The best feeling in the world.

I just want to put up a quick post tonight.  I have been up quite a while for snow but this is important so I want to share it.  I came home from a 13 hour shift at work and checked all the pigs.  All the babies were fine and doing great so I went out and got the feed out for everyone and went back in the barn to feed.  As soon as I came back in the barn from feeding the boar I looked in the pens and saw the biggest piglet from Lady's litter sprawled out like he was dead......I panicked.   I jumped in the pen and scooped him up.  He was alive but barely.  He was obviously laid on by one of the sows while they were feeding babies and was about to pass away.

So, my training and research kicked in and I checked for a heart beat.....he still had one.  He was trying to breath but couldn't.  So I wrapped my hands tight around his mouth to make a cone and blew into my hands re-inflating his lungs.  I had to do this several times till he started breathing on his own again.  Once he started breathing I laid him under the heat lamps and left him alone for a while.  I have read that a small funnel works much much better.  I will be getting one next time I am at the store!

My wife just went out and checked on him and he is up and running around like nothing happened!!!!  That is an awesome feeling knowing that his life was not wasted and he will grow to lead a purposeful life!

Have a great night everyone.....off to bed for a quick nap before heading back to work for snow!

Kenny

Baby pigs, making snow, and removing snow!!!

I was fortunate enough this round to have backup for birthing of the piglets.  Stevens girlfriend Lea was home for the holidays and helped me and Steven out a lot by bottle feeding the smallest piglet for a couple days as well as being there while she was giving birth and we were both working.  My wife also helped out a lot this time as well.   

Lady had her litter right on her due date and had 11 very healthy piglets.  Unfortunately one got laid on a couple days later by Berky during the -12 degree cold we had last week.  She didn't do it on purpose as she simply laid down with Lady to give Daisy pig some room as she was close to having hers and didn't want any company and the little one was hiding in the straw instead of being in the hot box with the rest.

Berkshire x Tamworth cross piglets eating.  

Daisy Pig had her litter on Thursday morning.  She had an unbelievable 17 total.  However, she started after I went to work and before my wife got up and she apparently had some issues and there were only 10 live ones at the end.  The smallest also passed away last night leaving just 9.  However, she is feeding those 9 the milk for 17 so they are gonna grow very fast.   Also, if you notice, Daisy is watching Daisy Pig who is peaking into the hot box to spy on her little ones.  Daisy is such a huge help with the baby piglets that I do not know what we would do without her.  Within seconds of a piglet popping out she is cleaning it off and getting it up and moving around.  She has actually saved many of them by licking them and getting them breathing and moving around where as they might not have started breathing without the extra stimulation!

Daisy and Daisy Pig later in the day after birthing was finished.

Here is a picture of all the babies piled up together during the cold weather right after birth.  With all the heat lamps it was a toasty 85-90 degrees in there napping area and a chilly 5 degrees outside of the hot box.  If you look closely at the picture you can pick out the piglets that Daisy Pig had.  They are either belted or have a solid golden brown color.  She is a Duroc Hampshire cross and Red balls is full blooded Tamworth.

The belted and brown piglets are out of Daisy Pig

So, as I have said before I do snow removal for the company I work for.  Last winter I went from pushing snow to managing it.  I was looking forward to the challenge.  There are days where I miss being able to just come to work and plow.  Well, I now have a backup manager who I am training to do what I do so we can get a break during the long events.  We were down several people last night so my counter part continued to manage and I got to run one of the new Kage skid steer plows that we have.  This thing is awesome!!!  It converts from a straight blade to a pusher box in seconds just by curling into a couple of hooks with the brackets you see in the pic on the top of the blade.  So, you get the benefit of a pusher box and a plow all in the same unit.  I was able to do the same property that took me 4 hours with a truck in 2.75 hours with this unit on a one speed skid steer!  It was so relaxing to just zone out and push!!!

Plowing snow with a Kage Plow

Now, as I have also mentioned before I work for a very diverse group of very unique customers.  I have one who loves, absolutely loves to ski and hunt.  He also happens to be a neighbor of mine for many many years.  So when he asked if we could help him make snow on his private ski slope during the winter I was happy to help out.  Now, the colder it gets the easier it is to make snow and the more snow you can make with the same amount of water.  I wanted to show the results of just one night of running the snow cannons on the hill during below zero weather.  It piles up very fast.   The piles would have been even more enormous if we hadn't had sustained 20-30 mph winds for the first two days of snow making.  This was one of the medium piles, we had a 10 more similar to size with this as well as one that was about 25' tall!

Steven and Daisy checking out one of the snow piles we made.

