December 12, 2022 - Day 15

I'm afraid that these posts will start getting a bit boring. However, as a said before, this is my daily diary, so I can remember the things that I have accomplished during the week. Now that I have been posting on the daily, I think that this will be a regular part of my routine. 

Monday was a day of running around and doing my Monday stuff and then some Christmas shopping. When I finally arrived home it was lunch time. So I had my lunch and caught up on the stuff that I normally would do in the morning, tidying up around the house before going out to get the pig food put together. I have to say that the boys were pretty cute yesterday. When I arrived home, Oliver and the brothers were settled in for a nap, two in the garden and one just on the other side of the garden fence. Little Zeke was grazing not far from the one brother who was outside of the fence. 

The pigs find a comfortable spot wherever they go. This week will be a dry weather week with some sunshine. I think the piggies will enjoy laying out in the sun and napping for sure.

Week Ending January 7, 2022

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...

This is the face of our boar - Rex. This was during my time outside getting food ready for the pigs. Getting their food ready is a process because it's more than just getting the food (hog feed & alfalfa pellets) soaking in a bucket. I have to go around to the separate areas to retrieve their bowls and clean them. The most challenging area would where the six girls are confined - the garden. Because of all of the rain the garden is basically a giant mud pit. It's awful! The girls have a raised area where they can sleep and hang out during the day, but that's a story for a different day. 

So Rex is just a gentle giant. He is very patient (as far as pigs go) and will stand underneath the canopy without moving until his food is ready to be put down. He's a big boy, but we have been keeping him separated from the girls so he has the opportunity to walk around more than if he were confined. When he was confined he was happy to just sleep the day away in their house from the time breakfast is over until dinner is served. He was getting to be overly chunky. These days he spends some time grazing and walking around the property before settling down for an afternoon nap. 

It's a pretty good life for this big boy!

It's Been a Minute

We Had a Pig Rodeo...

It's crazy to think that my last post was when the momma's farrowed at the end of May/beginning of June. Here we are nearing the end of August and we have reduced our piglet herd by six. We could still sell a couple of the babies if someone were to ask, but we might just keep them for meat. 

Last week it occurred to me that I should maybe check my ad on Craigslist. I had received ANY queries on the pigs when I usually do. Well, the first week I usually don't. When we decide to pray about the piggies selling then we start getting responses - funny how that works out. We also decided to post a flyer at the feed warehouse again. There wasn't any interest when we did that in the spring, but this time Tom got a call from a woman who wanted to purchase a boar for her one year old gilt. I also had received a message from a family that wanted to purchase 4! 

Tom's customer, Linda, had gotten his number at the feed warehouse and he was texting and talking with her about what her preference would be. The other party, from Washougal, was my task and I ended up exchanging texts with Andy for a little bit before they decided that they wanted to come and meet the piggies and at least start with two baby swine. 

They both came Saturday afternoon - oh boy... the pig viewing window went from 1pm to 3pm. They both arrived within a half hour or so of one another. I was pretty happy that the 1 pig couple came sooner than later since we could get Brutus out of the mix fairly quickly and then continue on with the family. 

Since Tom had talked to Linda about registering the hog later we had to at least get him tagged so that could happen if she decided she wanted to register him. He was easy to grab and get into the cage, but then I realized that he still needed an ear tag, poor dude. It's bad enough that he was tricked into coming close to be grabbed. Then he was alone in the cage, but now he needs to get a piercing. Not cool people...not cool. The hardest part about that is getting said swine to sit still just a little before proceeding to pierce its ear. Fortunately, the pain is minimal (as far as we know) and a little bread to distract them afterwards is always good. Later in the day I got a message from the buyer and he was settling in nicely with his new older female friend. He is an over-achiever ;) 

Once that was done and that couple left, we could focus on getting the four caught and into crates. Since the family was out and about picking up their craigslist finds they had a very long trailer that had a few large diamter PVC pipes on in. So they could not pull into the driveway. He was able to park on the path in front of our house though, so not all bad. 

After a bit of discussion about AGH in general and them seeing our hogs they decided to go with getting four baby swine after all. Two boys and two girls. They hope to breed for future meat and to maybe harvest one or two of these for meat for their fam. 

Oh, so I mentioned that we reduced the herd by six, if anyone was keeping count...we had a random sale a couple of weeks ago. A woman who was at a week long church reunion next door to our farm came to tell us that a couple of our pigs were outside of the fence area...Blah Blah Blah. We were ready for church and on our way out the door when she dropped by. After a minute we saw Ethel (she's the bad one) and a couple of the babies running back then we were on our way. EXCEPT as the woman was walking down the driveway she did ask if the pigs were for selling or eating. To which I replied both. This then started a longer conversation that I am not going to post about here...it's far too long and it's an old story now. Let's just say that after more conversation later in the day and my satisfaction that the one pig that she wanted would not be just a pet, we sold her a gilt. I am not sure what kind of farm she went off to, but my hope is that she (the woman) is living the self-sustainable life that she claims and that our little pig will be a part of their homesteading journey for a while to come.

ANYWAY...

All in all, Saturday was a good day - a little hectic with the sales to two separate parties, but good. I'm very please with these buyers though, they wanted breeders and they got them! Rexy & Fiona have done a good job together in their three years. Bridgette was bred twice by her littermate, Victor, so we are fairly certain that she will continue to do well.

The vibe is definitely different now. We only have gilts left - maybe they miss their brothers...hard to say. They might have been traumatized by the activities of Saturday afternoon. 

Four of the girls on Sunday morning

Hopefully they will move on from their funk and back into their piggy shenanigans before too long. Their purpose will be a year long project as we are venturing into selling meat on the hoof. That's a different chapter in this farm story though, so check back for that.

