Just Pictures

I am so busy. I don't even have time to blog!
I do have lots of pictures, so I thought I would share a little bit of what we are seeing and enjoying around here.



Piglets on the move! I always say it, and I will say it again. These piglets are so much fun. They are certainly well loved little guys.



A rare picture of myself taken by Matt. We have these guys almost entirely on grass but we have been sprinkling a bit of hay for them in the morning. Charlie (with his pony metabolism) is so overweight that I only want him out on grass for the afternoon, so a bit of hay in the morning tides him over until then.



Checking out the garden! Its mostly seeded. I might be able to finish the rest today if naps work in my favour!



We did raised beds and we are hoping to mulch them quite well to keep the weeds down once our seeds are established.

Trying the Quinoa again. I am using two varieties and we hopefully have improved our soil enough that we will have a better go with it than last year.



Potatoes in. Last spring we planted 33, then harvested them, ate a bunch over the whole winter and kept the rest for seed for this spring. We ended up planting 110 last week, all fingerling potatoes. It didn't go as far as I hoped in our potato patch but that is ok because it will still hopefully be lots of potatoes!

We are attempting to use some of last years beets and carrots to get seed from. This is uncharted waters for us. Should be fun and interesting!

I stored my carrots over the winter in wood chips instead of sand. The sand was much better and kept them moist. They were quite a bit dryer than I realized so I am not expecting too much, although I was cheered to see a nice green shoot from one yesterday.

Little farm girl brought me a bouquet of flowers. I feel so blessed to raise my little ones here!

A big pig enjoying the dirt

The sun starting to go down on the farm

Hurray! Raspberry buds mean raspberry flowers, and raspberry flowers mean raspberries!

First rainbow of the summer!

Some intriguing moths which I didn't have time to look up. I was in awe of the intricacy of their delicate markings.



And little farm girl's fist full of treasures. Three Salamanders, a chicken feather and her little farm gardening gloves. Summer is awesome!

Dirt Rich

We had a busy and productive weekend last weekend. And fun of course too!



We started by picking up a few weaned piglets from a local farm to add to our little Berkshire herd. They are a week younger and a little bit smaller, but they are incredibly tough little things. I introduced them and they immediately proceeded to scrap with and dominate each of our little berkie piglets. After the first hour together, the black piglets would make a wide berth around the pink pigs, and even now there is little doubt about who is in charge in the pig pen.





They are so much fun. Our chores take twice as long because we end up sitting and just enjoying their rambunctious play and curiosity.




The next long weekend order of business was adding some good old dirt to the garden. That is something we are not in short supple of! We imagine this used to be a manure pile many, many years ago. Its a big pile of rich dark dirt. I know Matt is getting into a farming mindset because this weekend he refered to it as our "gold mine."



We had planned to rent a dump trailer and get all our dirt piled and moved, and do all our winter manure into compost piles at the same time. Turned out the dump trailer from the rental place had broke this weekend. We decided to use the pick up truck and unload by shovel. After the first load we looked at each other and remarked that this was going to be a lot more work than we had planned. But, we decided that if this farm fails, it certainly won't be because we were afraid to sweat. So sweat we did...

I parked the happy little farmers on a picnic blanket and load by load we made progress.

Little farm girl found her first toad of the summer. He spent his afternoon being ferried back in forth in the truck and being thoroughly loved and talked to. He was a good sport about it, but seemed to be happy to hop away once evening fell.

We wanted a good three or four inches deep and it took a lot of loads

As I unloaded the last load as Matt started to till it in

And now the garden is ready! I was hoping to have a good start at planting and seeding it too but little farm boy is teething and he needs me right now, and he is a little more important!



Here was another project of mine. I couldn't believe the terrible job I did hot lining this last year and I had to refence it all to get our sows out. I was showing Matt how ridiculous it was and he said something that really encouraged me. I was crawling around pulling insulators and rewiring and kicking myself the whole time and he came and just said " last year you were learning, now you know." Its true and its wonderful to be gaining experience even though we have to learn the hard way sometimes. If we waited until we knew exactly what we were doing with everything, nothing would ever get done!

Happy sow

Over the long weekend we also did our "Pig Haying". We bought about 4500 lbs of pig feed and moved it with 5 gallon pails to where we want it stored over the summer. Like haying, its big job, and like haying, once you do it you are stored up and set for a good chunk of time.



There is lots more fencing on our agenda too. The posts here are rotten to the point of not touching the ground in lots of places. In this spot the whole business came down under the snow.

We also moved all our various piles of hay, bedding and manure to make into compost.



We moistened it as we unloaded, and alternated between loads of our various compostable materials. Its a good sized pile already which is exciting!

And another adventure in progress. Last year we didn't get any chicks from our incubating attempts so I am not going to count my chickens...
We have a flock of our favourite hens in the barn with the rooster to collect fertile eggs from. I will candle over the coming weekend and we will see how things are progressing.



