Time Got Away From Us
We haven’t given a detailed update on things around the farm since 2019. You can thank Covid for our complete loss of time. We did a lot of working from home with our regular jobs and mostly kept the farm up and running and did lots of thinking. In fact, we are still thinking of our plans for this farm. We sold our cows - they decided to escape ALL THE TIME. We still have laying hens and continue to process meat birds along with pigs. So what’s changed? LOTS… let’s talk.
We grew as a family. There’s a new baby on the farm! Well 5 months new now… Ellery Patricia - she is a wonderful, loud, sweet girl and we are all in love. Gloa has taken her big sister role very seriously and has been a huge help and seems to be Ellery’s favorite person. Our lives have gotten a lot more busy with bringing kids to different places each day for care along with Gloa having dance and us dedicating some time to our dogs by doing scent work training.
We’ve been fixing up some buildings. the barn is cleaned out up top and we have put lights and electrical throughout. Super excited to finish it completely up top so we can use it for whatever our hearts desire. Maybe movie night, riding bike, playing ball with the dogs. Anything! We can’t wait! We also roofed our poor garage. Shingles were rotting and flying off in high winds. It’s safe to say that all the necessary roofs are done (I think) Might have a little more for the barn to do but can we do that next year?
We have decided we love having pigs! We have been doing two pigs at a time and this last time we did three no problem. So…. Why not do more?? We have nine pigs right now, don’t ask me to tell you all their names, I can’t remember them. Kyle did try to name one midnight but that got kicked out and that porker is now named brunch. We have our good friend Carl working with us on inputs/fencing/general care for the animals. He’s awesome to have around and an even more awesome friend. One thing we have found in our farming journey is that people are so willing to help you or be a part of something. The farming community is truly welcoming we’ve found for the most part. We have been working hard at partnering with other local farms and companies to keep the food chain local. The pigs are loving table scraps from Table on Main and eating to their hearts content on produce from Leisen Family Farm. It’s great to see food that would have been thrown out be so happily consumed by the piggies.
We are thinking about getting a perimeter fence figured out SOON. We really want hoofed animals again (think alpaca, donkey, cow, goat, sheep) but we need our perimeter secure first. We are done with the escapees and frequent surprises of animals off the property. Kyle will be hard at work this fall figuring out the path for the fencing. Wish him luck!
I think that’s all I have for updates for now. I will try to get on here more often to fill everyone in on our journey on the farm. There’s always something happening around here!
Jess