Farm life is the best life, even when sending pigs to new homes. 

JUNE!

The May homestead challenge turned toward things that I wouldn't be interested in blogging about so I just abandoned the whole thing. There were a couple of days that I thought I might write something, but decided not to.

So, the remainder of May was busy, but at the same time not very. I got started with getting the garden planted which was halted after several days of 90+ degree days. Not my kind of weather. I can tolerate the mid-80s, but anything more and I'm no longer interested in spending time outdoors. 

Then at the end of the month our young sow, Bridgette (aka Little Momma) had a litter of 5 piglets. I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting her to have another litter. However, looking back I should have known. She hadn't had a heat cycle in several months. Duuuuh. All of her babies are doing quite well and this is her second litter of 5 and she hasn't lost any, this litter or the last one. They are quite skittish and even after a couple of days of sitting with them they are not interested in letting us even pick them up without sounding the alarm to momma.

Two days later Fiona (aka Big Momma) farrowed 9 piglets - her biggest litter so far. The difference with this litter is that she stayed outside and away from the other pigs for a few days. So Tom didn't do anything to move her. A good decision since she probably wouldn't move anyway. When Tom discovered that she had her piglets underneath the pear tree he found that there were 8, but later found that one had been squished. Friday morning, even though the remaining 8 made it through the night, one more had been stepped on and died.

We have been spending a lot of time with Fiona and babies - due to her size we try to keep a watch (as much as possible) on her litters so to keep the losses to a minimum. In a few more days once the piglets are a little bigger we won't have to keep an eye on them as much. The first week is pretty critical. At least where Fiona is concerned. She doesn't move fast and we aren't sure that she knows that she has landed on one of her babies once she goes down. Even so, she wouldn't be able to get up quick enough to set the baby free.

The other thing that we have with her litter are two very runty piglets. One of them, a female, didn't seem to be putting any weight on as she should within the first 24 hours and continued to look listless and weak. On Thursday I had the sense that maybe we should get the powdered colostrum out and start bottle feeding her. The itty-bitty piggy took to the bottle and kept coming back for more. A barista friend of ours from Starbucks had come for a visit to meet the babies and helped with getting the colostrum to the runty baby. Alicia was so taken by her that we decided to name her Alice. Alice might be a keeper, maybe. 

Even after all of our visitors had gone for the day little Alice continued to come to suckle on the bottle. Quite a bit actually. By the evening she had so much in her that she actually started to pee after she ate - a good sign!

Alice

We were able to go to bed without worrying so much about her. As of Friday she had zero interest in the colostrum and actually looked like she filled out a little bit, overnight! Kinda crazy that they can change so much in 24 hours.  I spent a lot of Friday and some of Saturday observing her. Alice was feeding right along side her siblings and seemed to be much more feisty. A VERY good sign. She was so feisty that when one of her littermates started to play with her she would start playing too! Oh, my heart...

We LOVE her!!

With each litter that is born here on our farm we learn more and more. Even just the day before Fiona actually farrowed I noticed some different behavior in her. She had been spending a lot of time over by the pear trees and in the back yard in general. The day before she had her piglets was a very warm, so I spent a lot of the day under the tree with her and reading and playing Pokemon GO. During that time I witnessed Fiona chasing off one of the junior swine. She was not happy with Edith hanging around, not even a little! That was a very out of character thing to see in her. Later in the evening I spent more time in the yard and watching her - it appeared that she was breathing very heavily. In retrospect I should have investigated before heading in for the night. She probably was laboring while I was sitting there watching her because the next morning were piglets.

Because she had decided to farrow al fresco we "had" to create a safe space for Fiona and her babies. Tom slapped together a pallet house next to the pig house, mainly for Rex. However, it wasn't used much so Tom relocated most of the pallets and built a wall around Fiona's area.

This is phase 1 of Fiona's special accommodations

It isn't totally predator proof, but at least there is a little bit of a barrier to ward off something becoming interested in Fiona and kids. Also, this offers a little bit of a wind block. Not as much as I would like, but enough that the babies have a safe space to goof around. There were showers in the weather forecast for Saturday and just to be safe we decided to put up the old canopy that was hardly used over this space...

Welcome to Pigopolis 2.0

I thought we would really look more "hillbilly" like, but it's not too bad, I suppose a tarp would have really topped off the look ;) This mostly keeps the area dry, although I think because she is under a tree that is all leafed out, she would have been just fine. So the canopy is mostly for our own peace of mind. 

The last thing that was added was a heat lamp. Fiona farrowed on the evening of the hottest day last week and the temps have just been going down from there. The piglets don't have any fat on their little bodies to keep them warm so the heat lamp seemed to be a necessary item. Well, we thought so anyway. The babies had no interest in the tank or the lamp all day yesterday so we just unplugged the lamp until evening and we were heading in for the night. This morning, all seven were in the livestock tank (creep) enjoying the heat of the red bulb. Perhaps they will embrace the creep for it's intended purpose instead of using it as their bathroom facility as one of them did yesterday. The biggest one went into the creep after feeding and proceeded to pee. Fortunately they are small and are not producing a ton of pee or poo. We'll see how they progress with their pooing and peeing as they grow older.

We have decided to keep the sows separated from Rex so they can have a break. They both had a two litters in the last 6 months. Poor Fiona never had a chance to get her bikini-body back. Once these litters have been weaned we'll work on making sure that Fiona gets her physical condition back in check. Once she is back to a more reasonable size/weight we'll go ahead and let her breed again, but not before and certainly not two litters so close together. I love the piglets and all, but they take a lot of our attention when we have so many other things that need to be done here on the farm.

