Third Week at the Farm (Spring is starting!)

We apologize for not getting our blog up on time this week. We have been very busy! Spring is starting on the farm (even though it's still 27 degrees at night) and we are busily preparing all the animals.

Here is our simple electric
fencing set up.

 Working until 10 at night moving chickens out of the hoop houses into their eggmobiles and out on pasture has been normal the past couple days. It actually has been very fun! It's a great time to socialize with everyone. And it's just fun in itself to catch hundreds of chickens at night.

Livin' the pig dream.

The sheep waiting patiently to go to their new paddock.
The trailer got a flat on the way, but the sheep didn't mind.

Sheep eating fresh grass
for the first time this year!
No more hay, they started eating it instantly out of the
trailer.

We do it at night because they all huddle together and are very docile, so they are much easier to catch and put outside. Also it is a lot less stressful on the chickens.

The sheep loving their new alfalfa feeding troughs!

Herding the sheep into the Covered building to
test our new alfalfa feeding troughs out.

It is very refreshing to see all these animals go into pasture after a long winter. First we put the ducks out, then the Barred Rock chickens, the Red chickens, and the Lambs.

FREEDOM!

First time on pasture this year! So refreshing.

 It is amazing to see how happy and content all these animals get when you just give them open space and fresh grass. It's something you just can't help but smile when you see it.

Hanging out on a beautiful 60 degree afternoon.
about to get pizza. Food definitely tastes better after
working on a farm.

Beside moving animals around and getting them ready for Spring we have had a pretty exciting week! Rachel has hit her knees on the same truck hitch about 5 times and her knees are black from bruises.

Setting up the duck's paddock. You can see the hoop house in the background and also the blue
shade shelter.

Rachel will be mad that I posted this because I took the picture before she was ready, but she carried this lame
duck all the way up the hill so it could be with its flock.

We also had a stray pig that got out of her fencing. After almost 2 hours of trying to get her back in Jordan tricked the pig by using an empty bucket of feed and tackled the pig. We all then proceeded to jump on the pig and put the bucket over her head. We each grabbed a leg and carried her through the woods back to her area.

All of us taking a break from carrying this
250 pound fighting sow.

We also had our first set of piglets born since we have been on the farm. We had just moved the sow that day into her private pen at the pavilion and that night she had 7 piglets! Matt actually saved one of the piglets lives. The mother sow, from being so exhausted, didn't know her hind leg was suffocating one of her babies. Matt jumped in and lifted her leg and moved the piglet, which was a pretty hard thing to do with all the after-birth everywhere.

The farm's ATV side-by-side broke down this week as well. So we have been getting a good work out walking through the woods carrying feed to the sow sets. Some spots are so muddy you can't take the truck through them.

You can see the pigs
making their beds in the snow
It's cool to see the steam
rising from these beds.

Matt trying to find the fence reader he dropped  in the pigs
feeder.

Rachel got to help with construction this week. The Green's are renovating the farm store for it's grand opening in a couple of weeks. Rachel was putting up paneling, cutting wood, measuring, and tacking like a pro. She really caught on quick.

Sometimes the waterers get clogged. This
is Matt sticking his arm in freezing water to unclog it
so the pigs have water!

Probably Matt's favorite thing that happened this week is that he learned how to drive a tractor. He loves it and is addicted!

Pressure washing the pig poop out of the trailer.

Every day we have to load the outside wood furnace. One day Matt opened up the furnace and a huge ball of flame billowed out, burning all the tips of his eye lashes, eye brows and beard. Matt opens the door a lot more carefully now haha.

We also went to Harrisonburg, VA on our day off and ate at the Chipotle there.


It was a great experience because the pork at that Chipotle is supplied by Polyface Farms. But what is really cool is that J&L Green farms supplies Polyface the piglets. It was cool eating something at a popular fast food restaurant that we had a hand in making. The pork by the way was no joke out of this world.

Matt getting bags of alfalfa for the sheep

Setting up cow fence on this beautiful day.

The cows watching our every move. They knew what
we were up to. Couldn't wait to get to new pasture.
It's really exciting calling the cows and watching them
run to the new field.

Again sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy our little adventures we have every week. We will be getting more and more busy as Spring goes on, but we are looking forward to it. Our farming experience is becoming more satisfying every week as we learn more skills and are able to apply those skills on the farm. See you next week!

After the side by side we lifted the ATV's front
wheels onto the back of the Kubota, while
Mark and Matt held the back of the ATV
in the air Josh drove the other ATV
underneath the back wheels. It just fit. If
that isn't redneck I don't know what is!

Loaded the broken side by side onto the
pressure washed trailer