Last week at this time it was about 45-50 degrees.  Then, without 48 hours it went down to -12 here at the barn.  Now we are back up to 50 again today and they are calling for another blast of arctic cold later this week......when is summer coming back????!!!!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I am headed out to clean the barn and get something accomplished today!  Talk to everyone soon!

Happy New Year

I wanted to say happy new year to everyone today!!  I am getting ready to go finish up a little bit of work for the neighbor and then take a nap before the big snow storm hits tonight.  

Our herd check went awesome on Monday.  It was so much easier and we were able to go through all 31 head of cows and calves in 2 hours from start to finish.  Last year it took 2.75hrs to check 27.   I was also very excited to find that we have a 100% conception rate this year!!!!!  That is right, we will be having 14 new calves here on the farm as well as one in Montana this year.  My daughter's calf, Princess, will be having her first calf this year as well! 

As I was finishing up the last round of chores for 2013 I was thinking about what all we have accomplished throughout the last year as well as our losses this year.  We lost my grandfather this summer whom I have spent a lot of time with from the day I was born.  I have many fond memories of him and will always have them.  Just like when I have lost other family members in the past, something will happen that is great or we accomplish something that we have been working toward and my first thought is "wow, I can't wait to tell Grandpa".  Then reality sets in and I go through the summers events all over again in my head.  Sometimes I wish I could find a way to erase some of those memories but fear that if I ever did I would lose all the good ones that came with them.  So, instead I try to think of all the good times we had with those we love and how not to waste precious time with others in the future.  I try to make the most of every waking moment so I never have to look back and say "man I wish I hadn't wasted that time".  

This brings me to our accomplishments this year here on the farm.  We finally reached a milestone that I was looking forward to crossing at this time last year and have been planning toward since starting the beef portion of our farming business many years ago.  Our beef production is going to an entirely new level this year.  I have always wanted to have my own herd of cattle and I have finally achieved this.  We purchased two more Momma cows this year and with the heifers added that were born here on the farm we now have 14 breeding age cows and 3 more heifers were born this year bringing us to a total of 17 females.  I will be splitting the herd this summer for breeding purposes so I can breed all the younger stock to my full blooded Black Angus Bull Erica's Legacy, or as you all know him Legacy!  After summer is over I will put them all back together for the winter season for ease of feeding over the winter.  We had many bulls born this year which we steered during the herd check yesterday.  This will allow us to offer more beef for sale starting in 2015. 

 We also finally got my new cow shed / corral built short of having a roof.  It is so wonderful to be able to clean the barn without having to deal with mud!  Now if I can just get the roof done it will be perfect!.  

Our pork production portion of the farm is running smoothly now as well.  Now that I have solid numbers to work with to make decisions from I have reduced our sows down to the three best and sold the rest.  This allows me to produce my own piglets here on the farm and know where they came from and have the breeding I want as well as not have to worry about disease being brought here from elsewhere!  I also was able to concrete all the pig shed pens as well as a pad outside the shed to limit the mud and give them access to the waterer without having to go in the mud!

I am looking forward to growing our business to the next level starting today.  We have set some strong goals for the farm and I am pushing to reach them.  We want the farm to start paying for itself completely and pay me back for all the hard work and money we have put in it to get it going!  We are close....so very close.

I have so many things I would like to discuss tonight but I must keep moving if I am to sleep at all before the snow gets here.  Here is my final picture from 2013.  This made me think about how winter brings an ending and a new beginning.  It forces us to stop, think, asses, and change.  This is one good thing winter does.  You don't have a choice!  If you look into the pasture you see the results of last year as well as the potential next year holds!  Learn and move on.  When I look into my pasture I see all my mistakes and my successes right before me.  I wish everyone would look into their pasture and do the same.  Everyone has one they just need to know where to look and it may not always contain cows.  Mine has animals, equipment, two kids, a wife, and a family.

So, I wish everyone a wonderful new year and may you look into your pasture and be as happy as I am right now!

Happy New Year everyone!

Kenny

No more feeding in the dark!!!

I have had a light at the peak of the barn since I started working on it several years ago.  However, I installed the feed bin for the pig feed a little over a year ago and never gave thought to the fact that it was always dark out there, until the one night when the neighbors security light was off.  Then it was extremely dark because the front light on the barn was burnt out as well!  I decided to add a light on the side where the feed bin is at but needed a new way to switch all the lights on and off for the original barn because once I filled it with hay I couldn't access the switch I installed when I first started remodeling it.

The answer ... put a new weather proof switch on the front of the barn.  Easily accessible while walking to the feed bin and easily accessible when headed into the barn because it is located on the corner of the barn between the man door and the feed bin.  

