Who's Your Pig Farmer?

We drove to Eureka (very northwest Montana) this weekend to get in a little camping in near Lake Kookanusa and to pick up our large black barrow hogs from Cranky Carl's Farm.

Cranky Carl is married to Gritty Gretchen; their nicknames are apt descriptors. Use your imagination. Carl made a dive into mud and manure to catch a runaway piglet, and our awe/admiration just grew from there. Our two blacks, roughly three months and probably 90 pounds each, are surprisingly mellow compared to the skittish pink Yorkshires we had last year. We also picked up another couple of younger piggies for our neighbor, and these guys are about a month old, and iddy biddy. Gretchen plucked them out from their pen, and with the help of her two young boys, put the piglets on their backs, sloshed some betadine over their bottoms, then made quick work with her 11 blade surgical knife and sliced their balls off. The two little squealers were castrated before I even fully comprehended what was happening. Apparently, she does that to help them grow faster and taste better. And probably so no one breeds her hogs without the additional "breeding fee." 

Two little newly-castrated Large Blacks, in our trailer and ready for the road!

Gritty Gretchen with a Red Wattle hog, another heritage breed.

A Mama Black and her litter.

Home at Blue Cloud. Check out the difference two months makes (one month vs. three months old). Eat up piggies!

So, after Rocky Mountain oysters, piglet style, we said our goodbyes to Cranky Carl's and headed home. A six hour drive through the rain was no fun for anybody, especially the little blacks, who started shivering on the way. But they toughed it through. They're now sharing a roof with our chickens, and the seem pretty content in their new home. For now, they are limited to the existing fenced-in pig pen with access to the chicken coop for cover; but we should have the electric fence up and running soon, and they'll have plenty of space and liberty to graze. Pigs that eat grass...and hay. It will sure be nice not to have to buy so much grain and corn this year. 

Lawn Furniture

Check out Bill's latest furniture: Adirondack chairs! Perfect for sitting in.

Spring Update

Breakin' Wind

We put (nearly) the finishing touches on the windbreak today. The latest additions include a row of Rocky Mountain Juniper (which weren't available last year when we put our order into the seedling nursery), and a handful of replacement Ponderosa Pines and Doug Firs that didn't make it through the winter. For the most part, though, it looks like well over 90% of our shrubs and trees are budding out and looking great! There are a few more unfilled holes waiting for trees, but we got the bulk of the work done and are super happy about it. We now have 400-ish trees/shrubs in the ground. Tonight: Aleve and early to bed.

Rocky Mountain Juniper

Big Blacks

Soon to come to the Blue Cloud farm are two "little" pigs. We're switching over from pink Hampshire hogs to a heritage breed called Large Blacks.  The hogs are appealing as they are meant to graze. Apparently, they are very docile, in part to their large floppy ears that block their vision. We'll train them to a hot wire, so that we can easily rotate their pasture, and see how they do. We will be getting our two black piglets from a breeding farm (Cranky Carl's) up north in Eureka, MT, within the next few weeks. This year is a test run. Hopefully, if it all goes smoothly, and if the bacon is up to par, we'll look into breeders next year.

In with the Black....

...out with the Pink.

The Pressure's On: August Updates

After two years of water bath canning, we dug in and bought a pressure canner today. Nothing against all the vinegary sweets we've created via water bath...pickled beets and dilly beans are still on our 2012 agenda. We were just ready to start putting away more of our garden. And with only 8 cubic feet of storage in our solar powered freezer, canning is the obvious way to go. Right now I'm babysitting a batch of stew that's merrily steaming along in the canner. It makes this really nice, steamy metronome sound as the weight rocks on top, and it's peaceful just to sit by and listen. So, as that cooks, here are some updates:

Straw Potatoes

 The garden went nuts this year. We've had a long growing season, and frost is not in the forecast for the next couple of weeks. A couple people asked about straw potatoes, so here is a more in depth look at the process. Our ground, as mentioned in prior posts, is hard, rocky, and low in organic content. A friend told me about growing tubers in straw. This is my second year, with good results so far. Also, this year, I can really see the straw composting and adding to our garden soil. Here's how:

