And then the sun came out.

The sun finally came out and most of the pigs needed more bedding. Here Case is bringing a bail of straw to the sows while I stand watch with the gate open.
More pig paths.
Steers. These guys are being sold today!
Case bedding the gestating sow lot.

I've declared it a blizzard

I'm not exactly sure of what is all involved in declaring a blizzard, but I've decided the the past two days qualify.

It's been nasty out. Here's the backyard.
Here I am, freezing my rear off.One of the nice things about the pigs is they are lazy, and make paths for easy walking in the snow.
The west barn. Look at all the snow that got blown into it!
And the poor freezing steers. We have no place for them to go, so they've been stuck in the yuck!

Our Luck

I went outside yesterday to check pigs. Of course, knowing our luck, I walk into the pen where the new boars are and wondering, what is that under the snow?

It was a new boar. Dead.

It looked like he walked 10 feet outside of his shelter, fell over and died in the snow.

He better have at least bred some gilts before dying on us!

Trying to Enjoy the Snow

We needed to bed the newest litters today. I had the brilliant idea of putting the kids' snow gear on and letting them enjoy it.

It took longer to get them dressed than what we were outside for. I need to Georgia a new pair of snow pants, I had to stuff her into a pair of 3T's (which is the same size bibs that Austin is wearing).

We let them walk around in the pen while I drove the skid steer with the big bale of straw while Case put the straw into the small shelters.

I looked over and they were both screaming because a sow was walking over to them. The kids then started to walk towards us, Austin slipped into a mud puddle, lost his boots and mittens and kept walking in his socks.

I was able to get his boots back on him, but the mittens were not happening. So after he finished eating the snow, his hands were freezing....
so Austin got to wear my gloves and a fast track ride to the house. He didn't keep my gloves on either. We were able to get what was needed outside done.

The Last Trimester

Yay! Hello week 28. I don't care, I've declared it, the start of my last trimester!

Please try to guess on the arrival of this baby. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://bebepool.com/sparks

Snow!

It thankfully took until December for our first snow fall to actually stick. The mud has frozen making walking around in the pens so much easier! My boots are no longer being pulled off with every step.

Here's looking towards the house.
We currently have 5 new litters. They look warm and comfy.Fat pigs in the barn. They are very warm and comfy!
And we are now down to 7 steer. We don't have any place to house them in the winter and I think the last will be sold soon.

Finally, a nice day!

It's been a while since we have had a nice day. And I finally remembered to bring my camera outside with me.

Here are the steers that are left, we are down to 15 of them, just hanging around.
And Casey's new purchase. Six new Berkshire boars. This type of pig is known for having the highest quality pork and the pork is red in color. They take longer to finish out, so we hope by breeding them with what we have we can have a fast finish hog with high quality meat.

The Berkshire hogs have the 4 white feet, white snout and tip of the tail. Their piglets are usually born with the neatest color patterns. Often there are piglets that look like dalmatians. Hopefully I can post pictures of their piglets in 4 months or so.
Some of the piglets we currently have.This group of pigs were recently weened from their mothers and moved into the finishing barns.
The outside of the finishing barns. This spring Case had the Amish come up and add the doors on the barns. The past two winters the ends have been open. I'm so glad that we added them. They really help keep the heat in.