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.