New round baler and MOREL'S!!!!

Ok, my dream finally came true this week as I got to bring home my first round baler for the farm. I have had to have my cousin bale my hay up for me every year because I didn't have a baler of my own. I finally found an almost new machine in unbelievably great condition for a very low price. Whoever owned this baler before took amazing care of it.

It is a 654 new holland and makes a four foot wide by up to six foot in diameter round bale. It can go as small as a four by four round bale as well. Twine tie. I thought I needed netwrap but we wrap all the hay in plastic wrap to store and the netwrap is designed to help the bale shed water better when stored outside.


The only thing that gets me through the rainy muddy part of spring without going crazy is morel mushroom season. I finally found my first ones yesterday and found a few more today. My daughter and I are heading to southern ohio to visit a fellow shroomer and spend a day in the woods picking morels!! Can't wait! We like the big ones pan fried in some olive oil and then add a little salted butter just before done. My wife also makes some unbelievably awesome dishes with them as well.

I have found a total of 84 so far in two days. They are mostly small black ones but I will take anything I can get as they are all delicious! They are quite hard to find and highly addictive. I wish they would find a way to cultivate them so they could be enjoyed year round but that would take away the exclusivity of them!

This weekend's project is completion of the barn roof and a shrooming trip to Guernsey county!!

Happy hunting all!!

Barn work is coming along very nicely!

Well, everyone showed up to help yesterday. We decided to concentrate on getting the shed ready for the pigs so we can get them moved into here. The current situation in the barn is not very good. It doesn't drain naturally and you have to climb walls to get in to feed and check the babies. Furthermore, to clean, you have to pitch over two walls and then out a small hole in the wall to get the manure out. NOT FUN! So later today the piggies will get to move into their new home.

This is a pic of the inside roughed in. We are putting in a loft above the pens to store feed and bedding materials. I will create a similar setup in the back of the barn over the Boars pen after we get everyone moved out and get it cleaned up. Lots of work to do in there later this spring.
A pic across the future loft. It will not completely cover the pens. The pens are roughly 6' wide and 8' deep. The loft will go from the center posts on the left of the pic below to the 2x4 you see in the center and run the whole length of the barn. Leaving a gap on the walkway side allows easier access to the pens from the walkway. It also allows for access to pens from loft and if I build a small set of access step I can keep the kids and animals from getting in the loft.

A pic of the outside before the siding started going on.


This is the start of the siding. Steven is on the ladder and Gabe is cutting boards for us. Went up pretty quick.
Pic of the barn after we got the siding on. Still needs some little pieces along edges and such but will work for short term to get pigs moved in. While Gabe and Josh (Steven's brother) were cutting and installing the little pieces around the door Steven and I worked on the floor joists for the loft. Then after a quick trip to Lowe's for some OSB we finished out the sides of two of the pens.

By this time everyone else had left and it was just me and my daughter. So we built and installed the doors for the two finished pens and installed the floor in the loft. This is her showing the operation of the door latches. My wife gave us the idea of using a hinge-less door. This allows us to use them as mobile gates to herd pigs into the proper pens as well as store them in loft when not in use or when cleaning barn.
The loft is 6'6" high from the pen floor. This allows a space of 5-6' on top for storage. My daughter is giving you a frame of reference for the height. This was when we were getting ready to install floor in loft. I still need to cut the boards down to size and then I will take pics of the finished product.
I am going to concentrate on wiring up the barn and finishing some small details this week. Once everyone is moved into the pig shed I will begin working on the original barn. For this I will be replacing the existing slate roof with metal. Installing a fascia board all the way around. Reworking the pen that will become the boars permanent residence including a loft above it. I will be lifting the bottom board that holds the rafters up higher to allow for more storage space in the barn and rewiring those lights. I will also be opening up the wall between the barn and the pig shed. It is pieces right now anyway and will allow for walking between the pig area and barn without going outside.

Next major priority is installing the posts for the pig lots. We are going to install a multi-strand fence around two lots directly off the back of the barn. There will be one for keeping the boar in all the time. The other will be for letting the sows and here babies out once they are big enough to leave the pen but still contain them till they are big enough for the fence in the large pasture. I will post a diagram/picture when I get closer to doing this.

Have a great weekend!

Kenny

More piggie pics!!

Ok, gonna try this again. The website is acting up and this is the third time I am trying to post these pics!!

More progress on the barn. Using an old storm door off the house for a door to the walkway. Will be another one on the other end. Been busy with everything this week so progress is going slow right now.
These are pig's piglets. I wanted to show the black on their noses.

Here is pig pig's litter. They are growing very fast! The piglets in both litters have doubled in size already.
Quick pic of the slab wood that I am going to cut into firewood with the cows in the background.
Here is a pic of Pistol. He will be headed to butcher shop in June! Keep eating little buddy!
We should have calves being born starting the end of may! I can't wait!

And as promised a video.



