I'm a Little Redneck

* Disclaimer: This post is not meant as an insult to my family or friends. It's written with nothing but pure affection.*

At one time we lived in a quaint and lovely neighborhood. There were sidewalks and the mailboxes has pretty, glowing gas lights.
There were block parties and impromptu cookouts with neighbors.
We had perfectly lined flower beds all around the house, and I would plant seasonal flowers every where.
At one time....

Now I have this kind of yard.

                                     

This is not a Gentleman's Farm.

I am not complaining, mind you, that we are out here on a farm, but this week has really shown the stark difference in our life style now. The neighborhood life had a way of hiding our red neck.

So this week my young pigs escaped their fencing...again. They have been escape artists since we brought them home. We have never had issues with keeping pigs within electric fencing, but these guys refuse to stay put.
They escaped a few times so we finally just let them roam the property until Devin arrived home from work. Yes, these things always happen when he is out of town. At any rate, for two days I had pigs enthusiastically rooting up all of the mulch from around the swim pool.

Then several times I would here Hilda, the pet pig, squeal. I would run outside and catch those pigs biting and chasing poor fat Hilda. She doesn't move quickly enough to get away from those young ones, so I would proceed to run outside, wearing pajama bottoms and slippers, carrying a metal rod so I could beat the pigs off Hilda. Add to this picture that I always had the baby in a sling while screaming at those bully pigs and you have there my reality show moment. Redneck at its finest.

Devin got home and because we are redneck frugal environmentalists, we recycled wood pallets into a fence.

Who needs a t-post driver when you have a tractor bucket? Now that is actually just working smarter, not harder.

Now those little pigs have two layers of fencing to keep them contained.

Of course I really want these pigs out in the woods, but unless they respect electric fencing, they will have to remain in this  lot. One day at a time will have to be my motto with these guys.

The very next day we got rain. Lots of rain. We were over 20 inches short in rain for the year and there have been numerous wildfires in the area. The rain was very much needed.

According to my redneck poor man's rain gauge, we got about 3 inches.

Yeah there are days when I miss my perfectly pretty yard and all the amenities of a subdivision, but I do love this farm life too.
I embrace the redneck, really, because it means I can improvise. I can be creative. I can be frugal. I can get the job done, no matter what.

And those pallets were slated for the dump, so we really did recycle and that makes my Inner Hippie happy.

Happy Friday Ya'll!!!!!!

Before the Baby Arrived

Before the baby arrived, I had planned to update on farm life here, but blogger was being a pain. Today I plan to update.

We got 3 new piglets. We still have 2 large pigs that will be processed soon, but I was able to get 3 babies this fall as well.

Because we did not want the babies in with the larger, forested pigs we set up a new area and fenced it with three strands of electric wire.

Apparently this was not enough fencing for these little guys as they were escaping constantly. I would wake in the morning and find them scattered across the pasture. We finally locked them up in this dog kennel until we could secure more fencing.

Devin ultimately used barbed wire and more strands. It is working so far. They will stay in this area until the big pigs are processed, then I will move them into the forested area.

Loading up these guys from the kennel and transporting them across to their new paddock was lots of fun, i.e. pigs are really great at squealing!!

We are fortunate that they love Willow and they love milk, and this makes moving them even easier.

We no sooner got the piglet challenge conquered when my bulldog Duke suddenly fell ill. We came home one evening from eating out when we noticed he could barely walk. We initially thought his leg was hurt.

The next morning he could not get up without howling in pain. It was his back. We carefully loaded him up and headed for the vet.

A few x rays revealed that he had a possible slipped disc. It is difficult to see slipped discs on an x ray, but there were no other findings that would cause the pain. The doctor gave him a steroid shot and we left the office with more steroids and some pain pills.

He was noticeably better the next day and has improved since. He is still stiff jointed in the morning, but he is getting quite old for his breed. We are hoping he remains mobile and healthy.

There are weeks when it always seems like "something" is happening....that's life and that's agriculture.  I am hoping for boring weeks for the remainder of the year :-)

Happy Friday Ya'll!

Just Jump Right In

This week was a busy one indeed. Not only did we get the new cow Penny, we have been getting a new milk routine established. Milk cows are pretty easy to work into a routine because they love routine. They love schedules. Penny has adjusted to family farm life well and we are slowly getting some weight on her skinny body.

Devin has decided to put permanent fencing up where we have had temporary fencing the last two years. It will be easier to keep the sheep contained and the area is nice and large. I can still sub-divide the area with electric cord to keep the cows in one area of the paddock. Needless to say, Devin has been a work horse driving fence posts. We have no equipment or tractor, so hard manual labor is how we get things done here.

          ***The younger girls bought ducklings with their saved money. Here they are letting them have a short swim in the sun***

I have found myself over flowing with raw milk now that we have two cows to milk. This made me decide it was a good time to start getting pigs. We will run them in the forest for a majority of the time, but for now the little ones are getting milk. We picked up two piglets last night and they are getting settled. I tried many times to get a short video of the piglets off my phone, but it has not been accomplished as of yet. My computer is not playing nicely with my phone. I am not computer whiz at all either. HERE is a link to see the little boogers from my FB page.

