Jurassic Pig and Other Farm Tales

Sneaking up on pigs whilst they rest in their shelter

Those pigs!  After we brought them home, it was days before I even saw them 'cuz they kept hiding in the thick growth of their fenced-in pen.  I felt like one of the visitors to Jurassic Park.  Remember when the vehicles stopped in front of the T-Rex cage and it was nowhere to be seen?  Even after the sacrificial goat was proffered, it refused to reveal itself . . . just like our pigs!!  I literally had to sneak up on them to get a few decent shots and then they ran off when they heard the "ding" of the camera.  Those crazy pigs!  

Fleeing pigs . . . 

In contrast, the turkeys come over and "talk" when they see us humans.  Aren't they getting uglier with each passing day? 

Turkeys

Even the egg-laying chickens are brazen.  We added more egg-layers to the group and there's a bit of a turf war going on, with each party avoiding the other (I think the newer hens are scared of the older ones and rightly so, as the older gals are killers--ever see a chicken pecked to death?). 

Older egg-layer strutting 'bout the big pen

I think the resulting stress has put a damper on egg production 'cuz the ol' girls have stopped laying . . . me thinks chicken stew is gonna be on the menu soon if there continues to be no eggs. 

New egg-layer deciding if it's safe to venture out . . . 

As for the meat birds . . . I have never met an animal so stunned in all my life.  Part of me feels sorry for them 'cuz we humans have messed them up by breeding in traits (such as large breasts) that prevent movement--they literally have a hard time walking.

Meat birds in movable pens

And what's a farm without a garden?  The veggie garden has seen the biggest change.  With full-time work and family chores,  I seldom have a chance to get in there.  However, my FIL has done an awesome job caring for the plants.

Potatoes, peppers and celery

For the most part, everything is looking lush and green.  Looking forward to the harvest come end of August . . . .

Corn, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and beets

Later,
;)

Inheriting a Garden . . .

When the weather calls for sunshine, we have spent our time outdoors.  There's been lots to do: new pens for the animals (more meat birds to come, along with a few turkeys and pigs--yeah, that's plural as in more than one pig.  And yes, baby turkeys are cute, but we all know that won't last).

New Turkeys

And of course, there is much to do elsewhere.  Mowing is no small feat as it takes at least a good three hours or more to trim all the open spaces (front, back and side areas).  We've been using a gas-powered push-mower, but we seriously need to consider a ride-on mower.  There's just too much grass!  And it doesn't help that we've slowly re-claimed much of the fields that were once wild.

Part of Front Lawn

As for gardening, the fellas have been busy putting in the vegetable garden.  It's a lot of work even with a tiller.  And the weather has been less than cooperative with all the rain.  Still, as the beds get prepared, the seeds and seedlings get planted.

Veggie Garden

As for myself, I garden for the soul so my energies have focused on the flower garden.  There's nothing like watching the perennials come up after a long winter.  Then there's the trimming and weeding (I still have to add to the soil--need more compost and sheep manure).  Of course, there`s the shopping and planting.  Oh joy!  There's nothing like finding the right plants and watching them take root.

Front Flower Garden

Perennials Under the Flowering Bush

I even added a new flower bed by the front deck (digging up sod is hard work).  I planted sunflowers and wildflowers, so I'm excited to see what sprouts.

New Flower Bed

Flower Box Detail

How 'bout you?  How does your garden grow?

Country Time Spring?

The "girls"enjoying the sunshine

The "girls" are very pleased to be be outdoors.  The winter had been harsh on them.  Out of the original seven, only four remain . . . Guess we need to add to the flock.  We've gotten used to eatin' lots of eggs . . . 

Grass Gettin' Green

The grass is getting green, even if the trees haven't gone green yet.  At least we've had our share of sunshine--even if the temperatures have remained on the cool side.

Splashes of purple . . . 

And there's a lovely purple flower ground cover growing under the lilac bushes . . . very pretty.

Hope you're having a good week!

Nature's Whimsy

Nature has a sense of humour.  How do I know?  Check out our lovely potato.  Doesn't it look familiar?  Perhaps a duck?

Potato duck?

And who wouldn't love these lovely carrots!  They are so adorable . . .  Entwined to the root . . . these must be love carrots! Ha!

Love carrots?

Yup. nature's whimsy.

Garden's Bounty

Have you seen our garden's bounty? All along we've been enjoying lettuce (of which there is no more) and loads of yellow and green beans (may of which were parboiled and frozen). 

Tomatoes

Right now we're harvesting veggies: lots of potatoes, some tomatoes, beets and turnips.  The potatoes didn't do as well as we had hoped--we think the ground was too wet; we suspect there's an underground spring under the potato patch.

Potatoes

The beets, onions, turnips and parsnips are doing very well.  We've had to thin some plants out.  It's a learning experience, so we'll know better for next year.

Beets

Parsnips and Turnips

There's more to come.  Check out our little corn patch!  We've sampled some and it was good--very sweet, tender and fresh.  

Corn Patch

The broccoli is coming up nicely.  If the weather holds, we might just have broccoli to harvest in a month's time.

Little Broccoli

And finally we've got pumpkins--lots of pumpkins! (I made sure all those girl flowers were pollinated right proper).

Wee Little Pumpkin

The peppers look great.  I hope they ripen into pretty red peppers, but I'll take green ones if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Green Peppers

And we even managed some melons!  Not sure when these babies will fully ripen as the nights have gotten cool. 

Wee Melon

Yup, its been a bountiful season.  :)

The Wild Wilderness

Wildlife proliferates in abundance in and around our little abode on the hill.

