Fair Weather Farmer

Only days ago, we practically had a blizzard. Now it's sunny and in the 60s! Fair weather farmer that I am, I (finally) ventured out with the kids to visit some of the newest members of the farm.

Here is a Landrace sow and her cute little piglets. Landrace pigs are known for their floppy ears and I have decided that there is almost nothing cuter than a floppy-eared pig.

They will live in this private house with their momma and heat lamp until they are old enough to be weaned. They can crawl under the board to visit their mother and get milk but they can crawl back under the board to sleep and stay warm. It's good for little pigs to have a place away from their mother--hey, if you had nine babies and weighed 400 pounds, you might lay down and squish one too.

These little pigs are three days old in this picture today. But just in case you want to take one home to snuggle, note that they will weigh 250 pounds or so in six months. 

Winter Wonder Farm

Yesterday we got eight inches of snow. My driveway is not scraped; my back porch remains icy. Here on the farm, all the shoveling and snow removal is focused on the livestock. Snowed-in farm wives, minivans and sidewalks are not a priority.

A self-proclaimed fair weather farmer, I ventured out today with Morgan, sacrificing my cozy sweatpanted existance to bring you a winter weather farm report. I even caught the farmer out hamming it up (get it!).

By the time I got out there, the shoveling was done and feeding time had begun. These hungry sows (mama pigs) were glad to have a cleaned off spot in their pen to eat dinner.

Right now we are in baby pig season at the farm. I know it seems like a better idea to have babies in the spring, but since we will be selling the majority of the pigs to 4-H'ers for the county fair and to other farmers as breeding stock, we want them mature (250-280 pounds) by August/September for fair season.

Can you believe this sweet little guy will be a big hog in six months?

Or these? I love the little Herefords. Thanks to Husband's hard work, they can come out of the little house they share with their mother and not get buried in snow.

Fortunately, this little one and her brothers love to shovel snow. If I can just get them strong enough to put the snow blade on the John Deere, we'll be all set.

Maternity Ward

Well, we're finally seeing the results of all the hard work husband has been doing since September to inseminate the pigs... Oh, maybe that didn't come out right.

What I mean is that all of the planning and breeding that took place earlier on the farm is starting to pay off with the birth of several litters of pigs.

This litter of 13 piglets is two weeks old. The little gilts (females) and boars (males) keep warm on cold Ohio nights under a heat lamp. You can see on the left that they can exit their little warm spot to nurse with the sow but are protected by the fence from accidental squishing by their mother. Hey, if you weighed 500 pounds and had 13 babies underfoot, you might accidentally step on one or two.

Remember Miss? Well, her golden days as a State Fair beauty may be behind her, but she is getting ready to have her first litter of pigs any day now (early December). We'll keep you updated with pictures when the piglets arrive. (Unless it's too cold. I'm very much a fair weather farmer.)
Like Miss, we have several sows who are ready to farrow (give birth) in the next few weeks. Husband claims this sow is 11 years old. He credits her with raising several of the pigs Ryan showed this summer and says she is the grandmother of many of our other good pigs.

This younger sow is also due in early December.

You wouldn't believe the big spider in the corner of this guy's pen, spinning a web that looked like it had letters in it...

This little guy is actually from the first litter from our new piggy Daddy, Big Splash. He and his siblings were outside enjoying the sunshine, looking forward to this summer at the State Fair.

I've just got to say again, while LOTS of blogs can comment on brand disasters and family life, WHAT other blog can provide such fresh-from-the-farm cuteness?

Spring pigs

It's no secret that I am a fair weather farmer. So on this warm, sunny Sunday I was glad to get out of the house and check out our spring pigs.

Husband needed to ear notch some piglets. To do this, he uses something similar to a single hole punch to add notches to their ears. This serves as their identification. The right ear tells their litter number and the left ear tells which pig they were in the litter, so the third pig in the 38th litter would be 38-3 in our record books and have the corresponding notches in his/her ear, like a secret farmer code.

Morgan is holding a piglet that does NOT have ear notches yet. The pig below had his done about a week ago.

Listening to the little pigs grunting and running around outside in their pen with their mothers is so wonderful this time of year. Also wonderful: listening to my two sons grunting while they shovel manure, leaving me only with the the job of filling out the record book.

Venturing Out

We enjoyed today what one sleep-deprived meteorologist called an "ice sandwich." A layer of snow covered in ice and then coated with another four inches of the white stuff.

I ventured to the end of the lane to get the mail and newspaper. I guess all that rain, sleet, snow, dark of night stuff is for real--both were delivered on time.

What do tough country kids do when it snows? They put on their Carhartt jackets and head out.

I may have spawned a fair weather farmer after my own heart.

We live on a busy county road, with cars usually whizzing by at 55+ mph. Today, there was little evidence we even had a road at the end of our lane.

Here's the view facing west. I only include this to impress my husband who often laughs at my inability to know which direction I am facing. The little blacktop showing is courtesy of my brother-in-law who scraped the lane and then kept going.

THIS is snow removal country style. Oh, yeah. Of course, Husband spent all day shoveling out the pigs, so my car and little cement pad behind the house remain covered in ice sandwich.

You know you're married to a farmer when ensuring that every animal has a place to poop takes precedent over de-icing the minivan.

Snapshots on the Farm

Fair weather farmer that I am, I couldn't resist visiting the little pigs today. These crossbred piglets are a little over a month old. 

It might be hard to tell from this photo but the sow (momma) and her pigs have their own little house with a fenced in "yard." They have an automatic waterer outside and husband comes by twice a day to feed them--even on Easter.

Year in Review

Happy New Year. The third year of this blog has been an adventure and I am glad to have made some new blogging friends this year.More and more of you are reading and sending your friends--and I greatly appreciate that.

In 2010, Bringing Home the Bacon was visited by very puzzled people from 55 countries and more purposefully, I hope, from residents of 48 U.S. States (Alaska? South Dakota? Can I get some love?). My U.S. visitors came from 735 cities, from Poca to Zeeland.

Many of my visitors these days are stopping by after seeing my posts on Twitter and Facebook, although a few stragglers are finding me via search engines, using search terms like 80's haircut guy, worst Christmas house, happy poop day and, interestingly, holly michaels naked. (These are REAL search terms people have used to find my site, courtesy of Google Analytics.)

I don't want this post to read like Uncle Herman's Christmas letter, recounting the detail of every month of the past year (including his bowel incident), so I'll just post a few posts that show how 2010 was a year of adventure and growth:

• I started out the year working chicken and sex in to my first submission to Dayton's online magazine, DaytonMostMetro.com

• Also, I tried out Mommy blogging.

• In February  took some great photos of our winter wonder farm.

• As the weather warmed up, I introduced the world to renowned pig groomer, Claude', who may or may not be married to the kids' current babysitter, we probably shouldn't say.

• Also in pig-related news, I posted a H-O-T photo of my husband with his 80s hairdo. He was written up in a pig magazine as an up-and-coming young farmer.

• My friend Megan and I launched our new co-blog column. We quickly delved into Amsterdam nightlife and offended a preacher.

• As usual, our kids got very dirty at the county fair.

• In one of my most commented-upon columns, I admitted to not liking San Francisco--or kittens.

• I ended the year sharing the story of my best worst Christmas ever.

So thanks for reading and come back soon to see what 2011 has in store.