Fingers and Toes Crossed

We have an offer on the house! We are currently in negotiations with the potential buyers and hope to have a signed contract within the next day or two. Lets hope the home inspection goes well with no surprises. Cris has to get the pool up and running from its winter hiatus for the inspection.

Getting that house sold will be a breath of fresh air. Between the property taxes, homeowners insurance, electric bill and home equity loan (used to buy the farm), and lawncare, we have been paying alot for an empty house. Hope it will all be over soon.

The next six weeks will be super busy. I am going to Maryland the last weekend in March for about 4 days, sometime in the third week of April, I am driving to Texas to see Robbie come off the plane from Afghanastan (so happy about that!), the house closing will be April 20th (yeah!), sheep shearing April 14th, have to get ready for three sheep we are getting, the last weekend in April is the sustainable living groups Nature Weekend where we learn what Spring plants growing in our woods are edible or medicinal. April 21st I am playing bells at church, finish emptying the Memphis house and in between all this Cris has to travel for work, we have to get stuff planted in the garden and oh yeah, Easter! Our April is full. May should be a breeze.

We sold a 5 mos old gilt and two more piglets since my last post. We have one more 5 mos old gilt to sell, one piglet is going to Alex's fraternity for their bbq pig roast, one we are keeping to breed, one piglet is spoken for in the fall for butchering and two are suppose to be picked up next week.

We have run out of hay rolls so we moved the cows into the pasture to start eating the grass that is growing. They prefer fresh green grass.

I forgot to add to our April list; make a chicken coop and set up electric poultry netting for the 25 chicks coming the second week of april. They will stay inside the coop for the first month until they are old enough..... About 4 weeks i think.

Our other hen is laying as of today so we are going to be getting two eggs a day which is good because the pigs love hard boiled eggs.

Come on Spring

Our piglets are almost 8 weeks old and are super cute. We sold a male and female piglet last week and are selling 4 more on craigslist. We also plan to sell one of the 4 month old gilts to reduce the number of girls we have. We moved them further into the woods and they love it. So much area to root around.

We picked up a Scottish Highland Bull 2 weeks ago to breed with Mandy in May. He is all black except for some reddish brown on his ears and top of his head.

We now have four hens and a rooster living in the chicken tractor that Cris built. One of the hens started laying yesterday and we have two eggs so far!

The chickens are americaunas and buff ophingtons. We ordered 25 black australorp chicks that will arrive in April. We plan to raise them both for meat and eggs and they will live in the tree orchard area to help keep the trees pest free. The chicken tractor works great We move it every few days in the garden so the chickens scratch up the ground and fertilize it for when we plant vegies.

The sustainable living group got together a week ago and harvested sassafras root to dry and use to make sassafras tea. Other projects we plan to do this year with the group is take a handgun course, first aid/cpr training, Ham Radio training to get our license.

There just aren't enough hours in the day though. Trying to get everything done and adding more things to the list all the time and the never ending things that need repaired....like the $450 tractor tire that had to be replaced, the wires on the lawn mower and UTV that the dogs tore up trying to get to a mouse, the roof on a storage shed that has to be replaced after a hail storm.

But for all the aggravating things that happen, there are the great things that make it all worth while. Like the first egg that our chicken laid, watching piglets being born and growing up, watching the boar run over to us like a puppy dog when we come home from work, petting our hairy highland cattle.

We are still trying to sell our house in Memphis. Hopefully the few repairs we do and the spring yard cleanup will help us get it sold. It is a buyers market for sure.