No matter what I wouldn't trade this life for anything else - we have a blessed life here at Windswept Farm!

Bridgette's Babies

November 24, 2020

Our Miss Bridgette (aka Lil Momma) gave us five brand fresh new piglets a week ago! Three girls and two boys. They are thriving and getting more active with each day! Pretty soon they will be out and running around the farm just like their momma did a few months ago. 

It's been a while since she was a newly born piglet - like 8 months - she's a "teen mom." At first I was concerned that she wasn't really interested in them and that they had to go to her and grunt for food. Only then it seemed she would oblige and plop down on here side. Over the past few days she has been  doing much better and the babies nurse regularly. They have changed quite a bit. 

They are a bit more chubby now and not so many wrinkles. 

Man it was nice being home for the Thanksgiving holiday! I spent so much time watching them. 

I could watch them all day long!

Soon her momma, Fiona, will farrow and we'll have even MORE piglets! Fiona had 8 piglets to begin with, but in the end we ended up with 6 babies. So, we could be looking at another 8 piglets, possibly more. Fiona's first unsuccessful litter was 5. She could give us a few more, but goodness, I hope not. I kinda like thinking that 8 would be her magic number for litter size! We'll see soon. I calculated her potential due date and it could be this coming Saturday at the earliest. 

What will we do with so many piglets? Well, a few months ago I saw a timeline on butchering piglets at regular intervals from 12 weeks to 14 months. Since it has been a while that I've seen it on Facebook I had to put a question out on the AGH Group on Facebook. A response was posted quickly.

Here's how it goes...

From Cascade Meadows Farm:

Let's say you have a litter of 8 piglets:

Piglet 1 - Slaughter an uncastrated boar at 12 weeks and roast whole in the oven.

Piglet 2 - Slaughter an uncastrated boar at 13 weeks and roast whole in the oven

Piglet 3 - Slaughter an uncastrated boar at 14 weeks and roast whole or half at a time outside or inside.

Piglet 4 - Slaughter the last uncastrated boar at 16 weeks, quarter and cook 1/4 at a time over the next couple of weeks

Piglet 5 - slaughter the first female at 5 months and use it up over the next month or two

Piglet 6 - Slaughter female at 7 months and use it up over the next few months

Piglet 7 - Slaughter female at 10 months and use it up over the next few months

Piglet 8 - Slaughter female at 14 months

This is a very cool schedule and I am interested in trying this out BECAUSE this slaughter schedule is from the farm that we got our Rex & Fiona. So I trust them and how to do this food growing thing. 

Until Fiona farrows, we are going to enjoy Bridgette and her little brood. 

I'm So Tired

 I really tried to keep up with this blog. The closer I get to retirement the more hopeful I get that I will be able to update here more often than I have this past year. So much has happened in the past few weeks!

We are officially done raising meat chickens for the year. We thought that the chickens would be ready the week before Halloween, but as it turns out, they were still too small and just not great going through the process of processing them. After processing 8 of them, we called off the rest of the day and had our helpers go home. We were disappointed that we had to do that, but honestly, how long would we have to grow these guys out? Nearly a month later and so many days of listening to the meaties crowing at all times of the day - we finally went through the whole flock and graduated them to Freezer Camp. As it turns out, the extra month really didn't make that huge of a difference. They were still on the smallish side and they did not do well tumbling in the plucker. Smallest chicken was 3 lbs and the biggest just over 4 lbs. I guess we got spoiled with the Freedom Rangers as we had many 4 pounders and an occasional 5 pound bird. Definitely going back to them next year!

These terrible birds all bagged up and nestled into the freezer.

The last bird that we processed this past weekend was one of our turkeys that we acquired in June. At 5 months old he was still a little on the smaller side, but since it's just Tom and I it's actually perfect. Not much difference processing our big ol' turkey (big compared to the chickens). We were ready and not ready to take care of the deed. The plucker seemed to be an inadequate size when we thought about it, but turns out it would have worked just fine. Anyway, We don't have restraining cones big enough to accommodate a turkey so we had to hang him by his feet. HOWEVER, we didn't have any kind of rope or twine to wrap around his legs. So zip ties would have to do, BUT we didn't have any large sized zip ties so Tom connected to small ones together and we tried to make that work out. THEN how would we hang him? We didn't have a hook so after some thinking Tom came up with a tie down strap that has a hook. SCORE! After he got that situated and got Carlos on the hook he slit his neck. As soon as he started flailing a little he fell down. UGH. So Tom ended up holding him while he bled out. 

The rest of the process went okay. We ended up hand plucking him since we weren't sure we could run him in the Yard Bird. He is now aging in the fridge after swimming around in a salt brine for a couple of days. We'll see how he roasts up for Thanksgiving dinner! 

The other day I got a couple of photos from Tom while I was at work - 

The only girl from Fiona's litter in March farrowed late on Monday. Sneaky little Bridgette getting knocked up at four and a half-ish months old! Little Missy is doing great! The piglets are doing great!

 The funny thing about this - I had the thought that she might be pregnant since she didn't have a heat cycle since the end of July. Tom hadn't mentioned anything since the summer and I wasn't going to say "You know, I think Bridgette is preggo." He was kind of dismissing my concern over her and her litter mate "gettin' busy." Last week as I was observing Bridgette's body, it seemed to have changed a bit. For starters, her teats were looking a little more pronounced and I'm sure that Fiona wasn't like that at all. So, I decided to keep all of the information to myself. Then, late last week I arrived home from work and Tom was getting dinner prepped and he looked at me and said "You know, I think Bridgette is pregnant." My response, "I know." 