And it hasn't been all work and no play. We had guests this week all the way from Ontario! We very much enjoyed the company of Uncle Joe and Aunt Margaret and they brought us some special treats. Here are our treasured, handmade Nana socks all the way from the other side of the country!



And lastly, I accidentally broke some eggs yesterday. The one on the left is a fertile one from the chickens tucked in the barn, the other is from our pastured layers who are out on grass. I was amazed to see the colour difference! Even the whites from the pastured egg are golden!

And for those who are curious of how to tell if an egg is fertile. Each egg has a circular dot on the yolk called the blastoderm. Its pretty obvious on the golden yolk.
If you can make the picture bigger, the blastoderm on the yellow yolk is at about 8:00 on the circle
If its just a circular dot, like on the golden one, its not fertile.
If its looks like a bulls eye, which you can vaguely make out on the golden one if you expand the picture, its fertile.
I guess that is your farm fact of the day!

Firsts

This is just the best time of year!

 

Everything is just exploding with new life and we have the whole summer ahead of us to enjoy it! The trees are filling out with bright green leaves, seedlings are shooting up everywhere and piglets are exploring the world with nosy enthusiasm. I love being out and about in the busyness of creation. Birds are filling all that winter silence with their chattering, critters are out and about everywhere and the amazing earthy smells from the warm summer breezes are such a treat to take in. I have such a hard time staying inside for long.

We have had some firsts around here this last week. Some exciting firsts, and others I am sincerely hoping that there won't be a second!

First of all, we weaned our little piglets and put them out for the first time. They are being hot line trained and I am working to get all the ticklish out of them so we can handle and measure them as needed.
We have made a tradition of taking a family photo as we put our piglets out and this is the first year they are piglets that have been born on the farm! Not only that, they are healthy, feisty little Berkshires, which is a breed I have been admiring for a while. Its thrilling to see your dreams pulling together.

Letting the little guys out for the first time

This is a good first spot for them because there is a strong physical fence to contain them while they learn to respect the hot line.



They took a bit to figure out the hotline. Probably because once one touched they would all pile on top of each other and squish together. Then when the next one touched it would shock the whole group. I was scratching one today on the edge of the group and I got shocked through them all!

Horses are always watching them

Wondering what goodie I have for them today

Little farm girl has bonded with them. They seem to enjoy the same activities together.

They say pigs are very intelligent and we have been toying with that a bit. Before we fill the pig trough with feed we have been spooning some to the piglets who are willing to sit. Its crazy cute to see a piglet sitting for its dinner and I like watching the wheels turn in those little heads.

Nope, that is not how you get the food!

That'll do pig!

Another first. A loose pig in the barn. It was my fault really. I noticed something was wrong with how her latch was closing and I couldn't get it sorted out, but I also couldn't get her door open so I figured she would be fine. Thankfully she got out into the barn isle and I had closed up the barn over night. Its was quite a surprise to walk into the barn in the morning and see her her blinking in a very satisfied way while lying in a  pig sized crater in the barn isle. I don't think the dirt floor in there will ever be the same!

Right after that I went outside to discover a bear in the hay field. Not a big surprise really, but it was another first for me.

Once I went in, I watched little farm boy take his first tottering steps across the living room. A big first for him!

And then I also got my first mosquito bite of the year. I guess it had to happen at some point...



We have lots of different egg cartons we regularly reuse and I did a bit of research on the different egg labels that are all over them: cage free, free range, free run, omega enriched, vegetarian fed and so on. It was pretty disappointed to read what they actually mean. If the best you can say about your eggs is you don't feed your chickens other animal byproducts, that is kind of frightening! I also stumbled on some interesting research and articles regarding pastured eggs and how much more nutrition they contain, but I think that would be another whole blog in itself!



Our chickens are thoroughly enjoying being out. We were moving them every 3-4 days when we first put them out. I am glad to see the grass is growing quickly and we don't have to move them quite so often. In the this picture you can see the spots they had been. I replace and rake out their hay bedding from the camper over the areas so it looks kind of yellow. 



And an interesting observation. I actually noticed last year that we had the same crows around all the time.
Last year we had a Momma crow with three babies. They were around for most of the summer and they really made me laugh. The "babies" were indistinguishable from their mother until she would find a worm or insect. Suddenly there would be three full sized crows throwing themselves at her with their mouths wide open like baby birds. It would be a big cawing commotion and she would feed them as they all fought to be closest to her. It went on for a good chunk of the summer and I am sure they were fully capably of looking after themselves.

This year we have a crow with a limp. Its like one of her feet is stuck in a closed grip position. She hobbles around and seems to go places with us as we work around the farm. I am actually starting to think of her as a bit of a companion. Its kind of weird too and I imagine I am thinking to much into it, but three times now when I have gotten home she is waiting at the end of the driveway and comes with me to the house.

Anyway, as always, lots to do!

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!