First: I need to let you know the bean sprouts turned out fantastic, I haven't sprouted any more but plan to soon, my tummy is growling for a stir fry - in the words of my Son :)
Second: our pigs are doing fantastic. They are now in their pasture happy as can be. Digging up the land, enjoying the sunshine and shade of the fir trees. We had them in the meat bird run, they dug that up in a few hours. They were content there but I knew they would be so much happier in their pasture. We were working feverishly trying to finish a lovely shelter for them but with bad weather and shift work it was impossible to get it finished in a short time. So, one night they sent me a sign, they spent the night outside in the meat bird run. Perfectly happy to sleep under the stars, not caring to go inside the "barn".
That made me realize they would also be happy in their pasture, sleeping in the brushed area if they chose or under the stars. That day I was determined to get them into the pasture. It wasn't quite finished. I put the gate handles on the fence, hooked up the electric fence charger (asked my Dad to check it before I turned it on to make sure I wired it okay) and I was ready to move the pigs into their 65' x 75' pasture. I built a board corral on one side and ran some chicken wire on the other side, my Dad went in the run and gave them a bit of encouragement to move. They happily followed a trail of bread to the new pasture area, no problem at all. I found out quickly that the fence was working when one of them smelled a fitting on a fence pole. They are happy in their large pasture area so now I am happy.....
At least we don't have to muck out the barn anymore! That's one less chore on our long long list!
Third: We are hatching chicks left and right. We now have 17 baby chicks hatched from our own eggs. We did order 8 layers from the feed store to make sure we have some laying hens to add to our flock.
We have a broody hen setting on 8 Turkey Eggs which are ready to hatch this weekend. We are going to try to raise turkeys again. Last time we were unsuccessful getting them all to the freezer, this time we are taking what we learned and making some changes, here's hoping we are successful! I will post some pictures of the chicks next time.
I was super excited to find spinach growing in my garden shortly after the snow melted....
I planted it late fall, then winter came faster than I thought. I figured I wasted the seeds but here it is! It was a bit crowded, I since thinned it and it is now growing beautifully. The pigs got the plants I pulled out, they aren't as excited about spinach as I am. haha I enjoyed a fresh spinach salad last week for my lunch at work. I impressed the other staff to have a salad fresh from my garden already. I threw in a bit of baby kale as well which also survived the winter! What a treat.
I have been pulling weeds from our strawberry bed, it has become quite over grown. That's quite a project..... I will post pictures of our strawberries and other plants another time as well....
That being said I have chores to do and it's way to nice out to be setting inside on the computer! There's no shortage of excitement here on the farm this spring. As you can see there is a very good reason why I haven't been writing! Hopefully it won't be so long between posts next time. Thanks for hanging in there! Hope you enjoyed my update on our little farm.
'til next time!
