Well I have been planning our customer party for almost two months now and I planned it around having baby piglets and calves for everyone to see. As of Saturday morning I didn't have any new baby pigs or cows and I was starting to get depressed because I wanted to have them for the kids to see.
So, Saturday I am busying myself with cleaning and preparing for the party and the neighbor stopped to get my trailer and my bale spear to gather the round bales I had baled for him on Friday night. I go down to the barn area to finish picking up litter and help him load up and his youngest son comes over and asks how long has Marshmallow been having piglets. I said she isn't yet. He replies "Well she has a black piglet and a red piglet in with her"! So I run in and sure enough she has started. It took her only a couple of hours to have them all.
Daisy jumped right in as midwife again and cleaned them up and nuzzled them around to get them all going.
Here is a pic of them when she was all done. She had 13. Unfortunately she lost 4 from laying/stepping on them and one was still born. Out of the 8 left we sent one to a family who wanted a baby piglet to bottle feed because it was very tiny and would not have made it competing with all bigger ones from Mallory's litter.
So, after all the excitement of the new piglets waned off we continued preparing for the party. We worked pretty late to get done what I could and then headed to bed.
Bright and early Sunday morning we got up and got breakfast and then the kids and I headed out to check the baby piglets and check the cows. As we headed out to the pasture I noticed something was up because only three of the cows were across the creek in the new pasture and everyone else was up around the barn. As we were going up the alleyway I saw Legacy, then Pearl, then another pearl ... wait, what!?? That is the exact moment that the new momma, Frosty, realized I saw her new calf and came running. So, the kids and I zipped along the stream and into the lot to see the new calf. It is a bull!! So, due to all the noise the rest of the heard comes on over and I see what is up. He is maybe a couple of hours old cause he is all dried off and able to walk.
So I get a couple of good pics to show my wife and make sure he is ok. As I am doing this I see Chilli walk by and she looks different.
So I start looking around where we are and she walks right past us and over to her new calf just a few feet from where we stopped. It was all curled up and I didn't even see it in the tall grass as I was looking at Frosty's new calf. So I rush over to check it out. It is another bull!!! It was maybe 20-30 minutes old because she had him licked clean but he was still wet and was able to stand but not walk yet.
It is really awesome that we had two bulls so far. We will steer them and raise them for meat!! I hope we get two more so I do not have to buy any more bull calves to raise. We are definitely on the right track this year!
Here was a pic I snapped of everyone as I headed back to the house. It is always fun to watch the herd welcome a new calf. You can see 50 in the left of the picture on her way over to see the newcomers. Notice she is not in a hurry. She is a pro at this now and only gets excited about new feed!!
Now that I have all my babies for the party I headed to pick up the cake. My wife had it made up special for the party. You will notice she has the American version of the meat cuts for the beef and pork and also the Japanese cuts for the beef. I took this picture as soon as I got it home.
I didn't get any pictures during the party as I was quite busy. So anyone who did please send them to me and I will post them!! I especially want one of the cake before we cut it. Just as my wife was explaining all the cuts to everyone my son walked up to the cake and stuck his finger right into the ham on the pig and sampled the icing!! It drew a big laugh and then we all had some great cake!
After the party was over and everything was cleaned up thanks to some huge help from my buddy Keven, his girlfriend Kelly, and our friend Tim, we enjoyed the campfire for a while and then the last of everyone headed home. We were all exhausted but it was an awesome time!!!
For those who didn't make it let me give you what was on the menu. My wife did all the cooking and still amazes me with how good she is!
Slow cooked Beef Brisket
Slow cooked Pork Shoulder Roast
My wife's special carrots
Green Beans with onions and almond slices
Macaroni and Cheese
Salad
Jalapeno jelly, cream cheese, and crackers on all the tables for snacks.
Tea, pop, lemonade
Cake
Moving on. I have been wanting to get a bigger mower for the farm for a while now. We bought our first one in 2005 the year after we moved in and at the time it was all we could afford. It was better than the push mower by leaps and bounds but was still a little small for the size lawn we have. Recently, one of my friends, and customers, called asking about mowers and by the end of the conversation I offered mine to him. He checked it out at the party and decided to get it for his house so he could quit push mowing and I we out Monday to get the one I have always wanted.
It is a 50". The old one was 42" We have some slopes and some rough areas in the lawn and the bigger wheels and wider deck really make quick work of it. My original time with my dads old rider and the push mower was 5.5 hours to mow. The 42" took that time down to 1.5 hours. The 50" took that time down to a respectable 50 minutes!!!
Now, if you noticed in the picture above, the truck is hooked to the cattle trailer. This is because I had to take two steers to the butcher on Monday. I had just unloaded the mowers and hooked up when I took the picture. In the morning before going to get the new mower I found all the cows in the barn. So I gave them a treat and shut the gates to sort them out to load the two I needed. While penning them up the bigger one of the two I sent to the butcher caught me off guard and kicked me square in the side of the knee. I was lucky enough to see it coming and took the weight off my leg and it didn't break anything. I did however experience some serious pain and have been limping all week. My knee swelled up pretty bad and turned mostly black. Now I will be even more careful when I am sorting and I am even more determined to get the new barn built to sort cows without this happening.
A couple of quick pics of the two new calves on Tuesday.
Yesterday we got some very much needed rain. Last year I couldn't get three days in a row of sun to make good hay and this year we hadn't gotten rained out at work this year till yesterday. So, since I had some good rain already in the soil and more on the way I hurried up and got the fertilizer and lime for the fields and got it applied just in time for the last of the rain to melt it into the soil. It should make some great 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cutting!
The fertilizer place has several bulk spreaders and tarps for on top to keep the rain out. Made easy work of it. Cab was worth every penny I paid for it Friday as Daisy and I stayed perfectly dry and warm while fertilizing in the rain!
Lastly, we had a beautifully sunny, yet chilly day today. I also had a very good college friend come up from Columbus for some more meat and to visit. So I built a fire and we had dinner and had some great time catching up and making s'mores with the kids. This pic was taken while I was waiting for him to arrive. Notice daisy enjoying the sun and the fire at the same time. It was just one of those days. It is nice to have one once in a while where you don't really do much other than enjoy family and friends!
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