Next step is to reside the barn and put new windows in it where needed.  The existing siding is tongue and groove  boards and has seen many better days.  Not to mention Red Balls, the Boar, ripped a bunch of the siding off the west end of the barn one day while grumpy because he couldn't get to his women when he wanted to!

Another addition, all though temporary, was to add a light to the south end of the barn to light up the cow shed area.  Once I get a roof on the shed portion I will add another row of lights to light it all up and move the temporary light to the southernmost portion of the barn to light up the rest of the corral / feeding area.  I took the picture with the light behind one of the pole so you can see what it is lighting up.  I only had one of two bulbs installed in the fixture for the picture since one of them was broken when I removed it from the package.

There are some other wiring items you cannot see in the pictures.  First of all, when I installed the pig waterer a couple of years ago I installed water and electric lines from the house to the waterer.  I also installed a conduit from the pig waterer to the barn to tie it in at a later date.  Today was that later date!  I have a 20 amp circuit that I have been feeding all the electric to the barn with since I started this project.  When I just had lights this was not a problem.  However, with the addition of fans and the feed bin I was pushing my luck.  Every time I would turn on the feed bin the lights would dim.  I have another 20 amp circuit running from the house to the pig waterer.  Today I tied that circuit into the barn and split the wiring in the barn into two sections.  The old barn and feed bin are still on the original circuit from the garage.  The pig shed and cow shed are both now running on the circuit that feeds the pig waterer.

There are two bonuses to the having the pig and cow sheds tied into that circuit is the breaker that monitors that line is a GFIC breaker.  Because it is directly connected to the waterer, which in turn is tied into the water of our house, I wanted it protected against any electrical fault.  It takes very little electric to actual kill an animal or human and this protects that from happening.  The other bonus is that if the shed lights do not turn on I know the breaker tripped.  This would have been helpful earlier this winter when the breaker tripped and the pig waterer froze up because the heater was not working.

Another thing you cannot tell in the pictures is that I have converted all but two lights over to Florescent bulbs from standard incandescent.  This allows me to have room to safely run the heat lamps in the winter for the babies and to run the fans in the summer to cool the barn without having to worry about over loading the system.  It also saves energy and money!  I will convert over one of the two remaining bulbs once I get back to the store.  The final one will not be done for a while because it is a big flood light that I put on the backside of the barn and it lights up a huge area.  I will most likely move it to the south side of the cow shed when I get the roof completed and put the temporary lights I have there now in its place on the west side because I need light more on the south side.  Eventually, down the road a few years, I plan to build a shop down by the barn to keep the tractor in and to work on equipment.  When I do this I will run a new power supply to the new shop and feed the barn off of that supply so I can add a couple of huge floods to light up the pasture around the barn for emergency use if needed.  Plus it would be nice to have the light if I need to load animals at night or when I am wrapping hay in the spring and summer!

Herd check in the morning and I am exhausted.  Plus I need to get up early to feed the cows and pen them in before the vet gets here so I am going to bed early tonight.  Hope it doesn't snow and mess everything up by me having to go to work!

Talk to you tomorrow everyone!

Kenny

Built in cattle chute almost complete and a mini vacation!!!

Last year we started a new family tradition.  Between Christmas and New Years we decided to take the kids for a one night mini vacation to a hotel with a pool.  Last year was a nice break but there was not much for them to do with a normal pool and no hot tub for me!  So this year my wife found an awesome deal in Sandusky Ohio at Maui Sands Resort.  The this picture is the view from our room of the pools.  It was fun and we all had a great time!  Wonderful break to have to try to forget about winter for a little bit.  

Maui Sands Resort

 So, yesterday was my first actual productive day working on my winter break list.  It was also a phenomenally beautiful day!  Bright sun all day with zero clouds, 45 degrees out and no wind.  I got the barn all cleaned and spread on the field and after bedding I went to work on finishing up the gates and stuff to prepare for the herd check on Monday.  Here is a picture from up high looking down on the corral so you can see how it is set up to be able to catch the cows.

I grew up on a dairy farm and one of my first jobs was bringing the cows in to milk.  You can chase a dairy cow any where you want.  I quickly found out after starting to raise beef cows that they are very different from dairy cows in more ways than I thought.  One of the most important is that they will not be chased.  Instead you have to get them to want to go where you want them at.  So, I have gotten very good at getting them to be where I want them when I want them there!

