Christmas, new barn design, and piggy update!

 Another Christmas has passed here on the farm and everyone enjoyed their gifts and we all enjoyed some really good food!  It was nice to get to spend time with family and I am now partially off work till the third of January.

We had all the usual Christmas dinner foods this year but we added a new one to the table.  We have several beef briskets in the freezer so this year my wife wanted to have one for dinner.  She used a recipe she found on the food network page called "Beer, Ginger, and Garlic Braised Brisket".  It was phenomenal! Melted in your mouth. 

 

Here is the link to the recipe.  Well worth the prep time.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/beer-ginger-and-garlic-braised-brisket-recipe/index.html

 Next to enjoy his gift was our Donkey, Mario!  He got a new halter for Christmas.  His old one was getting pretty rough and my wife wanted to get him a new one and I put it on him Christmas eve.  He is finally starting to warm up to the pigs and hopefully in a few more weeks they will get along a lot better.  It took the cows almost three months before they would get along with the pigs and almost a year before they quit caring when the pigs were near.

Next a present from my wife to me.  She found a scale model of the Japanese version of my tractor here on the farm.  The numbering system is much different there as well as the fact they are called Kingwel.  They are still a Kubota but the high luxury package carries this name.  I haven't glued the mirrors on yet but the detail is pretty cool.  We found a few online when looking for some for the kids.  The detail on them is unbelievable and so is the price.  Unlike common american tractor brands, Kubota doesn't make many toys, they just make the real thing so you don't really find them very often.

 My wife has been wanting a small piano keyboard for years.  I was finally able to get her the one she wanted this year and she is thrilled!  She played it for quite a while after I got it all put together on its stand.  She need a little practice as she hasn't played in a long time but it was wonderful to hear some music even if it was rough!

Next, after my visit to the pig farm down south I had some big changes in mind for the future cow shed.  I wanted to get it on paper so last weekend I took a couple of hours and figured out the design and got it all drawn to scale and I am much much happier with this setup than the previous and light years better than the current!

 If you look at the full size picture you will notice the addition of a chute ally between the pig shed and cow shed.  This allows for me to use the gating setup like a crowding chute when doing herd checks, vaccinations, dewormings, and other needed herd maintenance on the pig of the cattle. The chute also doubles as a loading and unloading chute for the pigs or cattle.  Later on down the road I want to add a scale in this area to check weights on the animals to get better numbers on rate of gain and finish weights.
I also moved the feeder back to where it is currently located to allow for the addition of future manure storage strait south of the barn for quick cleaning even when the weather is bad!.  There is also an additional heavy use pad outside the pig barn that will eventually encompass the waterer to cut down on the soil disturbances and mud during the wet seasons like we have been having this year. 

I am so excited about this design I cannot contain it!  I have all the wood I need but that that is just a small portion of it.  I still need several truck loads of concrete, several buckets of screws, lot of help, and about 8 more gates!

Next we have a couple of pics of Mallory's piglets.  They are growing faster than any of the others previous litters we have had and I am really impressed.  If you go back to the post of them the day after they were born you will find a pic of my hand next to them for a size reference. 

I did the same thing again today and the change is amazing!  They are about 7-8 lbs. already and growing very well.  Very strong and well shaped pigs. 

 

We will be having three new litters in February.  One of these litters will be from Daisy pig.  It will be her first and I am anxious to see what they look like and how they perform as she is more Duroc than Hampshire. Mallory is more Hampshire and less Duroc.  We will also be breeding our new Berkshire late in the year and I am really pumped about that!

Well, I need to head back out to the barn.  The vet is due in soon and I need to get the gates setup and ready to go for when he gets here.  Lets hope for 100% pregnancy for everyone.  

Have a great day!

Kenny