January 5, 2022 - Day 34

Well, we thought that the high winds were behind us.

NOPE.

This week I ended up waking up around 3 a.m. because of the wind and started to worry about the ducks and their house. They have the worst shelter of all of the shelters we have slapped together around here. Surprisingly they were just fine. This is what I found when I was out doing chores...

Poor Skinny Momma, she was probably sleeping pretty soundly when this happened. This was the only thing that happened, the tarp over Big Daddy's shelter was blown off, the zip ties were torn apart. Not only that, the big ol' door to the big shed was blown over again. 

It was an eventful morning so far. 

After I saw the shelter I texted our neighbor Bobby, mostly because his is the number that I have and Brian was at work. Within a few minutes he was on his way over on his little tractor and he was able to get the shelter back over the fence without hardly any effort from the forks that he put on his tractor. So good! We chatted for a few minutes and then he went back home and I went back to work. 

So the next thing I thought I would do is get the tarp reattached on the Big Daddy Shelter. When I first took a look at it I noticed that the pallets were askew so I grabbed my drill and some screws and fixed that before getting the tarp secured. 

The last thing was the giant door - that was down on Skinny Momma's hog netting. It's huge and I wasn't 100% sure that I could do anything, but it needed to be moved. With my luck she would have gotten brave and decided to escape and run over the metal door. So, slowly, but surely I was able to scoot the door over and off the netting. Then it took another couple of minutes to get the netting nice and tight again. No sagging anywhere.

There is a reason that we call our place Windswept Farm. Wind is a constant here. However, the wind usually doesn't blow things over other things or end up busting other things. 

This winter has been stinky so far. Ice, high winds/rain and then more wind. What else could possibly happen? There's a lot of winter left and I don't even want to imagine what else is in store for the Pacific Northwest.

December 8, 2022 - Day 11

Ted fresh from a nap!

Another day at home, no shower or anything. The focus was on getting the Christmas tree decorated and try getting things tidied up. Mission almost accomplished. The tree is all glitzed up, but the living room still needs help. I spent so much time indoors that I didn't see the critters again until I went out in the evening to feed them their evening ration. 

The weather is really starting to get to me. The gray skies never really affected me until this year. While I was working I was in a nice bright office and didn't really care about the outdoors until it was time for lunch or quitting time. I mean really, during the winter months, I was leaving home while it was dark and going home when it was dark. It's just the way it was. Now I'm sitting around and the gray feels so depressing at times. 

The weather for cast for next week looks VERY GOOD! Starting on Monday the forecast shows little rain and several days of sun balls with some clouds. Just what I need! This will allow me to go outside and do some "fun" stuff. I might work myself silly. 

Before I can look ahead to the dry days, I still have to feed the pigs 'n poultry a couple of more times before I get a break. 

The Pay Sucks

 

On one of my weekly trips to the bank for my church responsibility I was chatting with the Bank Teller. She had asked me how my week was going and it just happened to be National Collection Week, so it was a bit busy for the previous week and this day was Big Monday. She said "You sure are busy for someone who is retired." 

Well, yes, but when I was working my 40-hour-per-week job I was pretty busy trying to do my farm stuff after work and on the weekends. So, I feel like maybe I'm not nearly as busy, but for a retired person, I am busy. Especially now that I am basically taking over doing all the things here on the farm and keeping the house going.

In addition to taking care of the critter chores I'm doing a lot of the grocery shopping, animal food shopping, miscellaneous shopping also. Already this week I have been to the bank, to my friend's house to pick up some critter snacks and to the grocery store, twice, and to the feed store as well as Harbor Freight to buy another tarp for the momma's shelter. That is just two days of errands. It's not so much the number of stops I make, but where those shops are relative to our home. Let's just say if I can do online ordering and not leave, I'll do it!

All busyness aside - I want this life! I have been dreaming of leaving my comfortable job behind (and decent pay) and start playing a bigger role here on the farm. With the holidays now upon us, there is an added layer of work to do that normally isn't a thing. 

