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
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. 
Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!
Wednesday February 7th, this morning was rainy and muddy plus I was running behind so I let Poppy get all the milk today. I have to milk tomorrow no question! We are about out of milk. Talking about the rain and mud, I still have not pulled the trigger on getting new boots. The grocery bags are still here for the time being. LOL. Maybe I will place the order today. 
Yesterday, we were able to get Penelope moved to her new spot. She was happy to get a nice roof and stall filled with hay to nest in. We are ready for those babies which should be due any day now. I know I feel a lot better this year having her in an actual barn stall for the birth. We typically let the pigs birth in the field which works out great because they build their nest and we put a little hut over them to keep them dry. This time though we a trying to get piglets for early spring and the temperature can get pretty cold so we wanted her to have the best stall possible, especially since this is her first litter. I want to say thank you to my brother Brandon who helped me move her yesterday. Also, a thank you to Elijah (my eldest) who helped me move her water barrel and feed pan. 
One final note, our egg production is starting to go up. We don’t place any artificial light in the chicken mobile so winter time is there off season. The egg production was between 1-2 eggs daily but the days are getting longer and production has gone up to 4-7 eggs daily. As spring is quickly approaching, we hope production keeps going up.
Sunday February 4th, the past week has been very draining. On the farm we have a stomach bug that seems to be passing back and forth between the kids. It seems to be cycling through the kids, by the time one is starting to feel better the other kiddos are showing symptoms and then it repeats. It has been late nights, lots of essential oils, hot showers, and holding kids all night. Pray that the kids get better soon. With that said we have been happy just to get the basics done on the farm.
Monday December 18, today is Nehemiah’s birthday. He is turning 8 years old and is becoming an incredible young man. Happy birthday Nehemiah!!!
Moved chickens to garden area to do some prep. Our hope is they will till up our permanent beds a little then we will cover them to kill of the remaining weeds. Then they will move to where we will be spreading wood chips to have them help spread
