Monday February 26th, last week was a busy one with funerals and the farm work, then to end the week I was not feeling the best, which did not help matters.

On Friday, even though I wasn’t feeling well,  knowing my boots were on their way had me excited like a kid at Christmas time. I had to go out into the field and take hay to the cows, but while I was getting the tractor and the hay bale ready the UPS truck pulled in the driveway. I immediately drove the tractor up to the house and hopped down to see if it was my boots. I found the wonderful amazon box sitting by the front door. I couldn’t contain my excitement. I immediately opened the box and put the boots on. Of course, only after taking my grocery bags. We proceeded to have a little photo shoot.

Over the weekend, I put them to the test. I went through mud and muck and came out with clean socks. Kassy the Homesteading Momma was so happy. The boys went fishing at the pond and after chores, Kassy and I joined them. The boys caught a lot of fish, thirteen in total. Although the fish were small still, it was a lot of fun watching the boys reel each one in. I even caught my first fish on our farm since we moved here, and I am pretty sure it was the biggest! 🙂 (fish tales) CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES

A little pig update, our runt passed away which just added to the sadness on the farm with the funerals. The four remaining male piglets are growing fast and are healthy.  We had to castrate the piglets this weekend. We normally try to do it earlier in their life, however, with funerals and other activities taking us away from the farm we got to it a little late. Some suggest you castrate at 3 days of age while some say 2 weeks. We try to fall somewhere in that time period. We do always give them the first fews days to a week to be sure they have had plenty of time to nurse and get all the colostrum for their immune system. It went well. Penelope did get a little upset when she heard her piglets squealing. It is safe and best if you separate momma away from the piglets in another stall. Plus take the piglets out of sight of momma. No matter how well you follow those suggestions, it is still a little stressful on the pigs and you. It’s not a fun process but necessary to control breeding.

Our cows were moved to our South East Paddock to continue their daily rotation. It was a fairly smooth transition. Our fields are still in poor shape from the years of continual grazing before we took ownership. We are seeing some progress but it is slow. All that to say we had to do a little bush hogging to get rid of some briar patches before moving the cows over. The cows are happy, which makes for happy farmers.  We are still supplementing their grazing with some hay. We roll out a bale of hay over the area daily, which definitely gets them excited. Our hopes is that the hay and the manure from the cows will go a long way in revitalizing our fields. Again we have to keep in mind the long term vision. It is a little frustrating having to wait, but the land wasn’t stripped down to its condition overnight so it won’t be repaired overnight. Ya know the saying…. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Well, a good field was not built overnight.

Well, till next time. Get in the Dirt & Get Growing!!!

Kyle – a bearded farmer