Busy and Cold On the Farm

It has been a super busy two weeks here on the farm!  After Dad's combine broke down right after we got in the field good, we had to search to find a combine that we could use just until we could get everything harvested for the season.  Luckily, we have a neighbor down the road who had finished with his harvesting so that we could borrow his for the rest of the season.  He has a much smaller, and slightly older, combine that we had been using, but at least it works!  It makes quite a difference going from a combine that harvests 4 rows at a time to a combine that only does 3! 
I have spent some time in the combine, but Dad has been doing the majority of the combining this year.  He and Mom went to Williamsburg for Dad to go to a Virginia Pork Industry Board meeting, so I was in charge of getting the combine up and going and shelling corn all by myself that day.  It took me about 20 minutes from the time that I could unload one load until I was back unloading another load.  I spent more time going back and forth from the truck to unload than I did in the field harvesting- that's a good and bad thing, because it meant we were getting a lot of corn, but it would have been nice to have spent more time in the field getting more corn off!
It has also been REALLY cold on the farm.  All of the animals are doing pretty well with it.  We have all the curtains up which really helps keep in the heat.  We also take bales of straw and put them in the pens in our finishing house for the pigs to break apart and snuggle down in at night time.  They love them!  Pigs will play with (and destroy) anything.  They love old tires, and pretty much anything else they can break apart.  We can put in whole bales of straw, and then the pigs will root at them and break them down, and then sleep in them.  We have to put new bales of straw in every couple of days to give them new bedding to sleep in since it is so cold.
We also got our first real snow this Thursday!  Luckily it wasn't much- especially when compared to all the snow we got the first time last winter!  We can put trucks in 4 wheel drive and still get around pretty easily.  Matt had to put out hay for all the cows since there was snow on the ground, that way they don't have to dig around to try to find grass.  Yesterday was the first "warm" day we have had in a couple of weeks!  It's amazing that after there are weeks of 20 degree temperatures and wind, suddenly 35 and no wind is fantastic! 
Today Dad and I were at the Route 3/Gordon Road Farmers Market for the last Farmers Market of the season.  Thanks to everyone who braved the cold and came out to see us!  Dad made an awesome breakfast casserole that he was sharing to some of the first customers, using cinnamon/raisin bread, sausage, and apples.  It was super tasty and would be great to use for Christmas Morning! 
I will put the recipe on Papa Weaver's Facebook page- www.facebook.com/papaweaver.

It's Cold Out There!

While everyone was trying to get out of the freezing cold today and that horrible wind, we were out there in it, still farming and taking care of all of the animals.  When it gets this cold, we just put on more clothes to try to stay warm!
I had the pig barns nice and warm today since it was so cold outside.  I got a fire started, the propane heat was already on, and kept the fire going the whole day.  It's amazing what a difference it makes when the fire is going to how warm it stays in the barn for the little pigs!
I almost ran out of feed in the tank for the hot nursery pigs today.  I told Matt so that he could grind a batch of feed for Dad to bring down tomorrow so that we will have enough food for them.  Dad was able to get in the combine last Thursday to get new corn in the tank.  We have about 1000 bushels of corn in the grain bin right now.  Dad was in the middle of combining today and I was getting ready to go combine for him, when the combine broke.  He isn't really sure what's wrong with it right now, because he had to leave to go to Harrisonburg to pick up meat to deliver in the morning. 
The corn didn't do as well as it normally does this year because of the lack of rain we got all summer.  Normally, we get between 100-120 bushels of corn per acre, and this year we are only getting about 60.  That is pretty discouraging, because it's always nice to have extra corn in the grain bin, so we are sure we don't run out before next year's harvest.  Hopefully on the other farm that we rent and down by the river we will get more bushels per acre, but I am sure it won't be close to what it was last year.
Hopefully tomorrow the wind won't blow so badly, so we can stay a little warmer.  I'm looking forward to Wednesday when the wind isn't supposed to blow!

Busy Thursday

Thursdays can be super busy days on the farm in the pig barns.  We wean pigs every two weeks- when they are about four weeks old.  That's when they are eating "big pig food", grain, and are ready to be off their mom.  On Wednesday I got most of the bigger pigs moved around in the cold nursery and hot nursery, so all I had to finish up on Thursday before I could wean them was wash up the pens and disinfect.  The disinfecting part is super important, because that helps keep our pigs much healthier.  We start them on feed a week before they are weaned so that they can eat more grain and be more used to it before they are weaned and go into the hot nursery. 
Sometimes, weaning can be a very frustrating process.  The little pigs can be very tricky.  We catch them and put them into a big wagon sort of thing so that they can be moved from one room to the other.  But those pigs do everything they can not to be caught.  It's much easier if you have two people weaning, because you can work together to catch them.  But when they see you coming from the back, they immediately run to the front of the pen to get away from you.  So most of the time it takes a LOT of patience to get all of the pigs caught! 
After that, I had to wash up the farrowing room and disinfect, and then move the sows in that are going to have babies next week.  Most of the time the sows are pretty easy to move because they have been over there before.  It gets tricky when there is a gilt, or a female pig that has not had babies before, and you have to get her in.  Sometimes when they have to walk from one barn to the next in the aisle that we have built, they get scared because of the sunlight coming into the barn.  They can be very sensitive about that, and get apprehensive about moving.  The best thing to do when that happens is just stand behind them so they can't back up, but just let them get used to it.  If you are patient, they will eventually go where they are supposed to.  They just have to have some time to adjust.
I got two moved that are due to have babies towards the beginning of the week, so I have to finish up on Monday!