The full circle of life here on the farm today...

   This morning I started the day mentally preparing myself to send the last of our pigs to the butcher. All the other times that we've sent pigs to be processed, I haven't really thought too much about it because the intended purpose for raising those pigs was for meat. This time, we are sending two sows that we kept for the purpose of raising babies. The thought of eating them never crossed my mind until recently when our financial situation, unexpectedly, changed. Red is three years old and Peaches (out of Red's first litter) is one and a half years old. They were both really good moms and had big litters (13 to 16 piglets each), so my heart is heavy today as I prepared to send them off to be processed. Once they are loaded onto the trailer and off the property, I will be okay. I will enjoy the meat just as much as I have any other pigs we've raised.

Peaches sharing her last meal with the ducks and chickens.

   Soon after starting my morning chores my heart lightened a little because I realized that Shay (one of *Z*'s goats) was definitely in labor and we would have new babies in a few hours. 

Shay cleaning her new babies.

Shay cleaning her babies.

   Actually it didn't even take two hours. Within an hour of me noticing that she was in labor she delivered a set of twins. A buck and a doe.

   When it came time to load the pigs, Red decided she really didn't want to go for a ride. She squeezed through between the barn door and the trailer and went for a walk about!

Red on her last walk around the farm.

Yep there she goes back the other way!! I was half expecting to see *T* following along behind her with a bucket of feed...

   I was not helping but was told that Red did NOT want to get in that trailer, and it took quite a lot of convincing before she finally did get in.

 

Red finally on the trailer.

I guess Peaches wasn't nearly as hard to load.

Peaches on the trailer.

So, with the pigs on their way down the road, it is time to focus on the new additions. Meet Sage and Sarah!

Sage and Sarah - Shay's twins.

Duck eggs...YAY!!

I've been looking for the ducks' nest, but couldn't find it. The way they've been acting I was sure they were laying, but I hadn't seen any eggs. I found their nest! There were three eggs in it yesterday and two this morning.

Given the choice of eating duck eggs or chicken eggs, I choose duck eggs.

Click here to see a post from 11 years ago today

Click here to see another post from 11 years ago today.

I said I needed 200' of fencing ...

... and he asked if I really needed a 50' by 50' garden! He should know by now that by the time I say I want something I've already done the math. 

Apparently he forgets my stories about the garden that was started when I moved here, and the ones I had the first few years I lived here. I wish that I had taken pictures of it. They were lovely! Planted in rows and deep mulch between the rows and plants to keep the weeds down, so they were different than the one I have planned now. I want to have mostly raised beds now. After not having a garden at all for several years, I put in four raised bed three years ago and they worked really well for me. Now I am ready to expand the garden again.

   Here is a picture of my little garden from 2013

I have since fenced it, but the fencing I used is low enough that my goats have learned to jump over it and get into the garden. I bought 200' of welded wire fencing a couple of days ago and want to get started but I have to wait for the ground to thaw before we can drive fence posts. I could start making the boxes now.

   Nineteen days away from the first day of Spring and its 56° F. so we are getting closer to being able to start planting.
   The first of the baby goats are due to start arriving next week, so I'm hoping to be able to post lots of cute pictures soon. Last week one of my heavily pregnant does died suddenly one morning during chores. I have really don't have any idea what happened to her. She was having a hard time getting up on and I tried to help her up and all of a sudden she acted as if she couldn't breathe and she was gone just that quick. I was quite shocked by the whole thing. She hadn't really shown any signs that anything was wrong other than the day before had started to have a little trouble getting up on her own. She was due to kid March 11th but she didn't show any signs of being in labor, just having a hard time getting around and getting up on her own... the next morning she died.
   Two days ago I went out to the barn to find a set of twins had been born during the night and were dead. I had their mom's due date written down as the 17th of March, so I wasn't expecting them yet, but they did not appear to be born early. They were fulling developed an were even all dried off and Mom's udder looked like they had nursed. I'm really hoping that this isn't the way the whole kidding season goes.