Sir Loin, Our New Guernsey Bull Calf

9 Hungry Piggies and One Patient Momma

Newly Born Piglets

Nosey Piggie

Yummy Turnip

Our Seedling Greenhouse

Garlic

Little Squash in the hoop house

Mixed Greens

Our harvest one winter Saturday from the hoop house

Curly Parsley

I Walked for Miles and Miles and Miles

PIG: What a month.  I am happy to report that momma pig gave birth to 10 piglets (5 girls, 5 boys) the evening of Monday, January 23rd.  Cris was out of town for work until Tuesday so he missed the fun.  I got home from work around 5pm, did my usual of checking on the cows, feeding of the 4 gilts and then headed over to momma pig in her farrowing hut.  I lifted the lid and there was momma, laying down with one piglet next to her face and another one had apparently just been born.  I grabbed the cell phone (which was about dead), called Cris, went inside and got the video camera, a towel and flashlight.  I stayed outside with momma for about 4 1/2 hours while she went through birthing 9 beautiful piglets.  I actually thought she was done after 8 because some of the afterbirth came out....but about 1/2 hr. later, out came number 9.  I did nothing but video tape and keep her from laying on the piglets.  I did have to climb in the hut one time when she rolled over on a piggie.... Luckily, I was able to move her large body enough to pull baby out...no worse for the wear. The man we purchased baby momma from said she was a good momma and he was right.  I went to bed around 10pm, woke back up around 2pm and check on the pigs....to my surprise when I did a head count there were 10 piggies! 

Unfortunately, when I came home Wednesday, one of the girl piglets had died.  It looked like momma had accidentally  laid on the the pig.  That is the main cause of death for piglets the first few days after birth.

It is now almost 2 weeks since she gave birth and the piglets are venturing outside, running around the pig hut, starting to dig in the dirt with their noses like momma does and have even started eating pig feed.  The girls are larger than the boys and the first piggie born is the smallest but not by much.  They are growing nicely and are so funny to watch; especially on the pig camera we have set up in the hut. This mild winter we are having has been good for the piglets too as they get cold easy.

Baby daddy (the boar) has been moved to his own lonely pig area because the 4 gilts are too young to get pregnant and he was getting too friendly with them.  He does not like being alone but we now have the cows next to his pen so at least he can visit with them.  As soon as some of the boy piglets get older, they will go in the pen with baby daddy. 

COWS:  last Saturday (Jan. 28th) we had a Guernsey Bull Calf delivered to our farm.  He was about one week weaned from his momma.  We put him in the paddock with the 4 heifers and they were not one bit happy about that.  The girls ran around in a tiffy and two got loose and took off.  It was the worse two to get loose.....the youngest and the most shy.  We searched for them Saturday and Sunday on our property and our neighbors.... no cows, no hoof prints.  We got a call Sunday night that they were spotted on highway 57...about a mile south of us.  By the time we got there, they of course had run back into the woods.  We were able to search on the land next to highway 57 during the week because the owners of the land we very supportive.  Cris saw them once on that land but again, they ran away.  We eventually spotted their hoof prints on a property next to our property which meant they had moved closer to home....which was a good thing.  Friday evening we were able to coax them with sweet feed so they would not run off...I even got to pet one of the girls.  I was so happy.  It got too dark though so we left them int the pasture with feed and water.  Saturday we went back to the field with our Great Pyrenees Daisy, and located them again.  This time Daisy helped to get the girls moving and with the help of a feed bucket full of sweet feed (their special treat), we were able to move the cows 1 1/2 miles back home.  We went through the woods, up and down hills, through sticker bushes, a stream, fencing.... it was a long ordeal and I prayed the entire way home.  We had to take baby steps at times because they did not want to cross that stream.  We would walk 5 feet, put the bucket down, wait for them to come...walk another 5 feet....over and over.

Happy to say they are safe and sound in OUR pasture with the other two girls.  They have learned to live with the new bull calf. They better learn to live with him because Mandy (heifer almost 2 yrs old) has taken little Sir Loin (his name) as her own child.  She watches over Sir Loin. 

We plan to finish the fencing around the perimeter of the farm to keep them from getting off our land again.  We have learned from other farmers that it is just a fact of farming...cows will get out.  And at least we now know that if they do, we can get them back.....thanks to the feed bucket!

So now that the piggies are here and the cows are found....I hope things can go back to normal...as normal as can be anyway!

VEGGIES:  We have starting seedlings in a smaller hoop house.  We have started with the cold vegetables....cabbage, broccoli, etc...  it's too early to start with the summer veggies.

We are still eating out of our large hoop house..... squash, carrots, romaine lettuce, cabbage and plenty of greens and herbs are still growing nicely.  Outside the turnips are doing great too. 

We hope to have chickens in the Spring.  Our next two major projects are a driveway and a chicken coop.  Our things to do list is very long and the top priority items change from time to time and things get shuffled up and down the list.  The driveway is a must though...I am tired of sliding up and down the yard from all the rain and mud.