Demanding Pig

First off, let me catch you up on pig progress: she's getting bigger.  And our little porker is quite the digger.  She's got her little yard dug up in no time--which is what ya want a pig to do.  No tractors needed.  And she's become rather spoiled.  Every time someone comes over for a visit she expects a treat--some lettuce, fresh corn on the cob or an apple. 

Happy as a pig in . . . 

We've got more baby chicks too.  While our freezer is full of lovely plump chickens, we thought we'd share with the rest of the community.  My BIL had requests galore; lots of friends, and friends of friends wanted to buy some.  So most of the new batch of 80 chicks are spoken for.

More Baby Chicks

The seven laying hens are doing well too.  Did I mention they're vicious killers?  There used to be eight of them, but one of them showed weakness and got pecked to death--no word of a lie!  And let's not talk about the two or three meat chickens that suffered a similar fate.  However, I have no qualms tellin' you 'bout the poor frog that innocently--and quite accidentally--hopped into the chicken yard.  One lucky hen snatched it up lickety-split and ran off to a corner.  The others noticed and promptly gave chase.  Talk about battle royale!  One hen finally swiped it out of the beak of the first hen.  She ran off the other way.  The rest were in hot pursuit.  Another chicken got hold of the frog and there was a short tug of war until the frog got split in two!  Well, suffice to say that two hens had a feast while the rest picked at the leftovers.

The Egg Layers Hanging Out Under their Shelter

And did I introduce the latest member of the family?  Meet Sindal.  Isn't she cute?  She's got the funniest "meow"--reminds me of a monkey.

Cat in Motion

She had a good home, but started urinating all over it.  So BIL kindly offered to take her in on the condition she become an outside cat.  Thus far, she has relished in the role of guard cat.  The squirrels and chipmunks have stayed away.  And many a mole and frog have been offered as gifts to the various family members residing in the farmhouse.  But I think the most shocking sight was to find an injured chipmunk hauling himself to the treeline.  I felt bad for the little critter, but if he ever got into the house, he'd mess up the wiring and insulation worse than any mouse ever could . . . 

Sindal Hears a Squirrel

And even the in-house cat is still earning her keep.  Good ol' Patches was found running in circles upon my bed one night.  My kids thought that perhaps she was chasing a bird in the room.  When we turned on the light, we found it was not a bird.  It was a bat!  Thankfully the bat had decided to "rest" on the curtains giving the cat a chance to finally pounce upon her prey.  Go Patches go!  It was a challenge to grab the bat from the cat's mouth--which incidentally was still alive!

Patches, Mistress of the House

Yup, lots of wildlife.  Never a dull moment on the farm.  

Sooo-ey

So I forgot to mention that we got a piggy.  She's just a wee piggy for now.  She'll be ready for slaughter come fall.

Wee Piggy getting used to her surroundings

But my heavens she is the cutest little thing!  

Smile pretty :)

It'll be hard turning her into pork chops and bacon.  I suspect she won't be too pretty come fall.  Hopefully she'll feed us through the winter.


We should have enough meat in the freezer once we add the chickens.  The girls have gotten big--and they're ready for the slaughter.  Some time this week, the men-folk will be tackling the messy job.

Meat chickens in their movable coop

And of course there's the veggie garden which is growing like gang-busters.  The lettuce (foreground) is doing well, as is the corn (in the back to the right). 

Veggie Garden

Potatoes

The potato plants are huge!  Hope that fairs well for the potatoes growing underground.

Laundry on the line

It hasn't even been a year yet, but there's been so much activity the past few weeks.  Slowly but surely we're getting used to farm life.  

On the Farm . . .

So much has happened in the last month here at casa d'acrylic . . . 


Veggie Garden:
Finally it's in--all of it!  Potatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, corn, squash, tomatoes . . . It was a lot of hard work clearing the field: picking out the rocks, getting the rows in, planting the seeds and seedlings, building the fence . . . 

Veggie Garden

The solar powered electric fence isn't quite finished yet, but it should get done within the week.  Hoping it'll keep away the local deer and rabbits.  Of the latter, we think its a family.  We often see different sized rabbits frolicking in the grass munching on clover.  

Chickens:
The girls were gettin' a wee bit crowded in their melon box (and don't they look rather homely as their feathers grow in?  Ugly!).

Big Box

Now they have some room to roam in their new chicken coop.  It's a reno to the back of the shed.

New Chicken Coop

We've got to add a door flap and ramp so they can venture outdoors to scratch in the dirt.  Hopefully that'll get done in the next week or so.


Flower Garden:
Quite a few perennials got planted, but they're so small relative to the big garden space.  

Purple Irises

Tiny Dicentra 

Hoping to pick up a few annuals in the next week to fill in the empty space.  Still, not a bad looking spot.  It'll be pretty in the next few years.

Front Flower Garden

And of course there's lots of wildlife from squirrels, chipmunks, chickadees, mourning doves, gold finches and purple finches.  The big bush also attracts lots of honeybees and butterflies.

Local squirrel

Yup, life grows very nicely on the farm ;)

On the Farm

Gardening Tools

We're busy here on our little patch (remember when the field got plowed?).  Now we're in the process of tilling, removing rocks and mixing in soil.  It's time-consuming to get everything established, but well worth the effort (come see me in the fall when we've collected our bounty--provided the local bunnies haven't nibbled everything).

Tilling the soil

Picking out the big rocks

 And of course I have to share the apple blossoms!  We have approximately 50-60 apple trees on the property.  We've begun pruning some of the ones we'd like to bring back into production.  The blossoms have just begun to bloom--and they are just lovely!

Blossom Detail

Aren't the pink and white flowers pretty?  And everything else is slowly getting green and lush.  Thankfully this year we've been blessed with beautiful spring weather.

More apple blossoms

Have a great weekend!