HAHAHAHAHA....I had a moment. 

So now that we were on the same page we were looking at her over the weekend and her lady part was looking rather swollen. I thought maybe another week. Tom concurred. NOPE let's say Monday evening. Then Tom figuring it out Tuesday morning after all of the piggies were set free from their house. Even Bridgette went sauntering out as if nothing happened. 

We are very excited that she has a healthy litter of 3 girls and 2 boys. They seem small, but then I think Fiona's March litter were just as little, I just don't remember. They grow so fast! 

This weekend I'll be spending a lot of time with the piglets and lil momma. I just love those wrinkly little bodies!

On top of going to work and doing the farm thing, last week was National Collection Week. So, each day I left work an hour early to go home and eat dinner and then go and sit at the church waiting for people to come and drop off their filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. My role each year is being a host and interacting with the donors whether they are groups or individuals. This year was different due to COVID and everything had to be done outside. No non-volunteer people were allowed into the building. We were running a curbside drop-off. for the rare occasion that there was more than one donor there was another host who would take care of the ones that I couldn't get to. Numbers were definitely down, but that just made each box received even more special. In the end we received over 15,000 filled shoeboxes. It has been said that each box reaches 3-5 people with the gospel message. You do the math! That's a lot of God's love working through the hands of the people who packed each and every box this year. 

So I might be tired, but I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Our farm, my upcoming retirement, and my friends and family.

Be blessed during this holiday season!

First Friday - Top 5

This past week...wow - it went fast and slow at the same time. 

I decided that it was time for a vacation day to do stuff at home, so I took Monday September 28th off. It was a productive day of doing projects at home and I needed the day away from work just to be refreshed just a little. 

So here's what happened this past week...

1. MORE Canning - Last Saturday I spent part of the day canning some of our homegrown chicken. The first thing that needed to happen is to part each chicken so I could can the legs, thighs and breast meat. It was a very slow process since I have not cut a chicken up before. It was gross, but had to be done, so I powered through. I wanted to do this so that we would have room in the freezer for the 26 meaties that will be processed in a couple of weeks. Anyway, the method was super easy. Basically filling each jar about 2/3 full of chicken and place the lid and ring on and BOOM ready for the canner. I got the idea from Living Traditions Homestead on YouTube go HERE to check out their video. I decided to start with three chickens just in case parting out the chicken got to be too much. It wasn't terrible, I got the job done. Next time I think it will go quicker. There will be a next time since we have 5 more in the freezer that I would like to go ahead the process.

Homegrown Freedom Rangers

Ready for the Canner

This turned out alright

2. The Junior Swine - Victor & Bridgette turned 6 months old on September 28th. Now that Rex & Fiona are nearly two and half years old I can hardly remember what they looked like at six months old! V & B are so good! Actually Miss Bridgette is quite the bully at meal time. So much that poor Victor submits to his sister and will walk away. He is so passive...compliant...peace-keeper. We actually need him to eat up...he is our BaconHamChop!

The Chubby Bubbies!

3. More Canning - On Monday I decided to can the bone broth that I made out of the chicken carcasses from Saturday. Waste not, want not. Since we started growing our own meat chickens I don't think that we have bought broth at the store, but maybe a couple of times. When we process the chicken we save the feet for broth. When we roast a chicken for dinner we take the carcass and make broth. Since we usually end up just eating the legs, things, wings and breast it's a shame to waste the rest of the carcass. Plus broth is the easiest thing to make! I also took time to make Strawberry Lemonade concentrate for Tom. It's a recipe from the new canning book that I bought on Amazon. It was a good day to just do the stuff that bring me joy and also to hang out with the critters when I wasn't doing inside stuff.

Six more quarts of broth and not quite three pints of
Strawberry Lemonade concentrate

4. Beef Box order - We have been ordering grass fed Beef from a "local" ranch for a little while. Previously we were ordering Butcher Box, but I had become a little dissatisfied with the meat and not really sure if it was really good meat. Since we grow our own chicken I wasn't ordering chicken, now that we have Victor, I don't need the pork either. Well, actually, we won't be harvesting Victor for a little while, so we still pick up some pork at the store here and there. Last year Beef Box showed up on my Instagram feed. Hmmm...what is this place? So I checked it out and decided to place an order and dump Butcher Box. I'm glad that we made the switch! The best ground beef and steaks. This week we had tri tip and it was sooo good! The other thing that makes this small biz special is that they are local - out of Cove, Oregon. That means our order ships on a Monday and is delivered on Wednesday. Our Butcher Box orders came from California and it took probably 4 days. They also used bio degradable packing peanuts. Which is great, but it always went everywhere! I'm not sure how our meat is packed from Beef Box as I have yet to actually be home when it is delivered, but I think there is a lot less packing materials. The BEST thing - Hand written notes from Gabby! Every. Single. Time.

 

5. The Turkeys & Meaties - If I haven't mentioned this before, the turkeys and the meaties are in the same area, sharing the same Stress Free Chicken Tractor. Most days the turkeys make their way out of the paddock and free range until their late afternoon meal. At that time they are ushered back to the meaties and spend the rest of the evening poking around looking for things to nibble on. Sometimes a couple of them well "escape" again. When we go out after our dinner they usually make their way back. This is the time that they get some quality human time. Sometimes they want nothing to do with us and will just continue eating or sitting off to the side by themselves. SOMETIMES they get curious about what the meaties are doing. One of the poults was curious about what the two meaties were doing and just casually walked over to check out what the fuss was all about. 

This weekend I plan to relax a bit. Putting my canning obsession on hold for the weekend, but will be looking toward finding something else to get into jars and process. 

Farm Life is a Busy Life. 

