Monday February 11, today we let the boys sleep in a little while. They enjoyed that, the only thing they dislike about it is that it puts them doing their school work later in the day when they are usually playing. They will learn, it’s better to rise early than sleep in or at least I hope they will.
A piglet update, Little Scappy didn’t make it. Most likely momma accidentally laid on him during the night. It is a truly sad event when one of our livestock dies, so today has been a little heavy and well marked by all the rain. The remaining 5 piglets seem to happy and healthy. This is Penelope’s first time being a mom and she is learning. We believe she will get the hang of it. She is a really good pig and great with our kids.
The cows have stayed in there paddock all day. No escapes or visits from the neighbors bull. It is time to let Daisy be bred back. I am working out the logistics of how to get her and our bull Oreo together without making it to difficult on the milking process. The way it is right now, I have Daisy and Poppy in their own paddock close to the house away from the beef herd. I am able to quickly go out at night and put Daisy and Poppy up and keep them separated so I can milk in the morning. The options that I am looking at are:
Option 1 – After I milk in the morning, I could take Daisy down to the beef herd and let her stay with them til noon leaving Poppy in the paddock by the house. Then at noon I would bring Daisy back up to Poppy so he can nurse before being separated at night.
Option 2 – I can let Daisy and Poppy join the beef herd and bring just Daisy back up to the stall at night to separate Daisy and Poppy so I can milk first thing in the morning. Of course after milking I would take Daisy back to Poppy and the herd.
Option 3 – I could let Daisy and Poppy join the beef herd and not milk til I believe she is bred. Then I could bring them back up to the separate paddock.
Option 4 – Bring Oreo up to Daisy and Poppy.
I think options 3 and 4 are already cancelled but options 1 & 2 I am still debating. The thing I like about option 2 is that I would not have to necessarily stall Daisy at night. I could let her have run of the paddock which I think she would like. Also that would make the chore of cleaning out her stall go away. I don’t know. We shall see.
Our chickens are starting to spread out some of the wood chips. For a while all the wood chips were frozen but now they are not. The rain and a little bit of warmer weather has let earthworms start coming up. The chickens have been having a feeding frenzy. Kassy and I took time last night before all the chickens went up in the coop, when most people are inside watching TV, to just watch them feed and their social interactions. It is always fascinating. Kassy was telling me which ones she thought looked the prettiest and I of course kept pointing out the size of the worms they ate. It was one of the really enjoyable moments as a farmer and a husband to spend time together. It was not much time and we didn’t do anything big or special but it meant a lot to me to have my wife at my side just spending time together.
Just an FYI, I still have not ordered my boots.
Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!
Kyle – a bearded farmer
Sunday February 11, just wanted to give a quick update on the piglets. They are healthy and looking stronger. Little Scappy is doing well. You can tell he is still sore but he is moving around with the other piglets. 
On a personal note, I used the rainy day yesterday (well the afternoon at least) to start building Kassy the Homesteading Momma her on kraft desk. I was able to finish the framing. Now I just have to put the top on it then she will take over and paint the legs and stain the top. I know it is a long way from the Studio/Farm store I want to build her but at last she will have a place she can keep her craft stuff out as she works on it. No more having to put up the supplies midway through a craft so we can eat dinner on the kitchen table.
Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!
Saturday February 10, this morning we had Piglets born. If you remember back in Day 2 of our “A Bearded Farm Journal,” we bred Penelope on October 18th and the pig math worked out to piglets arriving today. It worked. She had a litter of 7 piglets. Praise the Lord! It was dark this morning so we didn’t inspect them to close. It being Penelope’s first litter, we knew it would be a small one. Normally, pigs can have up to 12-15 piglets. Our old sow would have about 15 at a time. We went on to the rest of the chores.
After getting the cows put back up, we decided to do a closer inspection of the piglets since the sun was up. We found all the piglets are white(that’s the Landrace coming through). The sad thing is that we found one piglet that didn’t make it. We think Penelope might have laid on it by accident. This is typical with pigs, especially in first – time mothers, but we are hopeful that she is going to figure this mothering thing out! The other thing we found is that one had a pretty bad laceration on his shoulder. Fortunately, my brother who is a nurse by day (farmer by night) was able to get the shoulder sewed up and he seems to be doing okay. 
