Busy In The Garden!

 Well it has been a busy couple weeks around here, the purple hull peas have been picked and shelled, corn is coming in, cucumbers are getting ripe and everything is hot, hot, hot!
Sorry for the lack of updates , its been awful busy around here.  We'll talk to ya after the harvest!

Take it easy!

New Dairy Calf and Large Black Hogs!!

Last Sunday we went to pick up a Large Black boar hog from a local breeder here in the area, on the way back with the hog, my sister called and said one of the dairy heifers was in labor.  We got home and found Sweetpea, who was born here two years ago, already in labor with hooves coming out!

Sweetpea, the new Momma

  In about the fastest labor i have seen, she had the calf delivered in about an hour!  And sweet Lilly came into the world!

Sweet Lilly

 After cleanup its time for a nap, here she is catching some shut eye!

Sleepy time

 And with all the excitement, we didnt get any picture of the hog, we'll thats another post anyway!!

UPDATE!!!

Here is a picture of the Large Black Hog, His name is Sammy, or Sam or Samuel, don't matter he don't come to ya anyway! 

Large Black Hog

The Piglets Arrived Today!!

 Any of you who work with animals know that they wait to have the youngins' on the worst weather days, this pig is no exception, it's cool and rainy this morning and what do we wake up to, 9 new piglets!  If you saw my last update just three days ago I mentioned that I thought she was real close, looks like I was right!

This was a first for us , as far as pigs go, and she seemed to work faster than the goats do, I mean one push and a pig was born! Goats seem to drag it on forever!  But overall I think it went pretty well, the final count so far is three brown and six pinkies, and they are cute.   Momma and babies look like they are doing well!

I am amazed how fast they are up and walking looking for the milk, and the momma doesn't do anything to help them, they find it all on they're own... just amazing!

Here is the last born, fresh out and still messy, but in about a minute he was up and had crawled to the belly and started nursing!  I'll say it again, Amazing!

Hope you enjoyed the  The pix, I'll try to get a video up too, nothing to graphic lol!!

Update! 
Another one born for a total of 10 piglets!! 

Spring Time Is The Busy Time!

  When the weather gets warmer, and the days longer , the work really starts!  Ever since the first week of March it has been non stop here, we built a working pen for the cows and goats, started the big garden, got a new batch of layer hens started, the list goes on and on.  Well lets get started then shall we?

New Layers 

 Trying something new this year, we usually order replacement layers from Ideal Hatchery since they are pretty close, but this year they had a long back order, so we got a few from the local Tractor Supply store, so far they are looking good.

 They have all feathered out and we only lost one, and it drowned in the waterer within 10 minutes of going in the brooder, so overall I'm happy with em, I wasn't really sure they would make it.

Speaking of layers, Spring has brought the eggs back, I can't tell ya how bad I hated buying eggs over the winter, but they are paying off in spades now!

Other News
 
The Piglet watch is on, the big sow is looking very pregnant, so we are keepin a close eye out on the pig pen.

I can still remember when she was just a cute little piggy herself!  Aww!!  My how she has Grown heheheh.

 
The Garden!

 We went bigger this year what with the new tractor and tiller , so we opened up a few bigger garden plots.
And with the help of an Earthway Garden Seeder, we have already put in sweet corn, purple hull peas, okra, yellow and zucchini squash and I'm still working on the tomatoes and peppers , can you see why we've been busy?  If you wanna keep up with the Gardening check out my other site Home-Grown-Vegetables.com.

Well Its time to get back to it, hope ya'll can check back and keep up with the goings on around here!

Until then, Have a great day!!

Some Fence Work

 Now that it's warming up around here, we can get out and work some fence in relative comfort,So that's just what I did.  We have a stretch of old fence that need replacing and we are going to put a loading chute in also. So I got busy today clearing the brush from the fence line, and also setting another post in to make an H post to hold the end of the fence.  

 Clearing the brush was pretty easy, there wasn't that much of it, maybe ten feet of real trouble bushy spots total, and alot of vines growing up thru the wires, I need to mention that its field fence , not barbed wire, so that's where the vines cause problems!

So like I said , it wasn't to bad, and with a chain saw, it was short work! It actually took more time to pick up all the brush and move it to the burn pile than cut it off the fence.

 Next came sinking the other post to make an H post for the gate end of this stretch of fence, again not to hard , just a little manual labor!

 I dug a hole with the post hole digger, the most evil tool ever devised by man..IMHO, well it really wasn't that bad, we just had some rain yesterday so the ground was pretty soft, next drop a 5 inch treated post in the hole, fill in the void with concrete, mix with water and let it set up.  I'll let this set up for a day before I do anymore work on it, to make sure its in good and solid.  That cross board up top is just to keep it from wiggling until it sets up good.
 Next I'll put in the permanent cross brace, pull out the old fence and roll it up , then hang the new fence!
I'll keep you posted!