Poopy pig pen

When we first moved into the farm, we almost immediately got chickens. Not long after, we got our first goat, Bella. She was pretty much a pain in the butt, so we decided it would be a good idea to get her a friend (duh)!  We got a female alpine mix for Bella as a companion. You guessed it, now we had double trouble! They were very energetic and difficult to pen up and into everything! We decided perhaps we aren't goat people. Lets try our hand at pigs.
I was able to find someone willing to trade two pigs for two goats. Whew!
To our relief, they are much easier to care for :)

Pigs are actually quite sanitary, they will only go potty in one corner. They choose the lowest corner of their pen to do so therefore they have no rundown into their sleeping area. They are nesting animals. The corner or area they choose to sleep in stays dry, they will actually make a little nest and snuggle and cover right up under the broken up straw and hay. As they get bigger though, their manure builds up fast. They also love tipping over their water, so at least a couple gallons of that goes on the floor daily.  The sty needs to be cleaned at least once a week. We set about that task this evening. Once hubby Jack had shoveled out the muck ( poo, pee and straw), it was time to replace it. Just outside the back of the big barn there is a bunch of old tall grass lying down from the past years. This area hasn't been used in at least 15 years. It was easy to pick up, and pretty dry, so I thought I would use that for the pigs' potty corner instead of straw since we actually pay for that. As soon as i dumped the first load in their sty, they freaked! If you've never seen a pig do a happy dance, you really should. They went nuts over the stuff. I kept adding old grass, weeds, grape vines, small sticks etc.
I realized that this is what pigs were meant to have and enjoy. Not the cement stall with straw. I can't wait to get them moved out to the pig barn and pasture next week and watch them enjoy nature as they were meant to :)

 

George the pig. He is main culprit with water tipping.

 

Peaches the pig. She is much smaller, and likes to do 360degree happy dance twirls.

Up-cycled weeds 

Treasure trove

This late spring is killing me! Between the new farm, new baby, and bad weather, I have a ton of things on my 'to do' list in my head. I was finally able to sneak in a little raking last night. The raking turned into trimming and then into an all-out overhaul of the side yard (I tend to be extreme sometimes). Well during my venture into the jungle that separates the property from the neighbors, I ran into a few hefty items deep under the leafy ground cover. The first thing I pulled out looked like some sort of huge oversized crow bar or something... there were three of those. After researching I found they are the cast iron legs of an old desk! Love it! Then I literally dug out an old kitchen sink! heavy sucka, it think it is cast iron with porcelain overlay? Not positive. A side note: the dirt in and around the sink and desk legs is BEAUTIFUL! I NEED to get gardening people! Anyhow, back to my story: Once the sink was unearthed, that's when I saw it. Be still my heart... it was a heart? there was literally an old iron heart the size of a dinner plate in the ground.... I was immediately giddy (those who know me understand). My sweet, nurturing, patient, kind husband was watching the whole thing unfold. I promptly announced that this 'heart-thing' would be hanging in the house soon. Knowing me, He just agreed. As I went in to retrieve it, it was much bigger than I originally thought. I began it dig around it and unearthed this beauty:

 I researched online last night and found that it is a door to a very early turn of the century cook stove. These stoves are referred to as "The heart of the Home" which is inscribed on the top of the heart-hinge. Our Farm was built 100 years ago this year, so this is most likely the original stove door from the kitchen! To make this even sweeter, I dream of owning one of these stoves in the future. And even sweeter, while looking online, I was able to find only one heart (just the heart piece) that was exactly the same. The dealer sold it for $600! Pretty cool. I did find another full door (similar but not as pretty :) for $1200.  I will most likely restore it and hang it in the kitchen. LOVE.

Here are some pics of the other treasures:

 

 

Thank you Jesus for these beautiful things. Thank you more, for my beautiful family. If I didn't have my husband and children to share this home and experience with, these would be merely empty objects.

 

Integration day

Hi friends! I want to start blogging about the happenings around the farm :) here goes!
Today on the farm, we integrated the new chicks into the flock. We currently have 25 grown laying hens and 7 young chicks. The chicks have been staying in a make-shift brooder in our basement for the last several weeks. 'Brooder' is just a fancy term for a chick house. They need warmth when they are young, in nature they would be under the loving wing of a mother hen, In our basement, they are under the loving warmth of a heat lamp. Of course they need fresh food and water, but past those three things, you can use pretty much any means to keep them confined. We have used rubbermaid tubs, boxes, and recently a metal hexagon dog run I picked up at a garage sale. With the weather being so lovely this spring (sarcasm) we have had to keep them inside longer than we normally would have. But today was sunny and 50 (here in Michigan we call that t-shirt weather!). So we decided it was as good a time as ever to introduce the girls!! Chickens have a pecking order within their flock, so whenever you introduce new girls into the flock there is a disrupt in the chain of hierarchy and some fighting tends to ensue. When the new girls are much smaller than the originals, as you can imagine, this can become quite detrimental. The last two times we extended the brood, we let them meet each other behind a screen or wall of chicken wire. After a few hours, if they seem ready, we remove the wall. This seems to work extremely well and drastically cut down on the injury/bullying rate, Todays integration went very smoothly and they new girls are actually in the big coop already! We will see how their first night goes, but at dusk they were all tucked in tight. :)