                                               ****The first piglets of the year****

One thing I have learned is that the best thought out plans are usually thrown a curve ball at some point. My meat bird chicks were supposed to ship out the end of March. I had feed orders and customer orders all based on that ship date. Then the curve ball came and the chicks showed up at my post office on Friday, 5 weeks early. It was a mistake made on the hatchery end, but we frantically got brood boxes ready and now they are all here cheeping away. The weather is not quite warm enough to keep the brood boxes in the garage as I planned, so we have them in the basement. It is not ideal, but often times such is the case. Less than ideal doesn't equate with terrible. It simply means one must be flexible. I suppose I have gotten really good at being flexible over the last several years. Having a large family does that to a person.

                     ***2 years ago we bought our first dairy cow, and today we have 5!***

I have met many people the last year who want to farm in some capacity, folks who want to opt out of the commercial food system and develop a relationship with their food. My advice is to always jump right in. Sometimes you start with a few hens in the back yard, sometimes you raise a few chickens for meat. You might even decide to buy a beef cow for your land. Whatever the goal, you must start somewhere. You have to stop waiting for the *perfect* time because that time may never come. There are always curveballs to throw off the best and most well thought out plans.
The time to jump right in is now. You might need to start small, but by all means start, and be flexible when the ball curves and ruins your plans. Farming and agriculture are not exact and precise sciences but rather art forms often times.

The last week here has been full of hustle and bustle. The animal chores have doubled and we are finding ourselves exhausted by dinner time. It is a good kind of exhausted though. It's the kind that lets you know without a doubt that your day was filled with work and all the many blessings that go along with that work.
I can't imagine my life if I had never the inclination to just jump right in. How about you?

Tree, Pigs and Crafts?

The tree went up a couple of nights ago, and you know what that means?
It means that I have less than two weeks to craft, sew, and relax to enjoy the season.

I remember a time, many years ago, when we did not have enough ornaments to cover the tree. Now we have too many!

Of course a tree with a toddler is always fun, right? You get to pick up ornaments off the floor all day and redecorate the tree all day too. Fletcher found himself a branch to call his own and has about 10 shiny balls hanging there.. Thank goodness they now make the shiny ball ornaments from plastic.

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I wanted to update on the pigerators. They have done a remarkable job tilling the garden area.
They are still quite active at digging the ground but in the mornings they can be found stretched out and soaking up the warm sun. They have doubled their size since we got them in late October.

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Kid craft day.
Every year near Christmas we have friends over to play, relax and make an ornament.
This year we had some friends over that we just don't get to hang out with often enough.
We popped popcorn for a snack and had a great time crafting a tissue paper ornament. This craft can be completed with some help by even your smaller ones.

This craft was inspired by Wee Folk Art. They posted a beautiful winter scene craft using tissue paper.

Seriously, this was a fabulous craft and everyone enjoyed it so much.

I cut up tissue paper (some I saved from the last birthday here) into squares and placed the pieces in a bowl for easy access.
Essentially the kids glued the paper pieces to a piece of cardstock using a simple glue stick.

After the card was covered with tissue paper, the kids drew a design on the back, such as a tree shape, and then cut the design out.

Add a hole at top and a piece of ribbon and you have a hand made ornament your kids can hang on the tree. Don't forget to write their name and the year on back!

These would also make great Valentines and all sorts of ideas can be thought up with this simple idea.

Here's to a busy week . We are celebrating Devin's birthday this weekend and then school will be set to the side until after the new year! I think some baking and crafting will be in the forecast next week.

Kid Craft Day was a success and it is a tradition that we always love. What fun traditions have you added to your school year?

Pigerators

The pigs are here. We have 2 of them and they are about 3 months old.

I considered getting little babies but, honestly, they were too cute.

These fellas are pretty cute as it is and I have discovered them to be very entertaining to watch. They are smart and have loads of personalities....2 traits that will make it quite difficult to send them to slaughter.

We have plans to put them into the woods with electric fencing but for these few days they are in the outdoor dog kennel. We are having a huge Halloween party tonight and felt it would be best to keep the critters here for a few days.
We are having to move the kennel on a daily basis because these pigs can till and turn up the ground within a matter of hours. Amazing.

Of course we plan to use this tilling ability to turn up a large area of ground for garden planting in the spring. We have bermuda in our field and believe these pigs might till it enough to give us a growing season.

We want to plant a large pumpkin patch. In fact we passed a pumpkin garden on the way home from getting the pigs. We stopped and bought pumpkins for the kids and yesterday was a perfect day to sit on the grass and carve.

Sustainable farming. Diverse farming as well. These pigs wouldn't be as entertaining if we had 100 to care for, but we have 2. We have laying hens, roaster chickens in the summer, a dairy cow, a steer for meat, honey bees, fruit trees, and now pigs. Every creature fertilizes the land and contributes to the farm.
Moving the animals around the land ensures that we are accomplishing what we set out to do and that's grow grass. Joel Salatin is right when he says we are farming grass. Everything else is a product of this sustainable farming method.

He is also correct when he says that farming in a diverse manner makes farming much more enjoyable and family friendly.

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Now to the party. Tonight will be about friends, food and a fabulous haunted trail in the woods.

We situated the haunted trail in back near the creek. The trees are beautiful this time of year, and we woke up this morning to very cool weather. We will have a couple of fire pits going tonight as well as hot apple cider.

Fletcher helped us put the large canopy together yesterday...or at least he mimicked every move we made during the process.

Here's to a happy weekend for everyone! We will be eating hotdogs, cotton candy, and sweet treats all afternoon and evening, so if you are in the area...drop by!

I will be back next week with pictures and a new Handmade Holiday!

Have a SPOOKTACTULAR weekend!