To do this I will start a week or so ahead of time putting the gates how I need them to be able to quickly close them in without them knowing what is going on.  So starting last week I have been keeping the gates where I need them so they get used to them being there.  Then after I finished bedding the corral and putting hay in the feeder I set chained the other big gate to it so that they now have a narrow tunnel to get in and out of the corral.  I will let them eat all the hay today and tomorrow morning early I will put a new bale in the bunk feeder so they will be distracted when I go around the other way to shut the gate for the exit to the corral.

Corral set up to catch the cows for the herd check.  

Once I have them in and penned up I then shut them into the area you see gated in below.  This is the section that leads into the built in chute along the pig shed wall.  After I have some of the cows done and there is not that many left I will shut the cows into a smaller area, and then smaller and smaller until they all go through the chute to the headlock.

Corral showing the gates making a holding pen to send cows through the chute.

 Here is a picture of the headlock with the exit gate open so the cattle can exit after being checked and vaccinated.  Before the headlock was on the pig shed wall and the cows had to stick their heads in the pig pen and then after being checked had to back out of the headlock and turn around to leave.  If you look closely at the top of the headlock you will notice that I added a door spring to the handle.  I was having problems in the past with the latch not catching.  This will make sure that doesn't happen again.  I will take pictures of it from the view of where the vet will be standing so you can see how I have it set up better.  

Built in headlock for the cattle chute.

I also had a chance to take a pic the other day of the area I graded out for a future loafing pad and manure storage pad.  To the left are the pig lots.  To the right is where I am planning on extending the corral fence out so the cows have to come up where I am standing to get to the shed.  This will keep them from eroding the hillside down so I can keep this area flat.  I also plan on creating a buffer strip along the right hand side of this picture on the hill so that any manure runoff or water run off will be caught by the plants there and turned into feed for the animals instead of turning into pollution.  I haven't decided what I am going to grow there yet but whatever it is it will be much better than the mud that I have now! 

In addition to a Manure storage pad I also mentioned a loafing pad.  When the weather is bad and the pasture is pure mud I would like the option of keeping the cows on a concrete pad so that they do not completely destroy the pasture and make more mud.  This would only be after extremely heavy rains or during a thawing period in the early spring where everything is very very wet and muddy.  I doubt I would ever have to pen them up as they usually do not leave the barn area when really muddy other than to get a drink.  So, to make this an option I would also need to install a waterer for the cows to drink from so they can get a drink without going clear to the creek during bad weather.   

Future loafing pad and manure storage.  

Well, hopefully we don't get a lot of rain today.  I would like to work on some wiring in the barn.  I am going to head out and see if I can mark off another item on my list of to do items.  Talk to you all Monday night after the herd check is done!!!

Kenny

Happy Holidays and a couple pictures of my BULL DOZER fun!

So, I finally got a few days off from work.  I actually was supposed to have two full weeks but due to snow I am not really getting off what I had scheduled but still any time to get something done at home is good!!!

I decided that since the weather was going to be warm for a few days I wanted to get some grading work done so I rented a small Dozer and brought it home with my newly fixed truck and trailer!

I didn't have time to get a pic today of the area I graded out for future manure storage because I spent most of my day back at work doing snow removal.  I was able to get some pics the other day before the weather went back to snow of just some of the items I did get done.  I started clearing off about 3 acres of ground across the road from the house shortly after purchasing the farm.  I finished my grading work at the barn in about 1/4 the time I thought it would take so I had a lot of left over time to spend with the dozer.  So I decided to go start the final phase of my clearing project.  I had not initially planned on doing this much.  I simply headed over to push up the burn pile and clean up the edges.....and then I didn't stop.....and kept going and going till I had pushed as much as the small dozer would push and then moved on.

These two pictures are from on top of the hill looking down.  This entire area used to be fields.  Then, about 50 years ago the previous owner decided to plant locust trees for use as fence posts.  However, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry!"  After some time the trees got out of hand and the entire area became over grown and just useless woods that had no good trees or usefulness as habitat or as production either one.  So I want to take it back to use as a field.  I am keeping the rest of my woods as woodland area.  I am working to control all the invasive grape vines and such while helping the trees I want to grow do better.  I also am trying to conserve habitat for all the flora and fauna that may want to dwell there.

Here is a picture looking up from the bottom.  It was too late in the day to get a good pic because the sun was getting quite low.  Next week I will go up on the top of the hill and take a better picture and get some pics of the other stuff I worked on over the weekend.   I managed to also clean up a bunch of stuff at my dads farm where he lives as well as clear another 4-5 acres of ground on another farm of his that he wants to start farming again.  It is another area that once was cleared more than a century ago and over time got let go and grew back up in junk trees and scrub brush.  Over the next two to three years, depending on how things go, we are hoping to recover another 10 - 15 acres of crop ground as well as get some pasture ground back that he used to use till just after I was born.  Lastly, I also managed to clean up my pasture a little bit on the other side of the creek.  This was just a bunch of junk trees in an old fence row as well as a bunch of junk from the previous owner as well as a lot of trees I cut down in the past but didn't get cleaned up.  I will be having lots and lots of bonfires this coming spring!!!  Looking forward to some great warm nights by the fire drinking beer with some good friends and family!

