Spring Time Update

Things have been crazy busy around here. We have had a stretch of amazing weather recently and we have just crammed it full of spring time activity.
I was walking around yesterday thinking there is pretty much work to do on every square inch of the property! This has been a good lesson in priorities for us!

Anyway, this is what we have been investing our time in this week.



This week was little Farm Girls birthday! She requested a piggy theme for her birthday party and this was the cake that we made. I used the Quinoa cake recipe again. You honestly can't tell that its made with quinoa so everyone can enjoy it.
I told her she could pick any meal to have for her birthday dinner and the only thing she wanted to eat was eggs with meat from her "best pig, Scritchers." I had just run out of our usual cuts but I didn't want to disappoint so she ended up having pork jowl for her birthday dinner...

One of the piglets, nicknamed Popcorn because she pops and leaps, made a guest appearance at the birthday party. Unfortunately she was a bit of a party pooper.

And this week we had a farm visitor/ farm hand. My friend Stephanie stayed with us. We had a lot of fun together and I also put her right to work! Here she is enjoying a puddle in the hay field.

This is what I have been enjoying. The riding ring is dry and the horses are getting lots of work all of the sudden! Little farm girl got a riding crop for her birthday and has been delighted to try it out. Tex still is not keen to get moving, even with a crop tapping on him. It frustrates little farm girl, but I figure its a problem that I am happy to have!

I have been playing a lot with little filly. I did some work with her the other day and figured out exactly where she is at and where I would like to go with her next. She has a great attitude and lots of random skills from over the winter, now she just needs the important things! I have discovered that if I get up around 6:00 in the morning, I get a bit of time to myself to work with the horses. But, with little Farm Boys usual 4+ wakings during the night, it has made me into a bit more of a zombie than usual. I am not sure how often I can keep it up and still form complete sentences.

I have been having way too much fun with the three ponies. I line them all up and work them as a trio. Its a pretty cool feeling to have three moving in unison! Tex and Charlie remember everything from last year and are keen to work. The first time I did it, little filly was in the middle and she was licking and chewing with her lips for like ten minutes straight. Generally when horse do that they are digesting a thought. It must have given her a lot to think about! I have had some excellent moments with all of them working together, but if the center horse slacks off I can't seem to cue it back into action without disturbing the horses on the outside. Its got me a little frazzled, but I betcha I can figure it out by the end of the summer!



And we finally invested in a purchase that has been on our list for a long time. We would like to eventually work out a no till system, but for now while we are learning and breaking ground, we are going to use this.



This has been keeping me busy. Our lawn is very weedy and an increasing portion of it is just hawkweed and bare dirt. The soil needs a lot of work in itself, so before my garden leaps into action and while manure is still very scoopable behind the hay barn, I am spreading some into the lawn.



This was an experiment last year. We pastured chickens on the lawn in one of the worst spots to see what the effect would be. There was not the difference that we had hoped for, but as you can see in this picture (right in the center, towards the bottom) there is a circle of grass that has shot up through the hawkweed and is nice and green. This was the spot right behind the camper where the chicken impact was the heaviest. Maybe if we can get our soil a little better as a whole it will be able to compete a little better. Its all a learning experience...



Seeds coming up. This picture is of the broccoli, or maybe the cabbage. Its exciting to watch them grow!



These little critters are 4 weeks old now. Commercial pig operations usually wean at about 10 days old! Both our sows have small litters so they are not being drained by the nursing. I think we will watch the sows and how they feel about the matter. I notice this sow lying on her belly a little more, and when she gets up she will get a bunch of little piranhas on her belly. I would like to be able to put the sows back together when we wean so I think we will wait another week so the other litter hits this age too.



They are starting to think of me as the goodies lady!





If the pigs don't finish their grain overnight, we give whats left in the morning to the chickens. I will sprinkle it in a rows and jokingly say I have swath grazed the chickens. I didn't bring any this morning, but they were all hopeful.



Here is our garden plot, awaiting the weather to warm a little bit more. Its was below freezing last night here again. The front right quarter was last years garden. All the rest was pig rototilled last fall and they did an excellent job of clearing the sod. We are going to till compost in next and make some raised beds again by hand.

And here are my lilac leaves ready to join the world. I am loving spring time!