Currently our living room is in shambles. Even though I have all sorts of time in a day I still have to do other stuff, and as in the past, decorating for Christmas isn't the highest priority. I'm pretty sure that in the next day or so I'll have everything all in place and can spend time doing some other fun stuff while I'm not doing farm related chores. 

While Tom is off working full-time, I'm here at home making some changes that I've been wanting to do for quite a while. We are only 4 weeks into my new "life" and I am feeling like things might actually turn out alright after all. 

It will be a few years until we'll be doing this farm gig together, but it will be worth the wait now that we'll have a steady income coming in. For the past almost two years, finances have been tight, but we've been able to get the bills paid, but not much was left over to do much of anything else. From now on we'll continue to take care of our monthly bills, but we'll be able to do some projects around here. Some that I might be able to do on my own, but definitely others that Tom and I will do together. 

These past few weeks have been an adjustment for me as Tom has a set schedule Mon-Fri which means I have a set schedule as well. My morning chores have morphed into a smooth feeding routine and I'm able to get most of the critters fed BEFORE the four boys are done with their food. While the routine is not terribly extensive, I do try to gather up the bowls from the sows and from Big Momma and Big Daddy before I go in for the morning. So, yeah, things are working out.

I am realizing that as the week goes on I get a little tired of feeding the critters, not so much that I want to just skip feeding them. If I did there would be a riot the moment I walk out the door. I'm sure that once the dreary weather is past us, in six months or so, I'll feel much better by the time Friday rolls around. 

So, yeah, retirement for me is great! I love creating my own schedule everyday and December is Christmas month, so I'm STILL working on that. When the new year rolls around, I'll be finding all sorts of things to do out on the farm.

Being home has been my dream for a few years...Best decision ever!

December 5, 2022 - Day 8

Foggy Morning on Windswept Farm

Monday is my bank day. So, I spent the morning after doing the critter chores working on the Sunday morning offering and getting a deposit ready to go. My routine is to outline the cash and the different categories that the cash is intended for and then enter checks and then prepare the Offering Report to send out on Tuesday morning. Most weeks are the same and I'm pretty happy with this routine. This makes my Monday morning go smoothly. I also had to make a stop at my former supervisor's house to pick up some critter snacks and then a quick stop at Chuck's for EGGS! 

Yep you read that right, we are now buying eggs. Our hens are not laying! This is the first time in FIVE years...I'm annoyed, but planning for the next year.  In 2023 I'll be adding a half dozen or so of Australorps. They truly have been the best laying hens we have ever had and at this point we don't have any young Aussies. The feed store usually has aussie pullets available as well as Wilco. So you can bet that I'll be heading to Wilco as soon as they have their chicks to see when they'll have a batch in the store. 

I've also decided that December is too gloomy here to do any work outside. Late fall in the Pacific NW is a gloomy affair and the temperatures tend to hover in the mid to upper 40s and into the 50s. While I'm okay with the cooler temperatures, I'm not ready for the cooler weather right now. Also, there are days when the fog will stick around for most of the day. Those days can be depressing. 

Since I spend the majority of my time alone, I'm pretty keen to get the house in order for Christmas and enjoy the decorations until then. We'll see how things go in the next couple of weeks. It is possible that I'll decide to do something farm project related. 

Additionally, I'm planning to NOT volunteer at the food pantry this week or meet my friend there later. After the super busy week I had last week, I'm looking forward to a down week. Relaxing a taking care of indoor projects and maybe even bake later this week. 

We'll see how the week goes..

December 3, 2022 - Day 6

Saturdays are kind of my down day - kind of. I feed the pigs 'n poultry in the morning and then that's it. Today was a little different because we needed to replace the "roof" on the pig shelter so that the stall would be dry. 