Before the ground froze back up my buddy brought his play vehicle down to run it around in the corn field for fun.  After a couple of rounds I decided I wanted to test out my new tires on the truck.  I soon found out they do not have quite the bite as my previous set in the sloppy mud but are much cheaper, ride nicer, and still get it in the mud they just need a little more throttle!!  Well, shortly after my buddy Willy and I took to the field, our other buddy Jessie, who came with Willy and is also his house mate, took the play toy out to play some more.  Unbeknownst to him, I snuck up behind him and when we spun into a 360 so did I.  What I didn't know is that he had his drivers side window down!!!!   If you look closely at his forehead you will notice I got him right between the eyes with a big glob of mud....hehehe.  He kept it closed the rest of the day.

I cleaned the barn the other day as well.  I have never really had the cows spend much time up at the barn.  They have always spread out in the pasture.  So I was quite surprised when as soon as I got the barn bedded after cleaning it the cows began laying down all over the new pad and bedding.  I think that they are enjoying it because it is firm and dry compared to the very muddy and wet pasture right now.  Unfortunately, because the roof is not on yet, every time it rains it all falls off the pig shed roof and lands right on the fresh bedding and makes a heck of a mess.  So this nice dry bedding only lasted about two days.  I will clean it again next weekend before the herd check so they are comfy and dry when the vet gets here.

The cows enjoying their fresh corn stubble bedding.

I also managed to get another of the wooden gates built for the cattle chute.  One more and I will be done with that part of the renovation.  There is still one more set of gate hinges to install but they can wait till warm dry weather next year so I can do it right.  I also still have a bunch of posts to install out in the pasture going from the new pad due west along the edge of the newly graded area.  I am hoping it freezes up so I can get in again with the tractor and drill the post holes and get the rails up.  I want to keep the cows from walking over the bank and working the dirt down over the hill.  Hopefully by spring the entire area down hill from the feeding pad / cow shed will be fenced off and I can keep the cows out of the area during muddy weather.  I want to use the area as a filter strip for any runoff from the pad to capture any nutrients that run off due to rain and turn it into a food crop for the cattle and pigs.

If anyone is not busy next week and wants something to do just give me a ring and come on out!  I have plenty to keep you busy.  Hopefully I get it all done soon so I can relax at least one or two days this winter before I start into the spring grind!

As I write this the kids are going nuts watching Santa come on NORAD Santa online.  I remember as a kid when my only update was from the 6pm news and 11pm news.  If you saw the 11pm report that meant your barn work wasn't done quick enough and you better be getting to bed quickly!!

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season, whatever you celebrate and however you celebrate it!  The main thing is to spend time with all your loved ones when ever you can cause you never know when they may not be here to do so again.  Also, for anyone who gets upset about having to work on a holiday or about traffic or whatever is bothering you.  Remember that you will always find someone who has much worse problems or has to work much more that day, or may not even have the option to be upset about missing some of the day with their family because they cannot come home at all.

Happy Holidays everyone.  I will be sure to get up my annual New Years Post next week!

Kenny

Some more cool project pics from work!!

We are trying to wrap up some of our big projects before the winter is fully set in.  Some of the things we can do at this time of year include planting trees.  I have been working for a customer who also happens to be a neighbor of mine.  He wanted a screening planting to block the view of houses in the valley and to create a natural area for deer and other wildlife to congregate.  I am hoping to add some other trees to the planting later this winter like fruit trees and such for food!

Here is another view from back at the cabin looking south toward the valley.

We added some beautiful river birch to screen the building that houses snow making equipment.

We finally have a complete fire pit.  It includes a natural gas log starter in the bottom for very easy camp fires very similar to the one I have here at home but much larger.  The pit doesn't look that big in this photo because there is no real frame of reference.

Here is a picture with the gas on.  If you look closely at the pic above you will see some smoldering logs.  I turned the gas on so you can see how much flame it gives off.  Pretty awesome!  I also had my daughter get in the photo for a size reference.  The fire pit is 10 feet outside diameter.  All the stones to build it were hand chiseled just like the back patio and the patio around the pit.  Next year when everything is finished I will add some more photos with the green grass showing.

Have a great day everyone!   Hope you like the pics.  Would love to build this for you!

Kenny