Piggie pics and a cookout!

Well, final piglet count is 20.  Pig had 12 and all are doing great.  Pig pig had 10, one was still born and she laid on one today leaving 8.  They are all a little different.   Some have eyebrows as the one picture shows and other have freckles and or streaks of red.  Can't wait to see how they grow.

To celebrate we had a small party/cookout last night.  My wife cooked porkchops with a dry rub spice mix she came up with on the open cherry fire.  Sides were (tomato/corn/avocado/onion) salad with an italian dressing, peas, and cheesy jalepeno corn bread!

Pics show the start of the fire.  I have a log starter hooked to the natural gas we have here on the farm.  Just light, add wood,  and twenty minutes later you have an awesome fire!

By the way the food was phenomenal!

MORE BABIES!!!!

Ok, I know I was gonna go to bed but I wanna post this tonight and will get better photos tomorrow.

Pig has officially had another litter of babies. 12 very healthy little piglets. Everyone is doing very well and all seem happy.



Pig Pig is currently looking like she will have them any minute now as she is constantly pacing and rooting and then lays down and grunts and pushes.



Also, here are some pics from the science review. We had a blast, saw some equipment, got a pig waterer, ate some review food, saw an old friend, and got some science review booty!!!

Above is a massive grain cart used during harvesting by one of the below pictured combines. Lisa had a blast climbing into all the big equipment and looking at everything. I remember being her age and doing the same thing. I miss those days!

Another big tractor, not the biggest but still big. I didn't get a picture of her in the 400+ hp monsters they had there. Then below she finally, after looking all day long, found her balloons. Withing one minute of getting on the road when leaving the grounds she was sound asleep. Can't wait to take my son withe me in the future!

Farm Science Review

First time for my daughter to come

Fourth cutting done and now, more rain.

Well, I mowed all the fourth cut down last Tuesday and Wednesday in the hopes of getting dry square bales to sell.  Mother nature however decided that was not to be the case.  After three days of cloudy cool weather I decided to just roll it up into round bales and make silage hay.  Hopefully I can find some people in need of silage hay this winter.  Otherwise I will have enough to feed the cows for half of next year as well as this year!

As I write this it is raining again.  I get the feeling that this will continue through out the winter meaning constant battling of snow.  All in all it has been a productive year for growing hay, just not making it!

Also, we put Pig and Pig Pig into their pens Saturday.  They are very close to having babies and we are checking them often.  They are as comfortable as one could expect one to be when carrying up to 14 babies!  They seem like they are very very close.  We unfortunately do not have an exact due date because we didn't know they got bred.  However I know the week we weaned the piglets.  Five days after you wean the piglets the sow will come into heat.  Going by the latest date that they could have been bred under those conditions they would be due any minute now.  Most likely they will give birth in the next 24-48 hours. 

I am anxious to see what they look like this time as they are a cross between a hamp/duroc sow and a Tamworth boar.  Tamworth are very hardy and able to grow very readily in a pasture based setting.

Kenny

Fifty's little boy!

Well, she had two little girls, this year she had a boy.   He is quite big as well.  All black with a touch of bronze on his ears and a white spot on his belly button!

Final calf tally!

Well fifty had her calf sometime last night.  Didn't find out till I got home from work this morning.  She had a huge bull calf.  Black all but its belly button. 

So, finally tally for the year is 5 heifers and 2 bulls. 

I will post pics tomorrow if I get home to get them before dark.

Have a great day everyone!

Kenny

Extra parking

I have been dealing with a lack of parking and limited garage or barn access since we got a trailer last year.  Well after some thinking and a "duh" moment I realized I could just expand the driveway a little and have room for the trailer and still keep the garage and barn open for use.

So Alex and I spent a couple hours and cleaned up some stuff that has been sitting since spring and leveled off the area in question and moved some gravel around and ban, parking area!

Got new meats on the truck!!!

I mentioned in a previous post about delivering hay that I got stuck in a little wet grass because my highway tread tires couldn't get a grip!!  Well, that will no longer be a problem!

Got these at Terry's Tire Town in Alliance Ohio.  Very nice!  Can't wait till the neighbor chops silage and we get a little mud ... we are gonna have some serious fun!!!!!

Another pic of the newest baby.

First of all, I pose the question....why can't humans get along this well??

She was hiding pretty well but I found her today to make sure she was doing ok.

 Here is mom being very aware of what I am up to!

 At one point I got too close and she was ready to attack! 

 Time to eat!

That would be number 6!

Crazy B had her baby over night.  It is another little girl!

That makes 5 girls and one boy!

Picks of the cows!

I was out looking for a new calf today.  I am positive that Crazy B*tch, yes that is her name for a good reason, had her calf.  However, beef cows are very good at hiding their babies!

So while I was already out there I decided to take a few pics.

The first pic is the two new angus heifers....Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Then Prairie Fire.

Fifty (laying down) and our bull, Thunder.

Fifty's calf Precious.

And Frosty, who was Sally's first calf.

Lastly, I started feeding silage bales....mmmmm they smell so good!