The tarps that I picked up at Harbor Freight were for pig shelters. Big Momma and Big Daddy's shelter was done. It was the easy one, the one I could do by myself. Plus it gave me a little bit of time with our breeding pair. They are SUPER sweet. A little love starved maybe, but sweet. They like to rub their heads on my leg and me being 5'3" they could easily just knock me over!

Anyway - after I went to my friend's holiday bazaar we worked on getting the 12' x 20' tarp on the old parking structure. Yeah, I don't remember the previous tarp we purchased being that big, but it must have been. 

Once we got the tarp mostly on the roof, it was time to start coming up with a game plan. I'm getting better with being off the ground, but I did have some trepidation at the beginning - Tom wanted me to toss is drill up to him (I was on a ladder he was on the roof), but I didn't feel that I could actually do it. That drill is heavy! So I sucked it up and tossed it as far as I could and it got close. That's a win for me! Then the strips of wood that would hold the tarp down around the edges. Once we started getting things going Tom figured out that he had made a mistake and we had to re-group. Which is good, because if he went much further then it would have been a real problem. 

In the end we were able to get the tarp in place and secured. In my past life, I would have wanted the tarp to be perfect. Like stretched out and smoothed and looking nice. Fortunately, I'm not like that so much anymore. 

As you can see in the pic the tarp isn't as smoothed out as it could be, but let's be honest, who really cares? 

If we can get the boys to go in there at night instead of sleeping on the wood chip pile that would make me happy. We are planning to get a bale of straw to spread out in there before the weekend is over. That should help make this space feel more "homey."

It only took a couple of years for us to realize that we didn't need a tall door to keep a momma and her piglets locked in the stall. Notice how we used plastic to cover the window. It's ugly, but effective. 

The rear of the pig house isn't as visually pleasing, but I don't care and neither do the pigs. The reality is, I want to a least fix the portion where the planks came down. Another note, this structure is so old I'm surprised that it is still standing! One of the goals is to get it fixed up and use it for storage. How about that garbage bag that is stapled over the window?! It does the job and the pigs won't know the difference!

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!

Once Upon a Dream

As usual, the dreamer in me has come up with a new dream...

I'm not sure how true the dreaming part is, but I can see it. Tom says that I am the one that comes up with the ideas for our farm. The hoop house, the chickens and assorted poultry...the pigs. Although, I believe that Tom was the one that was more interested in getting the turkeys and geese. I love the turkeys, the geese and I have an understanding. They are not my favorite and I am definitely NOT their favorite. They respect me though - it helps when I am carrying something to remind them that they are not in charge. 

I digress...

About a week ago I was thinking about how I "need" to grow more tomatoes. Did you know that on bushel of tomatoes (or about 53 pounds) will make 15-18 quarts of  tomato juice? Also, it will take a little less to make thick tomato sauce. I haven't been able to grow that many tomatoes in the last 4 or 5 years.  Anyway, I was thinking about how and where that would happen.

We only utilize about half of our property for our house and out buildings and critters and the garden. There are large portions that are not usable, even though it appears so. We have discovered that a couple of inches below the surface lies all sorts of asphalt toward the back of our property. These areas are where the old barn and the equipment shed are located and the weeds and grass have taken over quite nicely. 

So, we can use just about any area that is located at the front of the property - probably about half of it. We can only assume that the old farmer did not require asphalt in these areas.

This photo was taken by our neighbor across the street who has a drone and was messing around with it and took some photos for us. Our piece of the old farm consists of 2.71 acres and is the only portion that is mostly square and not long and narrow. We are guessing that the top third of the property had asphalt all around the old shed and where the barn used to sit (upper right).

My current garden space is opposite the house on the other side of the driveway. I've been very happy with this location, but now that I have discovered food preservation by way of canning (pressure and water bath) I am VERY interested in growing LOTS of vegetables. Making sauerkraut via fermentation has been one of my new favorites. The big garden has been a great space for the past few years, but now I need more space!

Back to where I want to create more space...

