Front Pasture Finally Fenced

It seems like it has taken FOREVER, but the front pasture is finally fenced.  This gives us 3 pastures for rotating livestock.  Nice.  This does not count the 3 small corals around the barn.  I mostly use those for temporary stuff and for pigs.

Since this pasture was near a busy road I wanted to put woven wire instead of just electric fence.   This fence has H-braces set in concrete at the corners and another 6 inch post every 50 to 100 feet, depending on the lay of the land.  Between the wooden post we have T-Posts every 10 feet.  Also, to keep the critters off of the woven wire we have electric running on the inside.  Just one strand now, but I may add a top strand and possibly a lower strand as well.

Below is the view from my security camera.  It is nice seeing the cows from the windows on this side of the house.  The goats are in this pasture as well, but they were “off camera”.

Front Pasture

That is all for now.

– Stan

Sally the sow arrives (with her piglets)

I’m going in with a friend to raise some piglets, so today we went to pick up the sow and piglets

Sally is here… after some fun loading and unloading.

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We will keep Sally and piglets together until weaning time.  After that some of the piglets will head to a new home down the road.  We will keep Sally and one or two of the piglets.

She will be in need of a new “boyfriend” eventually. 😉

Enjoy the short video.

 

– Stan

New Laying Boxes

I’ve had my mobile chicken coop setup for a while now, but I have not been pleased with the laying boxes.  They were too close to the floor and made it too easy for passing chickens to peck at the eggs.

This week I decided to redo the laying boxes by making them higher, deeper, and wider.  Hopefully that will discourage the “egg pecking” and set me up for the new crop of laying hens that I’ll be adding.

Here is the outside view.

New Laying Boxes Outside View

New Laying Boxes Outside View

I was able to reuse the board from my old laying box lid.  I put some new metal on it, and added a scrap trip piece above it for a “drip edge”.

The Lift Lid

The Lift Lid

Here is the inside view of the laying box.  They are about 3.5″ deep.  Inside I’ve put a thick layer of shredded paper.

Inside View

Inside View

Here is a happy hen getting settled in the new box.

Happy Hen

Happy Hen

Hopefully this will help my egg production go up a bit. I’ll be moving in new hens in the fall, and culling out some old ones.  Some roosters are going away this weekend, hopefully.  Can you say “Chicken and Rice” 😉

– Stan

Wood for fall

In good shape for the winter. The wood shed is almost full.  Yippie!

Wood shed

Wood shed

I still have a good stack of wood to cut to length, split and stack.  I don’t think I’ll be able to fit it all in the wood shed.  That is a good problem to have.  I would rather be ahead than behind.

More wood to cut, split and stack

– Stan

First day of Summer. What’s been going on this spring?

So and my wife and I were walking around the farm this evening she mentioned that today is the longest day of the year, and the first day of summer.  Boy did spring fly by!  Yikes.  I have been very busy with IT work, farm work, and more, so I’m behind on my blog posts.

So, this will be a little summary of what has been going on since April.

Both hogs have gone to the meat processor and came back in packages.  So thankful to have meat in the freezer… finally.  It’s nice to have some to share as well.  We are blessed.

Processed Pork

Processed Pork

A friend welded up a scrap trailer for me and I used it to replace my lousy wheels on my chicken tractor.  In the photo below you can see the frame lined up in preparation for sliding the chicken tractor on to it.  On set of the flimsy wheels had been removed.   The other set had not been removed yet.

Chicken tractor frame

Chicken tractor frame

With the new frame I had to do a bit of re-arranging.  I had to change the main door into a half-door.  I also had to move the run to the end rather than the front due to the wheel.  I built a little “connector” so that they would fit together better.  The picture below shows the new rig all hooked up.

New rig

New rig

Rick, a young buck arrived on the farm.  Ricky gets to hang out with our doe, Lucy.

Ricky

Ricky (small one on the right)

They seem fairly happy together.

Happy together

Happy together

Our garden got off to a good start

IMG_0935

Salad Stuff

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Cabbage

IMG_0937

Onions

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More onions, salad stuff, spinach, etc.

 

Had a bumper crop of collards the other day.

Collards

Collards

Cooked em in this.  Farm raised pork. YUM!!!!!

Pork Cooking... collards and water go in next

Pork Cooking… collards and water go in next

Big boy Maurice came to live at the farm.  He is a registered Dorper ram.   He has excellent blood lines and he is here to do a job.  😉

Maurice

Maurice

Well, that catches you up on most of the farm stuff.  Stuff that I have photos of anyway.

– Stan.

Hay Day and Calves

I’m very behind on posting, so we will just start with Today’s farm activities and I’ll fill in some past stuff later.

Today was a good day.  James and Nate came to rake and bale the hay.  I did not have my hopes very high because in past years our hay yield was pitiful.  We did however seed the former corn field fairly thickly, sow clover in the front field, and put down manure.  Still… I did not have my hopes very high.  So, I was thrilled with the results.

Here are the nice looking rows of hay in the big field

Hay Rows - Big Field

Hay Rows – Big Field

And the front field

Hay Rows - Front Field

Hay Rows – Front Field

And the nice results in the big field.

Happy Results - Big Field

Happy Results – Big Field

Good results in the front field as well.  Eight rolls (not all pictured).  We only got two on the last cutting.

Happy Results - Front Field

Happy Results – Front Field

Overall I’m thrilled with the yield.  Twenty four rolls!  Thank the Lord for multiplication.

Tonight was also calf processing night.  A neighbor friend came down to help me band and de-horn a couple of calves.  Here is a photo of part of the process.

Working the calves

Working the calves

Janet had a couple of the neighbor boys in the audience with her.

The Audience

The Audience

Gotta hold em some how…

Ride em cowboy

Ride em cowboy

Our helper

Helper

Helper

What just happened?

What just happened?

That is all for now.  I’ll up on more of the farm “goings on” in later posts.

– Stan.

 

Bacon’s Pig Wallow

For the last few days Bacon the hog has been flipping her water bowl over a few times a day.  It was a bit irritating because I would have to turn off the electric fence, put the bowl back, carry water to fill it up, etc.  I thought she might be bored or lonely since her buddy Sausage is gone… but I was wrong.  Yesterday I finally figured it out.  She was trying to make her own Pig Wallow.

So, after figuring that out, I helped her out a bit with the water hose.  This is her enjoying her wallow this morning.

Bacons Pig Wallow

Bacon’s Pig Wallow

– Stan.

Pig Payoff

Took a loooooooooong round trip to Liberty, KY to pick up our processed pork and deliver 1/2 to a friend.  We put some serious miles on the car, but it was worth it.

The live weight of our first hog was a bit less than I had hoped for, coming in at 223 lbs, but I’m still thrilled with how the meat turned out.

Check out 1/2 of the sausage:

Half of the sausage

Half of the sausage

And this is 1/2 of the other cuts (not including Bacon)

Roast, Ribs, Pork Chops...

Roast, Ribs, Pork Chops…

I didn’t take a photo of the bacon, however we got back 7 nice packages of generously sliced bacon.  We ate an entire pack this morning.  It did not stay around long enough to pose for a photo.  Yum!

We will process the 2nd hog in about another month… so… we should get this same amount of meat back  AGAIN.

Yippie!!!!!  It’s thrilling when the farm work really starts to pay off.

– Stan.