1. Put potatoes on ground and cover in 12-14" of straw.

2. Water

3. Watch them grow.

4. Harvest by pulling back the straw.

The Pig Debate: Grain vs. Grass

Our hogs went to slaughter last week. Hanging, they weighed 150, 159 and 159. We were pleased, and are looked forward to the maple-brined, smoked hams and bacon. Buying grain, however, is something we didn't enjoy...especially with the price hike this year. Bill and I have been looking into options of grazing, and might be branching out into heirloom varieties of pigs who can sustain themselves on grass. Large Blacks or Red Wattlers are the ones we're particularly interested in....so next year, look for pastured pork in place of pink Yorkshires on Blue Cloud. The grazers won't put on 200 lbs in 3 months like our pinkies did...but we won't be buying grain every week either.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!
	We added a new addition to the farm. Our rooster, a gift from a neighbor up the road, is scrawny and his crow is giggle-worthy, but he is successfully fertilizing eggs! (And, he doesn't crow until about 9 AM!) We'll see if broody Blondie (at it again, and determined as ever) can hatch any chicks in about 20 days.

The Gobblers It's about that time of year again. The turkeys are getting big and about ready to be put into the freezer. Bill really improved his gobble this year and has become quite the turkey farmer. See it for yourself. (video coming soon)

Pesky Sheep

A recent speed-bump in our progress came when our neighbor's twenty head of sheep escaped their pasture....and roamed on our land for several days. Our orchard and windbreak got munched on, and, though the damage could have been worse, seeing those nibbled-down, broken, leafless branches, I was immediately deflated...and then enraged. I debated putting lamb chops into our freezer. But Bill, as always, calmed me down. And we put up an electric fence. And crossed our fingers that our neighbors will take care of their pesky roaming fluff-balls.

July

Just a few updates from the farm...

The Great Scape

Who knew that garlic scapes were so delicious? Bill and I had no idea that the curly green tops (scapes) of garlic were meant to be harvested and enjoyed as a Fourth of July delicacy from the garden. This is our first year of growing garlic, so we were clueless as to the joys of scapes until our neighbor pointed out that we should "cut those tops off."  A little oil, salt and pepper, and onto a hot grill, and they were something like a marriage of asparagus and greenbean, with a good kick garlic. Next year, more garlic scapes!

The Grill Master testing his scapes. 

"Well, that's a big coyote......waitaminute. That's not a coy..." 

We had our first wolf sighting at Blue Cloud: a big Gray, about 200 yards in front of our property. He didn't seem too afraid of us....just stared us down for nearly a minute then loped up and over the hill.

Piggie Tales

The pigs are getting huge; they have at least doubled in size in the past month. They've developed a liking for the tennis balls that Stewie incessantly carries around and sometimes drops into their area. I caught one playing with the ball by dunking it repeatedly in the water tank. Sometimes, they just carry them around in their mouths.

This is "Blue Eyes", who squeals when you scratch his ears or back.
He's running toward me for a good ear scratching.

Nothing like a good, stiff draught on a hot sunny day.

Hoggin' the feeding trough.

Dry and Drier

Despite the hot temp and life-sucking winds, our baby windbreak is green and growing. Bill put in well over 2000 feet of watering hose (PVC pipe and dripper tubes) with drippers that deliver 1 gallon per hour.  We have well over 90% survival rate since the planting.

It's an extremely dry year, and, already, there's been a significant fire (the Corral Fire) in Helena that burned down four homes. For the Fourth, the county banned all private fireworks. Local firework stands, apparently, were feeling the heat when the county issued the ban. One fine, upstanding TNT-booth owner implied that the ban was violating the Helena-area "people's freedom". I believe he was referring to that amendment about having the right to burn down our homes, as well as those of our neighbors. Anyway, it is hot, windy, and looking like it's going to be a big Montana fire year.

The Elizabethan Collar, a Stewie Staple

Stewie is, again, in the collar of shame, recovering from a leg laceration. Total vet bills to date are: well, too many to count. But this is his fourth go round in his plastic halo. I can't believe we're actually considering pet insurance for this dude. If Baxter could roll his eyes, he would.

The Hot House

Using 2 cattle panels, bent and attached to two 3x6 foot raised beds, and covered with plastic sheeting, we created a small tomato and pepper growing house. It's our newest addition to the garden project.