This space has four 4x4 garden boxes that we built waaay back in 2008(!). Those boxes are so old, but holding up well. The other garden boxes are from when my friend Mary was gardening here at our home. After a couple of seasons she decided that life was getting too busy to maintain a garden at our house and gifted the boxes to us. Really though, would she have taken them to her house anyway?

In the past three years we used the boxes for a variety of different things and they worked well. They are big though and it's hard for me to weed the 4x8 boxes without getting into them while filled with my plants. Also, they are not holding up well and the wood has completely rotted out. So out they went. Not all of them though, I still have something in one of the big boxes and rhubarb in one of the narrow ones.

This is just the beginning. We have a lot of work to do, but a little bit here and a little bit there will get the job done. We started by taking out a couple of big boxes and on of the narrow ones. The last big one has my sweet potato experiment in it right now, so that one won't be going anywhere anytime soon. 

There is enough pig poo to help the soil, but we'll need to get some sand to help fluff up the soil. We do have quite a bit of wood chips so that would also help the garden space out. We'll see how things go over the next few months.

Another reason why I have been thinking about a new space - the critters. The pigs and the chickens get into the garden boxes regularly and it's hard to keep them out. The pigs will do anything to get into a space that is alluring to them which means they have been going underneath the chicken netting that I have around my new space. That wasn't to keep them out, but to visualize how much space I would have to work with. How will we keep the critters out? Well, there is a welded wire fence that encloses the big garden, so we'll do the same with my new space. The pigs can't get underneath that fence and the chickens don't jump onto the top of the welded wire fence because there is nothing for them to perch on. 

So yeah, I am the dreamer and mostly and a problem solver - to a certain degree. Now that I don't have work issues to think about I can think about the "issues" here on the farm.

Farm Life!

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. 

Tour

Well, I think it's time for a little tour of our home/farm. Today I'm sharing our Kitchen. This kitchen is not necessarily the most user-friendly space I've ever had in any house that we have lived in. I suppose that kitchen functionality wasn't a high priority way back in 1937 or maybe the original owner of this house wasn't much of a cook. Who knows?

Anyway, we are trying to fit modern appliances and work tables into the layout of the kitchen. To do that we had to take part of a cabinet away to get our updated refrigerator into the space. The stove is a stand alone, so it didn't require anything special. Come to think of it, the house came with the stove and fridge. The previous owner/realtor left the appliances for us. There isn't a lot that we could do to make this space more usable other than adding the Ikea table in January 2020. That table has made being in the kitchen more enjoyable. I can leave my Kitchenaid out and it has been used more this year than ever before. Before the table I would have to lug the mixer from a bottom cabinet and hoist it up on the counter. Okay, it's not that bad, but still. After a year of having this table I wonder why it took us so long to figure this out. 

When we first got the table we  had it situated as an extension of the counter. That was fine and all, but only one side of it could be used. So because I'm a thinker, I decided to make an "L" at the end of the counter and move a couple of things (coffee cart) to make things work out. Because of this move we are now able to get into the cabinet that houses the storage containers more easily. There once was a cart that sat near the stove, but blocked the cabinet. The cart also made it easy to be lazy about not putting containers away. The easy access makes the kitchen less messy now. 

The one thing that I would like to do is update the cabinets - not so much get new cabinets, but get new drawer pulls and maybe paint. The counter is super ugly, but we've lived with it since 1998. So, it's safe to say that we'll continue to live with it a while longer. 

One day we'll update the kitchen. For now we'll continue to make do with the space that has worked since the beginning. So many projects - so hard to choose. The kitchen is an important space, but the animal infrastructure is a little more important right now. 

Being retired really isn't so rough...:)

Border Wall

Not exactly a wall, but if you are a pig a three foot tall fence may as well be a wall.