V&B

Rex & Fiona and kids

Victor & Bridgette

Happy 5 month birthday to these two! They turned 5 months on the 28th :)

Our baby swine are no longer babies. They are growing out really nicely and are still so sweet.  Bridgette is quite the bossy little lady and will push her brother out of the way when it comes to food. However, poor Victor doesn't fight back, he is pretty chill actually. He' like, "Okay Bridgette, whatever you say" so passive. 

It's hard to say exactly how much they might weigh, but they are looking bigger all the time. That could be because of the fallen fruit from the pear trees. They don't seem terribly interested in their evening meal recently. New plan, just put out food for them and see if they are interested after filling up on pears and grass and clover. 

We are still planning to process Victor come winter time, we'll see how he looks in January or February. 

Just a Slacker

My last post was July 20th?!

Yeah, I'm a slacker. There are days that I think that I'll pop on here and post something just to update a little, but it doesn't get done. I might have too many things to do.

So, what have we been up to here? Well, nothing and everything!

We FINALLY tagged Miss Bridgette's ear and I sent in the registration form electronically on Tuesday. We'll get her certificate in a few weeks - she is now officially counted in the AGH population. Before we could submit anything we needed to tag her. If we don't then it will never happen. Case and point - I have had the tags and the pliers for about a month. These both were moved out into the garage and as we all know, out of sight out of mind. So finally last weekend I decided to retrieve the pliers and at least bring them into the house. Plan A was to get her tagged before last weekend was over. However, the junior swine had both spent the majority of the weekend in the wallow since it was so hot and they both were muddy like all over! So, plan B - we wait until Monday and see just how much mud she still has. Fortunately, it wasn't as hot and they didn't mud spa a ton so it was time. Before we did anything, Tom watched several videos on how to tag a pig's ear (where would we be without YouTube?) We had eaten dinner and were ready to head outside for the evening and gathered up our supplies and got to it. Bridgette is a good girl, not real squirly at all and she let Tom touch her ear and use an alcohol swab and stuff. After he had cleaned her ear she plopped down on her belly. That was a good thing since I would be the one attempting to keep her from moving around. She didn't really move or make any noise until the tag was applied and then there was a medium squeal and then it was over. Tom DID it and Bridgette is now bonafide!

Our girl is officially Windswept Bridgette

Since my last post we lost one of the turkeys. My suspicion is that it was one of the males and it was sparring with one of the other males and somehow got tangled up in the netting and ended up strangling itself. This was a very sad thing since I LOVE the turkeys so much. They are so sweet and not mean at all. They are so curious and when they are happy and exploring a new place like my garden, they making a really cute chirping sound. This morning I saw that we have two lil Toms. DANG IT! I was really hoping that we only had one. They both were strutting around and looking for some sort of reaction from the girls. Just like real guys...right?

They spent a lot of the day in the garden. Surprisingly, they didn't destroy anything. They spent a lot of time picking at the weeds and taking dust baths. Plus, it's a good play pen for them. They just do their thing, chirping away and find a little shade when they get too warm. They are so curious, so when they see something new they will examine it and then proceed with caution. Once they feel safe then it's back to happy chirping and exploring. Everyone should have turkeys!

Oh, so let's address the garden. This year's garden sucks. BIG TIME. I don't know what happened, but it is so very discouraging. The only thing that is really doing well (better than decent) would be my Salvaterra tomatoes. With everything out of control everywhere else, why not my garden too? 

The bunny population has been higher than I've ever seen it in all the time that we've been here. Even the larger bunnies are able to squeeze through the fence and we suspect that they have been nibbling on the tomatoes that are lower on the plants and probably topped all of the bean seedlings. A suggestion from a friend was to attach burlap to the bottom of the fence to keep the bunnies out. It's worth a try, so we now have 100 yards of 12" wide burlap. We'll see if it is effective. 

Three pounds of tomato goodness

Even though garden boxes are doing MUCH better than the crop garden, there are still a couple of things that are not working out great. As soon as I'm able, I'll harvest the ripe veg and then pull up the plants that are in the boxes and get ready to do some greens for the fall and winter. I will still need to protect everything from the stupid chickens, but that a small price to pay for fresh eggs daily. 

While I'm completely disappointed with the garden this year, I think back and realize that not every garden was a lush and productive as last year. One year I couldn't even get flowers to germinate! There's always next time. 

Yesterday I did a canning project. My friend Lorna came over to learn and help and we had a wonderful visit. We talked and laughed and did enough work to get the jars filled and into the canner before she had to leave. She is a treasure and I wish that covid wasn't a thing anymore so we could do more stuff together. Maybe in the near future we could do dinner or something. She is far more comfortable with not practicing physical distancing - where I am not, but with her I'm okay with it.

Today, Sunday, might be another day of canning. This time I will get the pears ready for canning. Hopefully the pear that I picked last weekend are close to being ready. It should be a nice project for a not so hot day. 

I've decided to make a long weekend so I'll be home tomorrow as well. So far the whole weekend has been filled with projects and activities - today & tomorrow will be no different.

Farm Life is a Full Life!

And Then There Were Two

So, as I mentioned in the last post the Craigslist ad was posted and we got a response! Through a series of emails, a time was set up to meet on Thursday (June 4th) for Shauna to come and pick up the boys. I left work promptly at noon to make it home and changed before she was to show up. Shortly after I arrived home I received a text from her, she and her husband were on their way and would be arriving by 1230. Perfect!

