Hi Everyone! This is The Farmer writing this post. Yes, this is my first post ever on The Well Fed Homestead. Brenda asked me to take some pictures and write this one since she is out of town today. I agreed, not because I feel I am a brilliant writer or anything like that, but because I love Brenda so much, how could I possibly say, “No?”
All of these photos came from my iPhone as I was working the farm, and some of them were taken by Farm Boys.
The 15 pigs have been expanded to a new grass area. They love it! The electric netting always works well to keep the pigs in, but if the fence power ever goes out, they can be quick to escape. Moving the netting is always an art, because you don’t want to do it when the fence it hot, but you need to do it before the pigs realize the fence is not. (That sounded kind of Seuss-like!)
This is Kizzie sporting her summer haircut. Kizzie is our pet dog who loves to bark at ducks, pigs, cows, cars, and our cat Persia. She does not bark at chickens or any of our other of our 5 cats, besides Persia. The picture makes it look like she has only one eye, but that’s just the lighting. Fear not!
Farm Boys 1 and 2 at 4-H practicing with their rabbits.
Violet and the newly named Buttercup enjoying the fresh grass.
These ducks love to run… primarily away from humans.
The broiler chickens love being on fresh pasture everyday.
We have 4 beehives right next to a large wild blackberry patch. Here in Oregon, blackberry grow like crazy! They’re a bit of a nuisance, except for the fact that we can get SO many blackberries in season. The kids love cutting trails, tunnels, and forts through the blackberry bushes. I remember doing that when I was a kid, too!
If you look carefully, you can see 3 beef cows in this picture. They have a large pasture area, and they like to…
…run away every time I approach. There they go!
This little piggy went to the Craigslist. We have decided to not continue having the American Guinea Hogs. They are cute, well tempered, very good foragers, but aren’t the best meat pigs. They are really good for a lard pig, but most people (including us) like bacon over lard. (That isn’t to say we don’t like lard though!) If you know of anyone wanting American Guinea Hog piglets, let us know!
Oh yeah… and the mama pig (aka “Cheeseburger”) is for sale on Craigslist too. We named her Cheeseburger, because we used to have a Boar named “Mr Lunt,” and everyone knows that Mr Lunt loves His Cheeseburger. (Veggie Tales fans will get this one).
The garden is growing really well. We’ve been enjoying lots of fresh vegetables.
I hope you enjoyed a look at the farm this week, brought to you by The Farmer!
Enjoyed your post and pictures. Until reading this, I thought you lived in Minnesota. Oregon probably doesn’t have near as many mosquitoes!