Over time I think we have gotten pretty relaxed about how we are keeping the pigs 'n poultry within the confines of our property. The ducks usually free-range every day and they are good about going into their house at the end of the day. Most of the chickens stay within their area, but there are days when a lot of the flock decide to see what kind of goodies they can find outside of their run.

Then we brought home the pigs. In the beginning nearly three years ago we had kept Rex & Fiona within their paddock and they were happy to just hang out in their area. Every now and then they would get to free range which was a treat for them. 

Then last year - the year of the pandemic - Fiona had her first successful litter of piglets and she was confined to a different area and Rex was still in their original area.  After a few weeks we would let her have a break from the piglets and let her out into the field where she happily grazed away at the fresh grass. Then after a while we let her babies join her. Soon that became the norm. Letting her graze on her own and then letting the piglets out. Eventually we let Rex rejoin the fam in the new area. 

THEN

It became an all day thing. Grazing and wandering our small farm all they wanted. At first when the junior swine were still fairly young, we weren't terribly concerned about where they would graze. They usually stuck close to momma because they weren't 100% weaned yet. 

Fast forward to January 2021. Mr. Victor, from Fiona's 2020 litter, has turned into a repeat offender by knocking down the temporary fence to graze just on the other side of the fence. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but now their are some new junior swine who are keen to follow their daddy out and about. This is unacceptable. 

After a week of what feels like constantly chasing him back to the safe side of the fence we had enough. With a trip to Home Depot we were ready to start making the fence more of a permanent thing instead of the premier1 fence that we had been using since last summer. It was fine until now. I'm not sure what was going through his brain to help him get into trouble in no time flat. The funny thing is that the last time we had to chase him AND the turkey girls back he saw Tom marching out their and ran back. He knows what side his butter is toasted on. 

For the time being we have Big Momma, Big Daddy, the junior swine and all of the babies confined to an area right outside of their little house. The fortunate thing is that they adapt pretty quickly and they are happy to be in their space toward the back of the property. It is temporary, but they don't know that. 

Looks good from the road

Eighty feet of fence installed

The beginning of the long stretch toward the church next door

Just about a week ago we started the fence project and have finished the first stage of it. The first part is along the road on the garden side of our property - it went fairly quick. The post went in pretty easy because the ground is fairly soft from all of the rain that we have had in the past couple of weeks. For once we are thankful for our Pacific NW winters. The next section might require a little more effort. The fence will be next to the path that goes in front of our house. That path is asphalt and I'm not sure how much of the yard has grown over the path if it has at all. All I know is that the first post that I attempted to start was extremely hard. The post is five feet tall and I can't work up enough force to get the post to even pierce the ground. So, I'll be leaving the next stage of post install for Tom to do. Not gonna lie, it was hard. I'm usually okay with hard work, but this wasn't going to happen for me. 

OH WELL.

Once the fence is set in front of the house we'll just use the step in posts to go toward the back of the property as far as 18 posts will go at least. A couple of hot wires should keep the swine from crossing over to the rest of the field. The ducks will still be able to go underneath the wire, but they aren't the problem right now.

So much to do and all sorts of time! Farm life is the best life!!

Full-Time

Farmer! Now that I am officially one month into retirement, I thought it was time for a post here.

January was a month of rest and relaxation as well as trying to figure out life without a work schedule. Not gonna lie, it's been little rough. It never occurred to me how hard it would be to quit work cold turkey. It's hard, like really hard. It took a little while for me to NOT think about the stuff that I started and hoped that it would be done. Not just done, but done well. In the first week I woke up thinking about whether or not the apparel for the new hires would be done in time for their first day (which is today).

ANYWAY

SLEEP

Sleep is something that I don't do well. My goal for January was to make sure that naps happened. So almost everyday I took a nap. A nap that was as short as twenty minutes or as long as an hour or even just a little longer. Amazingly, I was still able to get to sleep at night. Even now, on this first day of February, I might still need to take a nap. In the last week I don't feel nearly as tired as I did in the first week of retirement. 