Wild West

My little sister is getting married, so a little Montana-style celebrating was in order. All the best of western Montana: Chico Hot Springs, the Mint Bar, Big Dorothy's (brothel turned restaurant/bar), and Last Chance Gulch, added some good juju to her bachelorette bash.

Mom of the Bride, The Bride, and Bride's Big Sis

Now, Hurry Up and Grow

The Tree Team: Dad, Jo, Bill and Me 

As I'm sitting down to type this, it is down-pouring outside and the thunder is rumbling. Rain couldn't have come at a better time. Over the past four days, "The Tree Team ," Bill, myself, my dad and my step-mom Jolynn, planted over 300 trees into our rocky, cement-like front yard. It was, admittedly, exhausting work, and we all ended up with some aches and blisters, but we are pretty proud of those beautiful rows of new little plants...that are now soaking up all that wonderful rain!

We moved efficiently; but those concrete-like clods and ever present melon-sized rocks were something to reckon with. We didn't add any supplements to our soil as we planted, only a few scoops of "topsoil" from a local sand and gravel company (which looked a lot more like organic-starved fill dirt) when we sometimes needed something finer to work with alongside all those clumps and rocks. My dad was a machine, and the farmer in him came busting out, ready to tackle anything and to keep us all moving our shovels.

A Doug Fir, bright green and ready
to grow!

The trees and shrubs came mostly bare-root from DNRC's nursery in Missoula. As I mentioned in the earlier blog, the windbreak consists of 7 rows:




Outside row: Caragana
6th row: Juniper and Honeysuckle
4th and 5th rows: Ponderosa Pine and various shrubs
3rd row: Douglas Fir and Nanking Cherry
2nd row: Green Ash and Snowberries
Inner row: Serviceberries

We pre-dug the holes with the mini-ex a few weeks ago (see last blog post), so the holes were extremely dry and hard to work. Bill and I hadn't planned to put up any deer-fencing, as it truly is rare to see deer (mostly Muleys) hanging around by our place. However, after working to get those trees into the ground, we decided we'd rather not risk it, and we plan to put up an electric fence shortly, in hopes to deter whatever deer are in search of some yummy new growth.

The watering system is not yet in place, but will consist of a series of PVC, black plastic water hose, and emitters for a drip irrigation system.

Other updates: 

We finally conquered the relocation of the hen house! It took some scheming, but Bill figured it out.

The Hen House on rollers.

How to move a shed with an 18V cordless drive...
...oh, and a winch!

We rolled it about 100 feet south, away from our generator and sewage drain field, to a flatter pasture area. Using a 2-ton car jack, we elevated it and stabilized it on two 4x4's.  Then we lifted it again, high enough to slide in sections of 2x4 track and several 5"  "roller" logs. With the roller logs sandwiched between the 4x4's and the 2x4's, we pulled the house forward using a hand winch attached to the back of the truck, leap-frogging the track and rollers as we moved the house along.  Easy peasy!  Thank you YouTube!
We even managed to turn the thing 90 degrees by slowly shifting the angles of the logs and pulling from one corner.




The main reason for the shed move was to accommodate our newest farm addition: pigs!

After the building was in place, we put up fencing to enclose about 1000 square feet of pasture. We opted for cattle panels instead of hog panels to save a few bucks; the hole spacing is a little wider, but it's small enough to contain our 50lb "piglets".  We used some recycled house logs for the corner posts and some left over t-posts to break up the 16-ft panels. To help build the fence we finally bought an iron tamp bar, which made all the difference in digging rocky areas and securing posts. Should have had that in hand when we first moved in.Bill framed in a wall/door to split up the hen house, to accommodate the pigs as well.

Building fence around the "new" hog/chicken house.

We brought our  little piggies to Blue Cloud late last night. They weren't too pleased about the bumpy truck ride to our house and squealed to let us know it, but they seem to be getting along nicely now in their grassy pasture. All we need to do now is build a feeder, and we're set.

We purchased the pigs from a Hutterite colony near Choteau.  I guess the price of pork has gone up drastically since last year, increased from 1 to nearly 2 dollars per pound for wiener pig. But we're sure happy to have them on the farm. After we unloaded them late last night (a tricky affair from the back of our pickup truck), Bill and I stood at the fence panel, awe-struck that we finally did it, and smiling to hear their little grunts as they munched on the grass. Butchering time should be around August. Yum, bacon!

 

The Blue Cloud Bunch