Hurricane Farm

The frost has hit and the squash is done.  Sadness creeps into the picture as one looks around at the dying plants.  The sqash was commanding the garden mere days ago, but its leaves are now turning a sickly dark color.  The frost sneaks in and kills quickly, just as quickly as the early morning sun whisks it away.

While we are short some squash patches, we have gained some pig areas.  The hogs have been moved into the garden and will be rotated throughout in order to clean, till, and manure the spaces that will hold next Spring and Summer's crops. 

Even though the entire garden is fenced in, we set up some movable hog panels (16 foot long rigid fence sections) to encourage the pigs to keep to a specific area as they work.  We have many crops remaining that do not need the help of the pigs at this time.  They might like the strawberry patch or the kale rows, but we do too!  Pigs keep out, please...

We'll let them work their wonders in the squash patch, then move them through the corn and other crop areas in the coming weeks.

Did I mention that they work for free?

A local Connecticut restaurant, Zest, has some wonderful dishes on the way prepared with local ingredients including ribs grass-fed, dry aged beef.  If you are in Northeastern CT, stop by their 1750's farmhouse restaurant and try the taste and flavor of local foods!

http://www.zestofct.com/

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!

Here are some of the much anticipated photos of our baby farm animals.  We've been quite busy getting things prepared for their births and arrivals, as well as with sugaring, but here are some shots of the recent additions to our farm.

Moments after birth--and still wet--the baby lambs hang with their mom.

Later in the day, all nestled into their own private stall.  They are twins, though it does not look like it!

Here are the hogs, still quite young, but not looking like babies any longer!  Looks quite comfortable.  Perhaps I'll join them for an afternoon snooze...

We also acquired a new calf this past week.  He is a week and half old and already he towers above our kids.  His name is Aloysius (but our son calls him "Monster Truck") and he is an Ayershire bull calf.  This breed is larger than the Jerseys and is sort of neat for us to have as they originated in southern Scotland. 

He has two bottles a day, and is already starting to eat some hay and a little grain.

We've spent most of this rainy day rebuilding, cleaning, and repainting the bee hives that I had picked up last summer.  We ordered a 3 lb. package of bees and will be getting them into their hive in about three weeks or so.  There will be several updates on that project, I'm sure.

Whew...Glad that's over.

This weekend we had to take three hogs to the butcher.  What was supposed to be done between the butcher's preferred window of 9:00 and noon ended up encompassing two days, 12 hours of pig wrangling and rebuilding of chutes and ramps, and two seperate butchers.

Our good friend Jeff was kind enough to lend a helping hand and was even kinder to contain his laughter at our attempts as pig wrangling.

There he is assessing my ramp and chute. 

See, I built this chute about 75 feet long.  It was made of some plywood, two old doors, my saw table, some actual tables, and some wooden pallets.  The chute was supposed to funnel the hogs from their pen, through the barn, into my work area, and onto the waiting truck.  We even constructed a nice ramp for them.  The concept was that they would walk down the chute, eating along the way, and move quietly and serenely into the cage on the truck.

Learned pig fact 1:  they don't prefer ramps.

The ramp ended up being too steep and the hogs never once even attempted to get onto the pitched ramp.  Back to the pen.

Here Erica is trying her best to coax this one up the ramp. 

Learned pig fact 2:  It's hard to coax an unwilling pig.

So, we swapped trucks for one with a lower tailgate, and made a new, improved chute and ramp.  This time, the pigs would have to use a ramp that only suggested an upward pitch.  We also tightened up the final portion of the chute to keep them from spinning and darting and clogging up the works in general.

This pig on the move was shot by my daughter, Violet.  Pigs are slow, right?

Learned pig fact 3:  Pigs are not slow.

Here you can make out the old door and my saw table.  It is, of course, the New England way to make everything available at any given time serve multiple purposes.

We finally got one hog into the truck and to the butcher.  We were able to cut down on the chute time for the second pig and got her to the butcher the next morning.  But we found out that this would be the last delivery that they would take.  They were, for their part, very understanding that we were having a tough time getting the hogs into the truck.  I forsee a trailer in our future...

We luckily were able to take the third pig to another butcher who was more than happy to accomodate us.  I'm glad, too, as I did not want to have a pig chute in my work area all week.

Here is a final shot of one of the hogs successfully using the ramp!  I am so lucky to have such a patient wife...she made a nice little trail of various foods for each pig.

Final learned pig fact:  They can be quite picky when they want.

The first pig liked pasta.  The second preferred cheese.  The final pig went for pizza!  We have the makings of a modern-day nursery rhyme.