February Update

This winter has been busy with homeschooling, tax preparation, meeting with chefs to promote my pastured pork, homeschooling (yes again), The Four Year Old (he needs an entire category to himself), fixing pig fence, driving kids places, obtaining fall leaves for mulch, and getting piglets.

I would like to be spending lots of time preparing garden beds for the spring, but instead I am trying to keep the farm from washing away in all of the rain. I have started many seedlings under the new grow lights I got for Christmas: I just need a nice block of time without any rain to get plants into the ground.

Last month, I purchased 6 piglets from a local farmer. They are happy to play in the woods and (mostly) stay inside the electric fence. One of the pigs is unusually friendly and is also extremely intelligent. All pigs are supposed to have the intelligence of a 3 year old child but they just lack the verbal skills to tell us their thoughts.

This pig quickly figured out who is in charge of feeding him, and he leans against me and demands that I scratch his head in the same way a dog might. The rest of them will sniff my hand, but if I move to pet them they scatter in fear. He closes his eyes and grunts in satisfaction as I scratch him. His name is Bacon, and he will make a visit to the butcher with the rest of the pigs. He’s an otherwise entirely useless castrated male. I do not want to feed a potentially 500 pound animal for the rest of his natural life. Do you know how many 50 pound bags of feed per week he would require at full size? Many more pounds of feed than your average dog, that’s for sure!

He is also the first pig to figure out when the electric fence is not putting out as much charge as it should, and he takes full advantage of any lack in fence security to traverse more of the woods besides the ones I provided him in search of acorns or other treats. The rest of the pigs sit inside the fence, wistfully watching the Bacon pig as he searches for treats. They don’t understand why he can eat goodies and they cannot.

As I figure out how to contain the pigs, I continue to work on my flower beds. I expect to sell many flowers both wholesale to florist and also as bouquets to the general public. Check back and on Facebook and Instagram for photos!