Momma looks like she is smiling

Our Sweet Daisy

The "girls"

Our Manure Spreader - Love it!

Momma still pregnant

The piglets are getting bigger - they love napping in the sun

The Waiting Game

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends in Maryland. We left the farm in the capable hands of our friends with the hope that momma pig would have her babies upon our return Dec 26th. Alas, here it is Jan 7th and still no piggies. Cris has been up all hours of the night to go out and check on momma so I jokingly recommend he purchase a video baby monitor. Well, we now have a baby video monitor... It is called "pig cam 1". Now he can just look at the monitor and see and hear her in the farrowing hut. Her breathing is heavy when she lies down. We had a local vet stop by Friday to check on momma and she is fine but just not ready to deliver yet. Cris is outbof town for 3 days next week so I hope she either delivers by Tuesday or waits till Friday.

We have moved the pigs further into the woods so they will eat more roots and acorns and less feed. They love bread and cabbage. The piglets are really growing nicely and have started eating out of our hands. Baby daddy is a sweetheart which is good. You dont want a large boar to not like you.

The highland cattle have been moved closer to our second field where there is some green grass on the terrace. Mandy will be two in May so we have to start thinking about when to breed her. The others have at least another year and a half to grow.

We have finished the deck floor on the back of the house and now have to put up railing. We will decide later which part to enclose with screen.

We are trying to create as much useful storage space as possible in our new little house on the prairie and also use as much of our own furniture as possible. I cannot bring my large china cabinet to the farmhouse so i converted a dresser into a buffet for the dining room. It holds all my good china very well. I will eventually paint it and change the hardware.

While we were in Maryland we came across a log filled with oyster mushrooms. Cris bought two coolers from Walmart to store them for our trip home. We ended up with about 40 pounds of mushrooms. We also found a lions mane mushroom but it was too old.

The hoop house is still plentiful. Cabbage, lettuce, herbs, squash and outside the turnips are thriving. Once momma pig has her babies and all are settled in, we will start getting ready for spring planting.

We had to take Teddy and Daisy both to the vet last week for dental appts. Teddy (wheaten terrier) had to have a canine pulled and teeth cleaning. He was real sick as a puppy and the antibiotics did a number on his teeth. Daisy had to have 2 baby canines pulled because they never fell out on their own and were interferring with her adults ones. Long story short...... $500. Always something....Month before last was the $500 Nugget injury.

Merry Christmas

Hard to believe another year has come and gone. As much as we have accomplished this year, there is still so much to do. We really need a driveway up to our house. It has rained so much this winter and at times it is so muddy that I slip and slide all the way up to the house. The ground does not have a chance to dry up before the next rain.

Our hoop house is looking good with squash, various greens, lettuce, beets, radishes, cabbage and herbs. The tomatoes can't take the cold so they died. The garlic is doing good outside as well as the turnips.

We have been working on the fence and have put the pigs into the woods to forage for acorns etc. We are keeping an eye on momma pig to watch for signs of when she may start getting ready for her big day. We hope she waits to have her piggies till January. The piglets have grown quite a bit. One of the challenges with raising farm animals organically is controlling internal and external parasites without chemicals. We use D.E. to control internal parasites by adding a little to their feed each day. We tried spraying the pigs with a soapy spray to control external mites but the are not very fond of me chasing them around with a sprayer. I think I will try dusting them with D. E. and see how they like that. They don't have many mites so I want to keep that under control. I have also read that adding Basic H soap to their water works great for internal parasites. Not a pretty subject to discuss but a necessary one!

We are finishing up the back deck but won't start enclosing a portion of it until the spring. It is almost time to start seedlings to get ready to plant in the hoop house.

The heifers are doing great and have been no problem except Harriet likes to get out of the paddock they are in sometimes. But once she gets out she immediately wants back in. We just have to make sure we have the electric line at the right spot to be Harriet proof.

We are headed to Maryland for Christmas and have a friend's teenage son who will be checking on the animals while we are gone. Nugget the labradoodle is staying at the doggie hotel though because his scrawny little body cannot not be outside all the time like the other two hairy dogs. Nugget is a princess at times.