All of the piggies were lounging and sleeping in their favorite spot by the table near the cherry tree when Shauna and Josh arrived. We spent some time chatting and getting to know them a bit. They already have one AGH which they plan to have slaughtered sometime this fall. They are hoping to grow out a couple of the boys for meat and I believe she said she wanted to breed them as well. They currently have all boys so I am guessing that they will be waiting for a gilt/sow in the future. Either way, the boys are in a really good place now and they will serve out a new purpose on their farm in Longview. 

Then came time to round up the kids and get them caught! The first couple were easy, especially since they were napping. Quite a rude awakening! Soon, there were three in the crate/cage, but after a quick look at who was left, I had discovered that Bridgette was grabbed and almost went away with the boys. So she was removed and #3 was picked up and was placed with his brothers. The last one had time to figure out that this was not a good thing and he started to run around. To his house to the yard into the field...he really tried to not get caught. He was a slippery little stinker! In a few minutes they were all rounded up squealing all the way into the cage. Poor babies looking a little downcast. 

After some more visiting and enough time for the boys to settle down Shauna & Josh left to take the boys to their new home. 

Then there were two:

 Victor & Bridgette were a little unsettled for a while. They spent most of the afternoon hanging out near Rex since we let Rex out to check things out. Fiona was happy to leave Rex with the kids and went off to do her own thing. Once meal time rolled around, they were back to normal, but better. No more chaos during meal time, just the two of them to share one big ol' bowl of tasty food - well, tasty for them at least.

We knew what the plan would be from the beginning, we certainly couldn't keep all six of the baby hogs. That would be way too much. There is already enough poo with Rex & Fiona! Add the poo of the growing pigs and oh my goodness...poo EVERYWHERE! Of course it's good for the grass and whatever is around, but too much!

I would be lying if I said that I was okay with them being gone. I missed them, more than I thought I would. Spending almost 10 weeks with the piggies gave us a lot of time to bond with them and to handle them as much as possible. Which worked out great. The next morning I sent Shauna a text to check in and see how things went overnight. She was pleased to have them with her and they did great! This news made my day! This really put my mind at ease knowing that they did well and these photos helped as well:

New digs for the pigs!

New pasture, same piggy behavior

Before they left Josh had mentioned that they created a new house for these little hogs which looks great. Certainly nicer than the Pallet shelter that Tom put together for Rex & Fiona. As you can see in the second photo, one of the boys was already in the belly rub position. 

It's a blessing to have found someone who just love the boys as much as we did. I am hopeful that they will be well taken care of and will be able to thrive. In my mind, this was a perfect match that worked out for us and for the Juve's. When Fiona has her next litter I will have at least one person who will want to buy. No rush Fiona, we are all enjoying the first litter of piggies. 

Farm Life Best Life...when pigs are born, raised and go to a new home. 

The Time Just Flew By!

March 30, 2020

The little AGH's are TWO months old! It's crazy to think that the past two months went by in a FLASH! They were just born...We watched them grow right before our eyes! Fiona did such a good job raising them up!! We were concerned since litter number 1 was not successful. In so many ways. We are better informed now and have a very suitable space for her to farrow in the future. In fact, the whole structure is still in the early stages of becoming a pig palace of sorts.

So what has been happening in the last two months?

Well, until last Tuesday (day after Memorial Day) I was working remotely. There were a handful of days that I was asked to come in to the station for specific projects. Otherwise I was home working and taking breaks to check out the kids. 

After a couple of weeks they started to explore outside of the stall that we had them set up in. THEN  they were exploring a lot of the farm with momma supervising (sort of). They explored a lot of the field next to the area where they spent the first few weeks. Then as time went on they explored further and further. This included the big garden space all covered with a silage tarp the back yard, Big Daddy's area. Their most favorite area was the Mushroom Compost pile. They would spend a lot of time playing in the mound and pushing around the dirt and stuff. They even work on a depleted pile that was next to a pile of sand. They worked it so much that I was able to shovel up a wheelbarrow load of soil for planting. 

Good Piggies!

Last week when we had a couple of days in the 80s and low 90s Tom put out a small pool for them to cool themselves in. It was a slow process of figuring out that there was water in the pool, then they slurped up some water and then figured out that they could step into it with not too much trouble. 

May 28, 2020

One of the boys decided to try out the duck's pool...

A lot has happened from the time that they were born until now. I'm back to working in the office full time - no more of that working remotely nonsense. For now at least. Who knows how things will shake out this fall. In the past nine weeks we have spent so much time learning about the piggies and momma and trying to determine which we will sell and WHEN. 

Last week it became pretty clear that it's time for the jr. swine to move on. They are getting bigger, duh. But they are also becoming harder to handle at meal time. They know the routine, but they don't allow for their human parents to get things laid out for them. It's craziness!

So, by Thursday I had drafted up an ad for Craigslist. Tom approved of the ad and then I decided to post it on Friday. Since selling livestock is a new thing for me, I wasn't sure what to expect as far as interest. On Saturday it occurred to me that maybe I should add some key words and phrases to make our ad more findable. THEN by the evening, I thought that maybe we should pray about selling the pigs and asking for the Lord to prompt a suitable buyer for the piggies.

Things happen when you pray - sometimes it takes a while. Other times - less than an hour! Yep, within an hour I had an email waiting for me to read. 

After a few email exchanges we have ourselves a buyer! AND she said she would buy all FOUR of the boys! So out of the six we are keeping the female, also know as Bridgette for breeding purposes. As well as the male who had some problems with his front legs we call him Victor. He will be our feeder pig.

The fact that they are all going together makes me so happy and thankful. They will be together at their new home together so that will be something familiar and they will get to know their new place and new routine together. Let's just hope that they the transition doesn't freak them out too much. 

