Chickens on Parade

The chickens are cruisin down the pasture in their tractors. Little Eorth farm next door kindly loaned us the tractors because they knew in the timeframe it takes me to finish a project, they would be extinct before they got pastured. We have adopted one of the chickens as another farm mascot. He is blind and therefore wasnt getting around as able as the others. We named him Clarence Fountain, and he likes to perch on our shoulder. Don't forget this Saturday is Harvest Fest from 10-4. The website is: http://www.pierce.wsu.edu/ag/harvestfest.html . We will be grilling and selling our own pastured bratwurst and retailing variety boxes of pastured pork.

By now I should have learned that whenever I start to feel like things are in order, and under control, I should at that moment duck - expecting things to spontaneously combust. Today was business as usual, with the addition of some friends and family dropping by to lend a hand with farm chores and projects, gearing up for the October second Harvest Fest (you are invited by the way). We had harvested a good part of our dear piggies, and were planning out how the remaining herds will be ordered moving forward. I made an executive decision. All the growers will be separated off into their own herd, while all the sows will run with the Mulefoots. In other words making one group into two, and then two others into one. All I have to do to accomplish this is have total cooperation from the animals. Well, we built fabulous fences around some lush green paddocks, and were ready to bait and switch. Easy right? We get all the growers into the new pen and managed to push the sows back when Tiger Pig all of the sudden grew springs on her feet and leaped over the top of the fence. This reminds me of when I read pigs don’t jump. Did I mention she did it twice? This was not one of my low budget mini fences that Teresa shakes her head at, this was my super duty San Quentin model with an extra third strand of electric! It was the best I had to offer and Tiger leaped it like a horse. After wallowing in my self pity for a brief moment we pretty easily coerced her back in with a treat. She is a woman surely subject to her passions. I had to bear the tuff news to Kid Pig that the date was off. He was mostly just worried about what the kids at school would think about him getting stood up. We resolved to keep the growers and sows in their new pasture together and not fight it. No sooner had I done this, when the pigs started shoving each other over who gets to sit in the water trough. In all the ruckus, a little guy was pushed out of the wire. I say a little guy but he is probably at least 65 pounds. I chased him for a while, and soon the kids came and the fearless herd dog Sammy. Sammy utilized his vast training and natural instinct to wait until I had the pig caught and picked up, before he nipped him in the rump. Thanks for the help boy. He sat back with this vindicated look of “that’s what I’m here for”. Well for the most part everyone is in their proper place, or at least the place we grew too tired to wrestle them out of. Be sure to come by for Harvest fest next Saturday the second, we will be selling "hot off the grill" our own Crying Rock Bratwurst. Also we will be selling at the farm - variety packs of select sausages and cuts. We plan on wrangling some piglets into a pen so you can meet them, and Sumner Tractor has graciously donated a tractor for the day for hay rides! That is great because Teresa gave me the strangest look when I said I was going to pull the hay wagon with my lawn mower. We will be giving tours where you can see first hand, our rotational methods and pasture life cycle. Heck - watch the pigs outsmart us as it happens! Watch the chickens cruise in their tractors! It will be a death defying three ring agro-circus you don't want to miss!

Harvest Fest Oct 2 2010!

http://prideofpierce.posterous.com/pierce-county-harvestfest-save-the-date-octob

Porcine Rodeo

We decided to make the pasture switch a family affair. Meaning instead of the usual me vs the pigs, it was me vs the pigs and feral children. It was actually really fun. I had Teresa ready on the Walkie Talkie switching the power on and off while I modified the fence. Once we created a pass through gate, the kids all threw a treat in the new pasture to bribe the pigs in for a fast change. It actually went pretty smooth. It quickly digressed into a free for all where all three kids suddenly learned how to ride pigs like a horse. Yes I said the kids were riding pigs like horses. I was so shocked, for many different reasons I just had to become a spectator and watch. Sometimes I worry if my little piglets are growing, well I saw them in a different light as they carried my kids around like a bird on the back. I opened up the well to create a new wallow, and all the kids synchronized their efforts to loose their flip flops all at once in the mud. If you were riding your bicycle down the street during the event, you probably would have seen me waving my arms and blurting "told you to wear boots, bladdy bladdy..." It went in one ear and out the other, to much fun to be had, and the sun was so hot I think our brains were evaporated by then anyway. It is so hot that pigs don't need much for shelter, just shade. For this time of year I just pound in four t-posts and string a tarp up. The pigs always help out by scratching themselves on the posts while I pound, and standing on the tarp while I tie it. It was great to see the pigs so enthralled in their pasture. Alot of volunteer plants seemed to be favorites, particularly wild geraniums. After that it was dinner for us, and then off to work on our former residence.

