The Barnyard Buffet

   Evening had settled over the barn, and the animals gathered for supper as if answering an unspoken invitation. At the far end, the old milk cow dipped her head into the blue makeshift feeder, the scrape of grain against plastic echoing softly in the wooden stall. She chewed slowly, patiently, her large frame steady and calm as the dim light caught the curve of her neck. 

   Closer to the ground, a small black pig rooted happily in a heavy metal dish, its back dusted with flecks of feed like golden confetti. The pig’s curly tail wagged with satisfaction as though every bite was a small celebration.

   But the pig was not alone in its feast. Two barn cats, striped and sleek, pressed in on either side. Their whiskers twitched as they lapped at the shared bowls, undeterred by the pig’s snuffling. It was a strange trio to see—cats and pig dining shoulder to shoulder—but in the barn, mealtime was a shared affair, not a competition. 

   From the shadows, a chicken shuffled in, feathers pale against the dusty floor. It pecked here and there, gathering what the larger eaters overlooked, adding to the sense of quiet harmony that hung in the air. 

   The barn smelled of hay, earth, and warm bodies, a mixture as old as farming itself. Each creature seemed content, caught up in the simple rhythm of feeding. For a moment, it was easy to believe the whole barnyard was a single family—different shapes, different sounds, yet bound together by the ritual of supper.

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.

The baby pigs have arrived!

I haven't been sharing much here but I will make an effort to try harder... I know, I know.... I keep saying that and I can understand if you are all like "Yeah, whatever. We've heard that before!" I'm truly sorry but life seems to get in the way of my best laid plans. Then I get so far behind that I don't even know where to start updating... does that ever happen to you? I mean like when it has been a long time since you've seen a good friend then one day you do see them and you have so much to say to that person you just can't find a good place to start. Well that is the way I feel right now, so I'm just going to start blurting out whatever comes to mind..... you've been warned. [wink]

One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of recent things that have happened here on the farm is Red (the pig) had babies. This is the fist litter of pigs that have been born here since 2002. Yes, twelve years ago, that is a long time. Especially when you are trying to prepare for a new litter and can't remember the details of how to calculate the due date (yes I remember now it's three months, three weeks, and three days), the first signs of labor, etc. I really had to delve into the recessed of my brain to answer some of the questions that *T* had about pigs having babies. This is the first litter he has ever seen born or had any part in raising.... it has been quite an experience for him .... and for me trying to reassure him everything will be fine.... I really think he was as nervous about these baby pigs' delivery as he was when I was in labor for our two boys. He'll never admit to it but it's true!

So, here is a picture of Red a little over a year ago on April 14th. We had just brought her and her sister (Patches) home. They were about eight weeks old at the time.

 

Here they are the day we put them in the outside pen. They looked so small in that huge outside pen... but they loved it!

 

 

In mid November we helped my mom, who lives across the road, clean out her garden and the boys hauled some of the 'leftovers' home to give to Red. Yes, just Red, by then we had sold Patches and Red was our only pig. She had no problem cleaning up the garden leftovers by herself. I'm thinking she was kind of glad she didn't have to share her "goodies" with anyone.

 

She was one happy little (okay, big) piggie!

I almost forgot... I was going to tell you about our baby pigs... sorry I get sidetracked A LOT!!!

On January 1st a friend of ours brought his boar to visit Red for a couple of months. She was in heat the day he brought the boar but we wanted to make sure he was still here if she cycled again. We never noticed her in heat again, so we figured she should be due to farrow around the 25th of April. Well, I should say "I figured" because *T* counted the days differently than I did and came up with May 1st.... I'm not sure how he counted 115 days (three months, three weeks, and three days) from Jan. 1st and came up with May 1st. Either way, by April 24th she was getting pretty uncomfortable and couldn't lay still and didn't seem to know what to do with herself. While *T* was at work I moved her into a bigger pen, hoping she would be able to find a more comfortable position to have her babies.

The first one was born Friday, April 25th around 5pm

 

The boys thought this was great entertainment...