The new setup for Blogger is a little weird, need to figure out how the down loader for pics is supposed to work. It keeps putting all the pics I download at the beginning and then I have to move them around. Anyway, I will try to be a little more diligent in posting, I have been slacking lately!

Have a good day, I am soooo ready for summer and lots of sunshine! I am tired of the constant cold and rain!

Kenny

Meet the new arrivals!

First off, I have been sick for three full weeks now and it is getting old! Tried to take off work so I could get over it but nothing went my way and I only got one day off. There is good news in all of this mess however in the fact that we now have to new full litters of baby piglets! I got up Thursday morning, which I thought I was getting off till a subcontractor showed up to work on the job I am managing, and went out to check the pigs. Pig was due on Tuesday and still hadn't had them yet on Wed. night. I was greeted to an awesome surprise as she was giving birth to her last piglet when I walked in the door. All we had to do was a little cleanup in the pen and she was good to go. She has a litter of 12 healthy little piglets! They are mostly white but most have black speckling and a few have black spots on their noses.








































So, after work I checked on the pigs and then came in house to rest. Steven is in Georgia clipping cows for a show all week so his brother Josh is helping me with the pigs. Josh checked the pigs at 11:30pm and I didn't know it. So I went out at 11:45 and Pig Pig was delivering her second piglet. I thought it was the first, but we found it ten minutes later. It had crawled out a hole in the pen divider and was out with the other pigs. So Josh and I stayed out there till two am. He headed home to get some rest and I stayed up till almost four. At that time she had delivered nine and had quit for a while so I headed in the house to take a nap. When I got back up at six and went out to check on her she had 12 little babies eating off of her.

I haven't had a chance to take a good picture of pig pig with her litter yet. They are all white, no spots or anything. On a sad note however, we did lose one of pig pigs babies today. Apparently it had something quite wrong internally and passed away pretty quickly so she now has eleven. However, the rest are doing very well. Our plans are to fatten out whatever we have sold or think we can sell plus one for us, one for steven, and 2 more for the freezer for mid season sales.

Definitely going to be getting the pig shed finished up soon and everyone moved into there. Next mission is to have at least one pig lot built before they start leaving the barn so we have a place to contain the babies till they are old enough to respect the fence!

I was away from home all day today. Took wife and kids to wooster today to the cultural fair then we went to look at a round baler for the farm. We liked the baler and are going to purchase. I will post a pic of it and the rest of the piggies tomorrow as well as an updated pic of the barn!

TTYS

Kenny

Got pigs?!?!

Just dropping a quick update from the phone.  Pig had her piglets yesterday morning and pig pig had hers last night.  Grand total, 24 new piglets, 12 each!

Lots of picks tonight but I will give u a teaser now.

Got the roof on!!

Well, I managed to put my fear of heights aside and Gabe and I got the roof on the pig shed today!  I don't think I got these posted so I will start with the posts before we put the headers on.

 Headers on!

 Had to take a section of post out and replace it.  The bottom was completely rotted off.

 

Steven and I then put the elevated floor on so I could get up to the slate with the step ladder.  I removed the slate and got ready for rafters.

 Picture of the area with the slate removed. 

 Gabe laying out the rafters.  We had already secured the ones attached to the barn. 

 The first part of the roof on. 

I didn't get a pic of the rest before it got dark.  I will take some more pics tomorrow.  It looks so different.  If you go back in the blog a little way you will see a pic from the same place this last pic is taken from the day I started to tear down the old shed.

I will try to find tomorrow and repost.

Talk to you all tomorrow, it is supposed to be a beautiful day!!!!

Kenny

More barn work

Well, lets try this again. I already did this post once and then I lost it when adding photos!


ok....so now I cannot add photos either...well, I will give you the word version and hopefully tomorrow BLOGGER will have their issues fixed!

Headers are now up and started putting rafters up today. Going to finish rafters tomorrow, then roof it on Saturday. Piggies are due next week so we need to weather proof it by end of Saturday!

Will post pics again as soon as this thing will let me.

Also very very sick this week and last. Man I hope this winter ends soon! I just wanna be healthy again!

Got some lumber cut!

Well, I have been sick all week long.  Started out as a cold and then moved into my chest over the week.  Got up today feeling horrible.  So I called work and told them I was going to work from home to line stuff up for next week.  I rested for a while, worked part of the morning, then ate lunch with my daughter.  Then we found out the guy who was going to cut the wood was free in the afternoon so we threw a load together and ran the main stuff down to get it cut. 

The load.

 Cutting one of the maple logs.

 Willie helping load what gets cut.

 Lisa making sure everything is stacked correctly and cut correctly!

 Another maple log.

 The loading crew! 

 The finished product.  We only had time to do the three large maple logs and a couple of the elms.  There is a little over 600 board feet of wood here and another 400-500 left to saw up at his place.  We also have about 2000 here at the farm that he is going to come here and cut.  Needed this done so we can continue work on the pig pens. 

The sows are due to have the piglets in under two weeks so we are in crunch time!  Lets hope things go smoothly!

Kenny