PROJECTS

There were some things that I wanted to do and made the time to do them. While a lot of the things that I wanted to do was indoors, I did help Tom with a couple of outside projects. Tom wanted to replace the pet carrier nesting boxes that we have used since 2017. After a couple of days we ended up with - 

New and Improved

Same Cart different set up

Once we put the finishing touches on the cart I wheeled it out to the chicken run and most of the older girls immediately had to check it out. The ironic thing is that the older girls are from our original bunch of girls from 2017. They may have slowed down their laying or completely stopped. I think we'll find out for sure in a few weeks. 

FENCE

In the last week and a half Mr. Victor has been breaking out of the safety of our yard/property. A couple of neighbors sent texts to me to let me know that someone was out. One day Victor and Little Momma found their way down the path a bit and close to the private road between us and the church next door.  STINKERS! Last week we had at least two neighbors text or knocking on the door and another time our friend Robin sent me a text saying that her neighbor asked to let us know that there was a pig out. The only problem then was that WE were out...blah blah blah...

Now we have fence materials and started working on getting the fence installed.

Thirty Feet done

This fence is 36" high and will go across along the road on the garden side of the house as well as on the other side in front of the house. This should help keep the swine where they are supposed to be.

BAKING

January was also the month for baking. French bread, sandwich rolls, pizza all the good stuff. My goal was to make bread of some sort for sandwiches and I succeeded! 

So many fun things in my first month of retirement and I am feeling pretty good about being retired. As I look ahead I can see that a lot of work that will be done from now until forever. Just writing this makes me pretty excited about the possibilities that are on the horizon. Things that I could only dream about. Things that I would have to cram into a weekend or a week of vacation. These days I can make goals for the month and not just the weekend. If I don't get something done one day, I don't have to feel bad - there is always the next day. 

I'm going to go ahead and end this post and go do something fun or take a nap or play a game or read a book...

Farm Life, Best Life

Official Name

This photo was from when the shed was mostly whole

When we received the certificates for Rex & Fiona stating that they were officially registered and we had their pedigrees in hand it was time to make a decision. Do we REALLY want to register their offspring? After some discussion the answer turned out to be yes. 

Since Guinea Hogs continue to be listed on the "Threatened" list on the Livestock Conservancy breed list we think it's important to continue to add to those numbers and hopefully helping to recover the very special breed that they are.

What's the deal with the title of this post? Recently I did some google searches for where to buy swine ear tags and found that a Premises Identification Number would be required. Okaaaay...After going through the USDA site and then reading about how to obtain this number it became clear that we would need a farm name. Pigs 'n Poultry was just something that I came up with to call this blog and my instagram account. I have changed those names a couple of times, but I still like to identify those accounts with Pigs 'n Poultry. 

Our official name will be Windswept Farm. 

How did we (I) come up with this name? For the past couple of weeks as I was thinking a lot about what makes our farm special to us. Seriously came up blank. A couple of nights ago as we were sitting outside watching the critters I decided to look up a farm name generator website. There's a site for EVERYTHING! So after clicking through a couple of times and reading off names to Tom (i.e. Prairie Farm, Rainbow Hills, Happy Farm, White Stag - all NO), I came across Windswept Acres. Now that one clicked! We both liked it a lot and instead of "acres" I said Windswept Farm. 

This makes sense for us because almost every evening here is windy - sometimes there are days when it's windy all day! Anyway, one can come and visit us and clearly see what has been affected by the winds that we experience here. Metal roofing has been blown off the old equipment shed at the back of our property. There are trees that have a permanent lean to them - one was a very tall cedar tree that was right behind our house and the tree actually leaned toward our house. That's kind of a unsettling thing. So we are now Windswept Farm. Which I totally LOVE! 

In the near future I will have to come up with the purpose of our farm and what we are doing here. That shouldn't be too difficult, but it should be done. Basically nothing different than what is going on now, but now officially :)

Farm Life Best Life!