It has been quite a while since I updated my farm blog.  I have been so busy doing IT work, studying for a class I’m teaching, and doing farm work that I have not taken time to actually blog.

I’m not really any less busy today, but I just decided to take a slice of time and force myself to do an update.  I took some photos yesterday, so this will be a photo tour.  (short on words)

The pigs are getting large and solid.  The male is especially a chunk.  I hope to have him processed in March or April.

 

The cows are doing OK.  I’m using more hay than I have produced this year, which is causing some issues, but we will make it. I’ll still looking for some hay that is close by and cheap.  Good luck with that one.

Anyway, the cows are growing fine.  I’ll push more feed as we get closer to processing time.  (spring)  The photo below is Pumba, our oldest cow. He looks pretty good… could put on a few pounds, but we will take care of that in the spring.

 

The rest of the cows:

 

Timone, the Jersey has taken to hanging around with our goat Lucy more than the rest of the cows.  They are often close together as in the photo below.

 

It is quite cold this week.  It was 28 degrees this morning.  Notice my frozen bathtub water tank.

 

So thankful that a friend gave me a great deal on this very large tank a while back.  I put my tank heater in it, and it keeps the cows in water nicely.

 

I’m low on chickens lately.  An opossum killed almost half of my layers a while back, so I’m very thin.  The photo below is of what’s left of my good hens.  I hope to get some Buffs in the spring.

This is what I have left of my “free rangers”.  They have been sleeping in the barn lately due to the cold, so I’ve just left them alone.  It is a bit safer in there.

 

I moved the turkeys to the “free range” pen.  They were about to freeze to death when the wind tore the top off my half hoop pen, then it rained and started to freeze.  Yuck!

 

We are going through the firewood at a decent pace this year.  Thankfully I had a huge stash.  Good thing, since my chainsaw is broken.  I did not really cut much wood in 2012.  I need to get back in the groove.  I’ll be good this winter though.  The wood left in this photo below is mostly Oak and Locust.  Both burn long and hot.

 

The cats are fine too.  All six of them…

 

Our Jersey calves are doing well.  They had a rough start late last year with all the alternating rain and cold.  I ended keeping them on milk a LOT longer than normal.  Read $$$$  I had to treat them for scours twice.  Thankfully they are both off milk now.  I’m keeping them two times a day.

Well, that is it.  I’ll try not to take so long between posts.  Leave me a quick comment to let me know you’ve dropped by.

– Stan.