This is pretty much forced weaning. We had hoped to try to separate Fiona from the brood the weekend before we listed them, but the instinct was pretty strong at that point. The babies cried and she made her way from her old paddock with Rex over to them. She didn't leave any evidence as to where she escaped. That is still a mystery. The babies also busted out and were wandering around. 

We have noticed since then that she is not allowing them to nurse nearly as much and is doing her own protest by not allowing herself to be available to them. Soon they give up and start grazing or playing somewhere together. Once that happens she pops up and wanders out to the field or goes to the front yard where the clover is nice and thick. 

Today is Tuesday so I will be spending as much time with them as I can. Our buyer had a change in her plan for Thursday and will be over much earlier than she first thought. I decided to take the afternoon off so I could meet her and to help with loading up the kids into the kennel that she will be bringing...

To Be Continued...

One Month

Late afternoon on March 28th, Fiona farrowed 8 itty-bitty piglets. Her first litter was only 5, so the prospect of 8 had me a little anxious. Of course, the first litter did not survive (sadness), but this one was successful and all 8 survived the first night. The next night a couple of the piglets were squished by momma and we were left with 6. 

March 28, 2020 - first family foto

Now here we are one month later and those little soda can sized piglets are now the size of a two-liter bottle of some fizzy beverage. Out of the whole bunch we have one female - Little Fiona. She is our keeper along with one of the boys who is a little gimpy.

Over the past month these little dudes have been the best distraction during this COVID19 crisis. The Governor put the two week stay at home order the evening of March 23rd, so to have these littles arrive 5 days later was, and continues to be a welcome distraction. The stay home order until May 4th just extended my stay on the farm with lots of opportunities to play with the piglets.

On the Monday that Tom found that two of the piglets had been squished we had to come up with a new arrangement for the piglets. Fortunately I had been in contact with Farmer Jason at Cascade Meadows Farm and he said that a creep would help to keep the piglets safe at night.

The best thing EVER! It was a quick training period to get them into a routine a day or two. Soon, we would go in and see that they were all sleeping in the creep under the heat lamp.  For the first several days we took turns going out to check on them to make sure they were where they needed to be. Only a couple of times they decided to be with momma.

Actually, there were several mornings after we quit checking on them that a couple of them - and sometimes all of them would be sleeping with Fiona, which is fine, but they needed to stay in the creep while Fiona got out to eat her first breakfast. They would hop over to the creep once I came in and settle down and fall right back to sleep. Perfect!

That routine lasted almost three weeks. Now they are little bruisers and they darn well do what they please. Sleeping while Fiona goes outside - no longer a thing. EVERYONE goes out! It's no use fighting what they want to do. They are getting big enough after all.

Also, over the past couple of weeks they have become very affectionate with us and will come up and rub their little bodies on our ankles and then plop down. Then the belly rubs start and soon they are sleeping. Of course they nap and will hop up as soon as they hear something and then they are all action.

All in all, the piglets have been a blast! Everyday is a new adventure and watching them explore the world around them is priceless. Discovering the ducks and the chickens all the way to a couple of them "meeting" Rex. Earlier today one of them tried to nurse and was nudging Rex in the belly in hopes that there would be milk.

If I knew that piglets would bring so much joy I would have gotten them long ago! Well, maybe not, but still. Maybe we would have had pigs earlier while starting up our farm. The reality is that we got them at just the right time. They make me smile and fill my heart with joy. People are interested in them and we welcome visitors - while still practicing physical distancing. Well, mostly anyway.

What will happen in the next few weeks...we'll see how weaning goes when they are about 8 weeks old. I'll need to contact Farmer Jason to find out how the weaning process is to happen, but that is for another day. Once they are weaned we'll be listing 4 of the boys for sale. I want to enjoy as much time with them as possible which is why being home now has been so good!

Farm Life is the Best Life...

with piglets!

Hump Day

Two more days and it will be weekend time again. I think that the days at home last so much longer doing tedious work projects when I really want to do farm projects. Also, I feel a little forgotten. sigh.

Oh well, at least I have things like this to lift my spirits - even just a little...

This morning was a reminder that the piglets are growing and their needs or their little brains are progressing as well. As per the schedule of the last two weeks I went out before dawn to give Fiona her pre-breakfast ration. Most mornings up until this morning the piglets would go to their creep and settle back into sleep. This morning was quite different! A couple went to the creep and settled down, but within a couple of minutes they went out and joined the others and were clamoring around Fiona for their first meal as well.

Look at these little fatties! Once I took a look at this photo, it was a very cute thing and I decided it was time to let them do what they want to do. They ARE nearly three weeks old afterall!

Tonight I hope to get them out with Fiona behind the structure that has their shelter. They seemed to like to poke around a couple of nights ago. Last night they preferred to run around in the paddock.

They are a perk for me while working at home. I just wish I could spend more time hanging out with them while they are eating, sleeping and just being piglets.

Farm Life...Best Life

Herding Piglets?

Today the piglets decided to explore beyond their fence. The tricksy little stinkers figured out how to get out by going under the fence. We either need to keep the fence energized all of the time or just let them do what they do. 

After dinner tonight I decided to go ahead and let Fiona out and leave the fence open so that the babies could join her and 4 of them did! The other two were napping within their area and missed the opportunity.

It's hard to stay upset with the situation as it were. They are too cute and how can anyone be upset with these little faces?

I do believe that this life is everything that I want to live out for the rest of my days. Just need to drop the work thing....

Farm Life is the Best Life!




Fun Video...

A Day Off

Even though working at home feels weird, because I'm working - mostly. I still need a day off. Besides, I've spent nearly three weeks at home now and it was time!

