Hurricane Farm

Last week, or sometime thereabouts, we had to load three of our hogs onto the trailer in order to take them to be processed.  As readers will recall, our first experience loading pigs, while perhaps comical, took WAY TOO LONG!  This time we had it all figured out, and for the most part, everyone involved cooperated with the plan.

First I had to back the trailer up to the barn and make a runway for the hogs.

Notice above how little clearance there is between the trailer gate and the door frame of the barn.  Now, I should have measured this all out when constructing the trailer gate, but that did not happen.  In fact, the gate was about an inch or two too high to fit into the barn. 

SOLUTION:  Pallets!

Backing the tractor up onto four pallets raised the tractor, thereby lowering the end of the trailer just enough to clear the door frame.  Yet another addition to the essential farm tools list:  pallets.

After getting the trailer where it needed to be, we set up a hog panel (a 16 foot long rigid wire fence section) and reinforced it with a couple of 2 x 4's to hold it in place.  We had a little step made out of a pallet for the hogs to use to walk right up onto the trailer.

All that was left was to "bait the trap," as it were.  We had restricted the feed intake of the pigs the previous night so as to be sure that they would be hungry enough to waltz right into the trailer.

Here I am opening up their pen and telling them to head down the center aisle.  I also reminded them to return their seats to their original upright position and to check the overhead compartments for bagage before exiting.

And there they go.  Right down the aisle, into the chute, and onto the trailer.  Pretty easy so far.  They were not wild about the step, but with a little coaxing and some pizza from Erica, they eventually took the plunge.

We got the first two into the trailer and they immediately started chowing down on the food piled up in there.  I put some wooden slats across the trailer so as to "lock" them towards the front while we tried to get the last pig on. 

Turns out we didn't need the slats, really.  After gorging themselves the two pigs decided on a nap.

Erica used some more of the pizza and some other tasty morsels to try to lure the final pig on.

We gave the pig about three hours waiting time, during which it decided to also take a nap.  Just not in the right location.

Eventually, the last one made its way onto the trailer.  Once they were all back together they ate, drank, and slept just like it was their new home.  This was a much more successful--and less time-consuming--adventure this time around!

Upon returning from a much anticipated and highly successful "boys only" camping trip with my son, Liev, to the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, we remarked that we still smelled the odor of the skunk that took up residence under the porch last week. 

You see, sometime over the weekend the skunk got into the cat food and "leaked" some of its skunk odor all over the place.  Yuck.  It seeped into the house, the outside boot-wiping carpet, and even my hat that was hanging nearby.

Naturally, the fresh air in the mountains helped to clear my nasal senses.  But they were all that much keener when I made it back to the farm.  The skunk must still be about, I thought.

Tonight, then, I noticed something rustling in the entryway near the cat food.  After locating the cat with a mini, pink mag-light, we all rushed back inside.  The skunk was afoot!

Liev and I grabbed our boots and hats (now skunk-free after a thorough washing!) and raced to the barn (out the skunk-free front door) to get our trusty "skunk catching trap."

This is my fourth skunk trapping, and it went pretty smoothly.  Violet had a friend over, so I had a nice little viewing audience cheering me (or the skunk?) on.

We set the trap, baited it with some wet cat food, positioned it about three feet from the little guy and in he walked!  Much easier than some of my earlier attempts which resulted in five or six "cat catchings" before the skunk finally waddled in.  I stood in the doorway and watched him circle the trap, smell the food, and walk right in.  SNAP!  He started eating the food right away, seemingly obvious to the predicament at hand.

Catching it, though, is the easy part.  Next one I must get to the trap and move it somewhere.  Tarps are used here, along with bailing twine and a poking stick.  Here I am ready to go take care of this task.

"1, 2, and 3!  Go, quick, while he's aiming away!"

It's just like wrapping a gift for someone's birthday, or even Christmas.  Remember to tuck in all the edges and get the wrapping ALL the way around the "package."  Erica helped me to get the bailing twine on, urging me not to "rustle him too much."

Anyone order a free-range skunk?

How about those bows!  Now THAT'S a great present.

Here are many of the long-awaited photos of our multi-day adventure in cattle moving.

My Dad helped lend a hand to add higher sides to the trailer.  We used 2 x 6 dimensional lumber and affixed it all with lag screws and carriage (how appropriate) bolts.

A close-up of my Dad working hard.  He most notably suggested that we add the upside down milk crate to the list of indispensible farm tools. 

But, of course, hard work calls for some well-deserved food!

After just a short rest, Dad volunteered to cook us some dinner.  What a nice house guest!  Wood-fired is the only way to go.  Those burgers are made of ground turkey (our own), eggs (our own), carrots, peas (our own), and some other various veggies.

After a night of wonderful food, we were back at it in the morning.  We had the trailer all backed up and ready to be loaded.  We used a couple of pallets as a step for the cattle to get into the trailer.

Here's Fuzzy thinking about it.

And here's Fuzzy inside.  Notice the short gate on the trailer. 

A little grain goes a long way with these guys.

