Temperatures: Rising and Falling

Today is the first day in about 5 days I have not had a temperature, so that meant a full day’s work. I know I will sleep well tonight. Amazingly, the temperatures outside are still very warm for this time of year. Although we never reached yesterday’s high of 52 degrees, today it was about 40 and sunny. I took advantage of the sun, and after chores, I scrubbed all the water buckets outside.

Then we went to look at some pigs. A farmer advertised on FreeCycle that he had some piglets he wanted to give away. I took some pictures of his farm while we were there.

He raised a number of Tamworths, Boer goats, Scottish Highlands(cattle), guinea hens and chickens. One pig, Hamlet, even had the run of the place, and he was a sizable pig! It was impressive that he stuck so close since pigs are known to wander. I can tell you some stories about escaped pigs!

Ulysses is his Duroc boar. Such a laid back pig! I have never felt so comfortable being so close to a full-grown boar.

Here is Rachel, the curious Scottish Highland.

We came home with 2 piglets, about 8 weeks old. Very curious.

Here’s a better view. They are in the barn for now. We are going to try putting the pigs on the vegetable garden for a while to have them churn things up. First we have to put some fencing up and move their house over. So the barn is very crowded, the goats are confused by the squealing pigs, and the pigs root around in the hay.

After we got the pigs settled, it was back to work. We are in the process of clearing out another spot for pigs up the hill. After cutting down some pine trees, we burned some of the branches. I pulled some of the trees out with my fourwheeler and we will feed these to the goats. They love the green needles especially in the wintertime. It was the first time I had ridden the four wheeler in a while. I am almost through my first tank of gas, finally.

While we were putting branches on the fire, I happened to look down the driveway and saw one of the pigs! We had our own loose pig! We moved quickly and herded him back inside, discovered and fixed his escape route.


The photographer came out today to take advantage of sunny skies. We had been trying for a while to get together and finally the cards were dealt just right. We got a chance to look at some of the pictures she had taken before–they were excellent and I cannot wait to see them in print. She brought us a pizza, much appreciated! After we came in for the night, we had some and tried to catch the end of the football games.
Weather forecast is calling for up to 8 inches of snow by tomorrow evening. Luther the turkey is sleeping on the roof of the barn tonight so he is in for one big surprise.