Amazon Prints has a fun thing they offer on the website - personalized mugs! So I've taken to creating a new mug when we get something new on our farm - and even have ordered a couple for gifts. I started this with Rex & Fiona when they were first here with us and the latest mug is of their offspring - the PIGLETS!

Other things that I got up to today would be working in my hoop house and getting some of my seedlings transplanted into pots to help them along.

This space is a little disheveled

I had some success and some half successes - I did get 7 Purple Kohlrabi seedlings and 7 Romanesco  seedlings, the successes. All ten of my Salvaterra tomato seeds sprouted, but not all were ready for transplanting, but since I was not on top of keep track of the seedlings over the past week many of the seedlings withered.

Overall I had a nice day off from working in the Dining Room which included a lot of hanging with our momma pig and her babies...

Going into the weekend with a much better outlook! Farm Life is helping :)

Daily Note for April 9, 2020

Okay, so we'll see how long this lasts - my track record here hasn't been very good. However, since I am stuck at home during this COVID-19 crisis, I may as well record some daily happenings.

Probably the cutest thing from the day had to be one of our itty-bitty American Guinea Hog piglets was getting a full-body massage.

From our experience with his big daddy, Rex, it didn't surprise us that this little dude enjoyed a good belly rub. With Rex sometimes all we would do is barely touch his side and he would totally plop down for a full-body massage like his off-spring.

Yep - the CUTEST!

Yesterday, the meaties finally were transferred out of the livestock tank that we used for a brooder and into the new and improved Stress Free Chicken Tractor.

This is definitely a deluxe living space for the meaties! The first build was almost to the specifications in the Stress Free Chicken Tractor book. Almost because the bending of the metal conduit was not going well and Tom ended up using miscellaneous copper joints to make the frame that would be the roof. This one features plastic electrical conduit and instead of a tarp, wavy plastic panels. The other plus about this is that I can stand upright in this one and there is a lot of head space to boot. The meaties were very hesitant at first, but were convinced after I brought them an extra portion of food for the day.

The work that I did today was mind-numbing, but at least I have the piglets and the chickens and ducks to visit throughout the day. I have decided to take a day of vacation tomorrow. Even though I am home, I am supposed to be doing work stuff and not farm stuff. Tomorrow I'm gonna be a farmer!

Farm Life - Best Life!

It Finally Happened!

The moment that we have been waiting for since we brought home Rex & Fiona!

When the first litter didn't make it, it really was a learning experience, and we were better prepared this time around. Also, we spent the past couple of months thinking, "Is she or isn't she?"

January 18 and March 18

For the longest time I was just being hopeful. Then I thought maybe she was getting fat - that was really a thought. It was a thought that was unwarranted because she and Rex had been getting the same exact diet. She would have had to be sick to get THAT big. So, yeah she was definitely great with piglets!

The week before Fiona farrowed I got a message from Farmer Jason of Cascade Meadows Farm. His assessment from a photo that I had posted on Instagram was that Fiona looked to be about a week away from having piglets. He suggest that we separate her from Rex. At first Tom thought he would get Rex over to the other side of the old structure that will one day become the Pig Palace. Then I had the idea that the room that we had already talked about using as Fiona's farrowing room actually be used for that purpose. We have an extra fence that won't be needed for another couple of weeks. Perfect solution!

March 28, 2020

For the week leading up to her actually having the piglets she seemed to be enjoying not having to share food. Plus having a king size room all to herself was just a bonus!

This time around we were ready for her to have piglets and learned even more so this time around. Having her separated meant we didn't have to deal with Rex. Also, we had powdered Colostrum available to give the babies a boost before they were able to nurse properly at the milk bar.

Around dinner time on March 28th, Fiona started to act a little off. Not her regular I want to rub my head on you or push you over because of food type of behavior. Once I figured out what was going on the first piglet came about 5 minutes after I was getting the idea in my head. Oh, hey - that's like confirmation right there!

Tom had been putting a couple of tarps over the part of the shelter where Fiona was housed - good thing too! Anyway...

The whole process was about two and a half hours and at the end of it there were eight piglets. The first five were fairly good sized and the last three were smaller with the last one being the smallest. Fiona did so well and she was so good natured throughout the entire process. She let us "help" her while she was laboring and we didn't feel like we would be in any kind of danger otherwise. Fiona is a very sweet and chill sow. It's almost like she understands that we were there to help her.

Our next learning experience happened not the night of the piglets arrival, but Sunday night. I was feeling fairly confident that they would survive another night that I didn't think anything would happen when I went to bed Sunday night. Monday morning I was up early, but did not go out to check on Fiona and babies. Instead we just went about our routine and then Tom went out after we had our coffee and had discovered that two of the piglets had not survived the night. They had been squished. My sadness was not as acute as Tom's, as I was not the one who found them. That's not to say I wasn't sad. I was hopeful, but thankful that not all of them had died.

Afterwards, I posted on Instagram and then later Farmer Jason had sent a message and suggested that we build a structure called a "creep" for the piglets to go to in-between feedings. Tom pieced something together hung the heat lamps and then we started to train them to go there when they were not nursing. Here we are five days later and they are getting the hang of the routine. Let's face it, when there is heat involved where would you choose to go?

So during this COVID-19 craziness we have been pretty happy at home. Even though I do have to work, at least I can take a break and check on the littles throughout the day. Even being at home I can see how blessed we are. God has been good to us and continues to bless us with things that bring joy to our hearts. A joy that we have been able to share with a couple of friends. Who doesn't love a baby animal? I think piglets are the BEST!

While we continue to practice physical distancing our focus when I am not working will be on making this little piece of happiness the best it can be. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is a pretty good gig.

Farm life is the best life...

and PIGLETS!

April 4, 2020