A job well done!  Erica has a certain knack for luring animals into trailers, pick-up beds, down long corridors in the barn, etc.  I think it has to do with unwavering patience.

Ahhh.  But notice now that Fuzzy is no longer in the trailer.  He determined that the lush, green grass outside the trailer was more desirable than the remnants of grain on the trailer floor.  He hopped right out the back while we were starting to tow him away.  So now you can see that we had to build a gate--a much more secure gate--for the trailer.

A few more carriage bolts, some hinges, and two latches later...

This was our third and luckily final attempt at moving Fuzzy.  The trailer was all set and ready to haul.  If we were trying to catch turkeys, we'd have been champs!

Here he goes!

Success, take two!  Nothing is getting out of that gate.  A perfect system, so it seems.

Violet was equally impressed that Fuzzy was so eager to get back into the trailer from which he had fled just hours before.

And there we go, off the farm, down the road, and to the pasture.  It sure is fun driving on the road with a tractor!  On the way back I had Erica follow me in the car and check my speed.  At top speed I was cruising along at 9 miles per hour!  It seemed like 75, though, in the open tractor pulling that trailer.

There we go off road and down into our new pasture.  Violet brought some grain ("Just in case," she said).  Liev lost his shirt somewhere along the line.

One final alteration is still to be made on the trailer...It appears that the cattle can get their pesky little big heads through the sides.  They can barely get them back out, you know, with the horns and all.  I will have to fill in those spaces with some strapping or siding.

One thing that we hadn't counted on was Fuzzy's temperment.  He is normally so nice and calm and friendly.  He was pretty mad at us for the trailer ride, though.  Once he got off he just stormed away into the pasture grasses.  Not even a farewell "moo."

We have a 100 gallon watering trough in the field and we fill it from time to time with water from this little brook that runs adjacent to the pasture.  5 gallon pails at work.

After we brought Alyosius down to join him, all was forgiven in Fuzzy's eyes.  His tail was happily swishing back and forth as he chowed down on the tasty greens.

A job well done by all.  "Great teamwork!"

Come quickly!  The peas are picked and they taste amazing.

Violet planted, watered, weeded, mulched, and picked these peas all by herself...what an accomplishment!

Also, two of the cattle are in the new pasture.  The trailer performed wonderfully.  We had to make further modifications to the gate as one first jumped out before we could even leave the farm.  But, a new gate later and two of them are there eating away.

We also have all three hogs loaded on the trailer for their trip to Athol, Massachusetts to be processed tomorrow morning.

Lots of photos to follow.

Here are some more shots of the trailer in progress.

There it is "up on blocks" as they say here in the sticks.

We removed the hitch as it was pretty rusty and hard to use.

Here are our new tires mounted and ready to go back onto the trailer. 

Some of the parts all ready to be put on....

Liev was a great help!

The whole family pitched in to get the hitch as tight as we could.  Liev was playing around with a C clamp.  One of his new favorite tools.  He has amazing dexterity!

There is it.  All shiny and new looking.  New bolts, new safety chains, new wiring, and Liev's C clamp.

We're still working on the new trailer.  My parents came down yesterday and my Dad worked hard on constructing some new sides for it.

Here is Liev working hard at his job...

He single-handedly removed all the old lights and helped to tear out the wires.  There were enough wires on there to light two trailers, so we took them off and started from scratch with one set.

To those checking back...

9:38 pm.  All cattle still in original location.  Some modifications have begun on the trailer and the onset of darkness has stopped me from finishing said modifications. 

We will in good faith attempt to move them again tomorrow.  Perhaps the help of my Dad will push us to success!

(We do have some good pics of our "attempts" to lure them into the trailer, but...alas...the camera is no where to be found.)

We acquired a "new to us" trailer that will work out perfectly for hauling hogs and our cattle, as well as myriad other things (kids, pumpkins, hay, wood).

Our plan is to move two of the cattle to the new pasture this afternoon.  If all goes according to plan, there may be some interesting photos up here this evening.  I still have some work to do on the trailer--right now both wheels are off, as is the hitch, and I'm in the midst of re-wiring the whole thing.  It should be ready this afternoon, though.  Yesterday the kids and I went out to the farm store twice.  The first time we purchased some nice, shiny new wheels (tires and rims) for the trailer.  They measured (in theory, apparantly) to be the right size.  The bolts holes were 4 1/2 on center, etc, etc.  We got them home.  No luck.  One bolt hole was off by less than 1/16" of an inch on each wheel.  Either we have some funky sized hubs on the trailer, or they are selling seriously flawed rims at the farm store.  So, back we went.  Which was good because I needed to buy about 12 more things for the trailer anyways.

We ended up going to a local tire store and they popped on two "seasoned" tires onto the original rims, which still have plenty of life left in them, for $80 including the labor and balancing.  Not a bad deal.  I'm planning to take the red truck up there soon now that I know they do that sort of thing.

Here are some photos of the new pasture being prepped for the cattle.  I'll be putting up a gate this morning, finishing the trailer, and then working on loading the trailer with one of the cattle.  We'll see how that goes...

