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!
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.
