Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Getting into Winter

Well our Fall crops were no good and I am a little disappointed. :( It is what it is. We just have to wait till Spring and we try all over again.

Miss Piggy seems to be in better spirits now since its been about 6 weeks and she is now back in with Hammy our boar. Last time I saw her go into heat was around the beginning of December...so very shortly she should be coming into heat again. We are just counting from the day we put Miss Piggy back in with Hammy as the "service" date.....just to be safe. Petunia our other gilt that we think is pregnant is hiding inside the barn and the only time I get a peek at her is when I get to feed her and even then she hides a little. So, I haven't seen much of her to definitely confirm she is pregnant! LOL

We also butchered a few of the roosters we hatched over the summer and they were pretty tiny....so we are talking about switching the whole flock to Plymouth Rock Chickens. We have a few and butchered them around the same time and they were meatier. Our oldest gals are done laying as well....so we need to make the flock smaller since we are just on straight feed now anyways. It looks like after the Holidays we will be putting those girls into the freezer.

There is talk about what we want to do next season as well as far as the garden goes....there is even talk about trying wheat! I am pretty excited! We are going to separate the pumpkins and corn. The corn strangled the pumpkins and we didn't get any this past season. :( We are also planting the corn all at once and a larger field more together on the other side of the property.

The tomatoes we canned are still holding up and doing great. We have gone through quite a bit....but we might actually make it till we get fresh tomatoes again! That would be wonderful! Its what we are working towards.

Many many meals have been made with just the fruit of our labor and its a wonderful feeling. I wish for everyone out there that you could try this. It is one of the most exhausting and rewarding feelings...other then parenthood! HA HA HA HA

Happy Holidays

The Smiths