Category: Uncategorized

for those of you who don’t go through the main website to get to this blog, you’re missing out on a few changes!  Check out the revamped home page with the new pictures. Apparently the old ones weren’t all that loved by those that were in them!  Also we have added to the pork page some different “packages” that are less than your typical 1/2 pig.

There is a handy-dandy link on the left to take you to the pages of the main site.

Well, we borrowed / tested a combine from Hub International right here in Manchester.  Between that, and getting Jack Short and his combine to finish up the rest of Bob’s barley at home, we finally have all the grain harvested.  Just a couple more days to finish up baling the straw!

I seem to be always writing about crops, and other things outside the barn, and very little about the pigs themselves.  But last week was a little interesting in the farrowing (maternity) barn.

Last week saw some pretty wide ranging farrowing  numbers.  The first sow had 16 piglets, which is a fair number, but not that extreme.  The next two sows had 2 piglets and 6 piglets each, which is awfully low, but I was able to average them out to 8 per litter, so that wasn’t bad. 

Then the last sow had 19 piglets!  2 were stillborn and she laid on one, but that still left 16 good piglets, and of course, she farrowed a few days late, so it was to late to foster any to the earlier farrowing sows.  Hopefully she can look after them till next weeks sows farrow, and hopefully I can find a home for a few of them on one of those sows.

Last Thursday and Friday were gloriously sunny days, and we were able to get our wheat finished.  It was still a little damp from all that rain when we started, but it was nice by the time we finished Friday Afternoon.  After a brief stop to adjust the combine settings, we got the one field of Barley done Friday too.  Saturday saw me going off to good ol camp Quin-Mo-Lac to pick up Jenna and cousin Katie, and say hi to Kevin while he stays for another week.  Not to be left sitting idle or anything, Dad finished the second field of Barley that afternoon, so that just leaves 100 acres or so of cousin Bob’s Barley to do.  And straw to bale, and hay that we cut Thursday/Friday to bale…

The grain truck that we got last fall is a red colour, while the old box we put on it from the old truck is a nice dark green.  So we figured it was easier to paint the box than the truck itself.  With a little encouragement, we got two kids and two moms (one of them is a Grand mom) to “get ‘r done”  It probably needs a second coat, and they didn’t have enough paint to do the inside too, but it looks pretty good. (and a lot less Green and Red Christmasy)  Then Jenna added the name on the side, and the website on the back!

Looked up yesterday and saw a kitten hiking across the yard with a mother cat.  I stopped the tractor and picked it up to take back into the barn, when it hissed at me.  It is pretty funny to see this litte 1/4 pound kitten hissing away at the guy who is carrying it in one hand!  Turns out this was not one of the 3 kittens that we have been checking on all along, but one of the other set.  It looked almost identical!

Turns out all the kittens are now together in the same spot.  There was 6 total when I put this one with them, but another 3 trickled in over the day.  So there is now 9 total!  They are drinking milk that we brought them.(they were pretty hungry)  I’m thinking the mother cat wasn’t able to keep up nursing all 6 and that’s why they got hungry and started wandering.  It’s amazing how far those little legs can take them!

So now Jenna feeds them after school, and Grandma feeds them in the morning.

I’m sure there will be more pictures to post soon.  Maybe we will have a contest to see who can tell them all apart!  Several are very similar!

Anybody need a kitten!!

I spent a little time learning about favicon’s.  Didn’t know what they were, or how to make them.  Apparently there is a whole thing about making that little picture that goes in the title bar at the top of every web page.  So after fiddling around with what pink looks best, we have a pink little favicon pig.  So if your first thought was something other than “oh look at that cute pig” then let me know! (like “what is that pink blob” or “is that a pink wolf?”)

Hope I spelled that title correctly!  Just had a bit of a melt down on the blog front.  Tried to copy a backup of the blog data and lost all my previous posts.  Now I know what not to do!!

Having now recreated an entire blog setup from scratch, I really know what I am doing!