Keeping the Mulefoot alive

So as I mentioned before, the Mulefoot sow has arrived. Turns out a farm here in the valley had bought a breeding pair and lost their boar. You may remember we had lost our sow last winter in transport. While we still hope one day she will show up on our doorstep with a suitcase bearing stickers of all the places she had visited since she hopped out of our stock box - we know for now we need to make other plans... So the appropriately named "Pigerella" is on site and occupying the honeymoon sweet with Kid Pig. Already we have a bunch of Mulefoot crosses running around, and now expect to see some full Mulefoot piglets around Christmas. True to form for the breed, Pigerella has the best temperament you could ask for. I had an epiphany that depending on the size of the litter, we will have over 1% of the existing Mulefoot herd here at Crying Rock. Our little border collie pup "Sammy" is learning the ropes here at the farm, and really wants to herd pigs. His challenges so far are that the piglets want to play with him, and the sows have in the past, offered to eat larger dogs. Maybe we will start him with the chickens instead. Meanwhile, the pigs are in the pasture that was over seeded with Canola, and they love it. They have about two days of grazing left in the field before I send them into the next, that was over seeded with buckwheat and sugar beets, along with some volunteer mustard and oats.

Hay going and piglets coming

If you have driven by the place lately you may have witnessed a grass stuffed giant marshmallow Stonehenge like arrangement, like Stanley Kubrick's interpretation of our agricultural future. Don't' fret, that is just the ancient art of hay being done. There are some local fellas that have been haying this land for years, and the grass was growing faster than I could graze, so we worked it out. I don't know if I was more impressed by the art or industry of it, but the only ones who enjoyed seeing it more than I was the coyotes. In broad daylight they will follow the baler picking up the mice who just had their thatch roofs removed. I am sad to see the marshmallows loaded up and heading down the road, but excited to let the field turn green again, and spread the grazing pastures farther out. Currently the pigs are tilling the new hop field. It is getting late in the year for our hop trials, and I think we can kiss this fall's harvest goodbye, but we should have our foundation plants in the ground and ready to overwinter in time to make a strong showing next year. Ezra Meeker would till new ground twice and then stick new hops in, tilling occasionally between the rows to control weeds (all horse draft). We are just going to have the pigs till so most of the natural soil structure, and microbial life will stay intact. We haven't decided who will graze the rows between yet, so far it is a tossup between the smaller breed pigs, and sheep. We will have them do paper scissors rock and see who wins. Speaking of the smaller breed pigs, our prized mulefoot "Kid-Pig" just congratulated his third wife on his third litter (her first). In a week or so his fourth wife, a registered mulefoot from Minnesota will be arriving. I keep telling him to slow down, but he just tells me I am too old fashioned. Check out Facebook if you want to see pics of the new ones.

Sun and fertile ground

Hot sun, and extremely fertile ground has things growing like mad here. Grass depending on the species is anywhere between my waist and as high as I can lift my hat in the air. The pigs are grazing a dent in it, but most of the field has seeded out. This means it needs to be hayed off so it can go green again. Right now the neighbors are making round bales out on the field and it looks great (hence thier tractor in the pic) The first pasture that the pigs mowed down is almost fully grown back with a deep shade of green, with no irrigation and maybe one day of rain. The buckwheat is coming up too. I should be announcing the harvest schedule in a couple weeks or so. I have been planning the pasures to be about two weeks of grazing, and that has been working out pretty good. Ususally I will throw the pigs a snack every day, to remind them they are domesticated, and that they like me. Unfortunately it causes them to associate me with tasty snacks all the time, so when I go out to walk the fence line, the whole heard follows me along the fence line, honking in single file. I can't help but laugh.