The grasses (and weeds) are really tall!  The cattle will start working on that this afternoon, hopefully.

Violet will have one last chance to pick wild flowers before the cattle get to them.

The tools needed to string up field fence.  (Anyone look up "rod" yet?)  There is my trusty homemade fence-puller (the F.T. 2000) leaning up against the tailgate.  Yes, it does resemble some 2 x 4's and some bolts.  I also figured out an easier way to move around those heavy rolls of fencing using the tractor and some bungees.

The grass is almost up to the kids' heads!  We could use this as a hay field if we had the equipment, but for now we'll put the animals to work on it.  I'd love to bring down 50 turkeys, but I would worry that predators would get to them at night.

Nothing beats a fresh, home-grown meal. 

Do your best to enjoy all the wonderful foods out there this time of year!

Well, I managed to get tons of poison ivy all over my arms and hands from working in the new pasture.  I had to brush hog some areas to run the fencing and it did not dry out enough with all the rain so I ended up covered with it.  It's really itchy.

But, on the other side, now that I have poison ivy some of the chores here at the farm that involve poison ivy are fair game!  I started today clearing out some more of the side of the wetland and put up some field fencing.  The area is covered with poison ivy, but once I have it it's not like it will get worse...I hope. 

(And of course, I really needed a new project to work on as I'm down to only about 7 that I'm in the middle of at the moment.)

I started, with the help of kids in the non-poison ivy area, putting up a side of fencing that will become "Goat World."  Our Toggenburg milk goat, Sarah, is hopefully pregnant and in another day or two she'll have her own quiet fenced in area.  Once more, she'll have all the delicious poison ivy that she can manage to eat.  Then, the sheep can roam free in the main pasture after I move the cattle down the road.  That does involve finishing some more projects, but they're coming along.  After all, it did not rain today!

By the way, along with rocks, we sure do grow some impressive poison ivy!

You'd almost think that this photo was taken 60 years ago. 

Anyhow, Erica snapped this on Monday afternoon in the midst of my fence work on the new pasture. 

Stunning looking machine, eh?  I got to drive it down the road about 1/2 mile to the location of the new field/pasture.  I needed to use it to stretch out the field fence.  And of course it is WAY cool to ride on the road with farm machinery.  I had not really gotten a chance to put it into 3rd gear, or what folks must now call "over-drive," and man did it cook down the road!  13 miles per hour seems really fast on an open chassis mobile!  Wind in my hair, indeed.

Here is a shot from the back of the pasture looking towards the front.  I am pleased to say that I managed to get up 80 rods (yes, rods---look it up) of field fence up in three days, rainstorms included!

Pictures of the completed project, with cattle hopefully, to follow.  Am I lucky to to have such a wonderful photographer as a wife, or what?  Tractor calendar, anyone?

It all started when we decided it was time to claim the firewood we'd stacked from cutting down some trees last summer.  It was time to haul it up to the front of the yard nearer the house so that my dad has something to do when he visits (He's a professional wood-chopper, in case you didn't know).

We'd hooked up the tractor to our trailer and things were moving along smoothly...at first.

I'd cut about four trees to make access to the wetlands and the brook just after we moved in last summer, so the pile was somewhere between 1-2 cords and it will be perfectly seasoned for heating and cooking.  We'd had a lot of rain, but drainage seemed to be no problem.  Things were relatively dry and we did not overload the trailer so as to avoid getting stuck.  (It did start to mist, hence our hats!)

While Liev and I piled wood, Violet roamed about looking for flowers.

She found quite an assortment.  I think that she ended up feeding them to her brother's steer, Mr. Greenshoes, who was watching on as we worked.

Liev helped load and then took his position at the front of the wagon ready to make the drive up to the house with the wood.  He's tipping his hat to Mommy as she takes some photos.

After loading a few times and being sacked by thousands of tiny black ants, Liev decided a change in job was due...Check out his new green web belt!  My favorite of all belts!

We'd made great progress.  As you can see below, the wood pile was almost gone.  I think it took us about 4 or 5 trips as we did not want to put too much weight into the tired and old, yet rustic trailer.

We'd made a small rut in the mud with all the loads coming and going, but we had not gotten stuck.  In fact, we were mentioning this wonderous fact when...

We had moved all the wood.  I'd removed my cap as the rain ceased.  And we decided that we would take one more "joy ride" around the field.  This time the mud got us!

I think that the problem was that the trailer's axle had dug deep into the mud, but I tried a series of back-and-forths in a vain attempt to unstick the tractor.  No such luck.  I also think that we need to get a better set of tires on the tractor, but that is for another day.  (Check out that nice new exhaust system!)

Luckily, all was not lost.  The kids had a joyous time romping in the muck, even as the trailer sank deeper and deeper.

In the end, it took a substitute driver (Erica) and a whole mess of chains and come-alongs to pull the tractor out.  We have the whole works anchored to the tree on the far left of the photo.  A small cherry tree, in fact.  We almost had one more tree for firewood, but it held in the end and we pulled the tractor to dry land.

A small family victory as nightfall approached!