up, and was rather disappointed when they were taken back to their pen. It seems to me that you just let things happen in a haphazard way, same with the sows getting pregnant at any time of the year, as they are all together, no planning. You should make adequate shelter a priority before even getting any animals. Common sense. Appologies, I don't mean to criticize your work but when we have animals, we are responsible for their welfare. Another question is: are you even breaking even with so many deaths?

[@CindyVine]

I am covering costs.

[@johnsmith-g2h]

So how did you transport yours? Illegally in your van?

[@CindyVine]

No, adult pigs were transported using an animal transporter.

[@johnsmith-g2h]

@CindyVine I'm sure I remember a video of you travelling to the algarve collecting them in your van, you even put straw down for them.

[@CindyVine]

@ I did move small piglets in my van and put straw in. However there is no possible way 7 large adult pigs would fit in my van. I used animal transport to move the adult pigs.

[@margiemistretta8885]

I definitely would separate breeding pigs for awhile give yourself a break

[@thefatbaker]

Happy Christmas Cindy. I may have got it wrong, but I got the impression that any movement of live farm animals requires a proper registered animal transportation, irrespective of the pigs age. If your customers are transporting piglets in their private cars they are probably breaking the law in Portugal. Please correct me if I have got this wrong.

[@CindyVine]

Technically that's right, but when the piglets leave the farm they are the size of a chihuahua unlike the bigger commercial breeds. Even the guys at iFap think an animal transporter is overkill, especially for a short dstance.

[@deborahbasel184]

Where is your email address to enter the competition?

[@lisacraig4585]

Click on…more under video title. On the second line you’ll find Cindy’s email😊.

[@CindyVine]

😍👍