 

 After having seven babies she seemed to take a little break and I was thinking that she might be done. Seven is a nice size litter for a fist time mama pig.

 

 This was number twelve!!!! YES, TWELVE!!!
By this point it was like watching clowns get out of a VW.... how many more could there be in there?

 

After number thirteen Red got up and was walking around in her pen looking at the babies like "what are those things and how did they get here?" I will admit I was a little bit nervous that she wasn't going to want them at first. We stayed with her until after she laid back down, we wanted to make sure she didn't smoosh any of them.We were all getting tired and hungry so we left Red and went to the house to eat some dinner (it was close to 8pm) and get the boys ready for bed. After getting the boys settled into bed I went back to the barn to see if Red had passed the placenta..... she sure did.... and another baby! WHAT? I counted and recounted those wiggly little piggies almost a dozen times to make sure I was not mistaken.... sure enough, there were fourteen piglets! WOW. That is a lot of piglets for a first time mom.
Then when we were cleaning up and taking the placenta out we found one more that was dead. So she had actually had 15 babies. WOW.... I'm still in shock. I can not believe she had that many babies!
The next morning we found one of the babies dead, it looked like she had laid on it, but the other 13 were still doing good.



 

 Here they are at 6 days old.... look how much they have grown. All 13 are still going strong.



 

On Sunday they were two weeks and two day old. We moved them to the big outside pen and here is a video showing hem out for the first time. They were so curious about everything, yet still a little scared to be too far from Mama for a while.

*** And before anyone fusses about me not being too concerned when my child screamed bloody murder.... he was fine! I could see him and he was playing on the slide. Later he told me that "that is our scream slide. So we have to scream every time we slide down it." So no hate mail, or anyone saying I was more into filming piggies than I was checking to see if my kids were hurt..... They were happily playing on the other side of the yard, within sight of me the whole time. :) ***

 

 After being outside for a few hours they got brave, and also found a hole under the fence....

There really isn't anything much cuter than a baby pig.... unless of course you can find a rare moment like this one...

 

They were so excited that they finally got their hands on one of the piglets! I thought *Z* was going to drop it because it got to squirming around so much but he didn't. Of course my memory card ran out of memory so I couldn't continue to film, but we put the baby back in with Red and the rest of the piglets.





Where have I been.....?

I've been here, just not blogging.

Can't even remember everything that has happened since last June but one thing that happened that I haven't told you about is:

Keith Elliott

He was born February 9th, weighing 7lbs 4oz.

He is 9 weeks old today and is nearly 13 pounds and 22 inches long. Such a sweet baby boy

*Z* is 27 months old now and is as adorable and sweet as ever. Here is a picture of him from last week.

*Z* is so excited about his new baby pigs that we got a couple of weeks ago. I'm thinking it is a good thing we decided to get two females as they will most likely stay and become brood sows instead of ham and bacon.



Yesterday the pigs got out of their pen and outside the barn. I tried for a while to get them to go back into the barn, I figured if I got them in the barn they would eventually go back in their pen and I could shutt them in. I had no luck with that plan. So decided just to leave them out and wait until *T* got home to help me, the boys were napping in the house so I didn't want to be outside too long. So I went back in and kept an eye on the pigs so I knew they hadn't run off somewhere. Most of the time they spent just wandering around the yard and rutting around in the puddles of water down behind the barn. When the boys woke up I took them out to feed the animals. While I was feeding the goats the pigs followed *Z* into the barn, so I closed the big door, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they were back in the barn we'd figure out how to get them into their pen later. *Z* was following them around clapping his hands and jabbering at them when I went out to the other part of the barn to get feed for the chickens and when I came back the pigs were in their pen and *Z* was closing the gate. OMGosh, he is truely a farmer at heart. Here I had tried for a good half hour or forty five minutes to get them into the barn (let alone their pen) with no luck and *Z* is out there for a total of fifteen minutes and they were in the barn AND in their pen with the gate closed. All I could do was shake my head and tell him he did a great job. He was so excited too, the first thing he told his Dad when he got home was "pigs....pen.....gate!" nodding his head the whole time. He isn't talking much but he gets his point across.