New Recipe just in time for Valentine's Day

Check out the new recipe I just posted on the PWP Facebook page!  Mom made a delicious Chocolate Spiced rub on a tenderloin last night for dinner.  Dad and I were pretty apprehensive at the beginning, but after I tasted it I was super impressed!  All the ingredients go together so well, and really enhances the pork.  It would be perfect for a Valentine's Day meal!  Enjoy!

Busy Afternoon ahead!

Well, we got some snow last night, about half an inch, that closed all the schools around here.  However, the snow is already gone!  Thank goodness.  It just makes a mess.  And after all the snow that we have had recently all the red mud just recently dried up enough so that I could make it to the barn and back, and not have to use 4 wheel drive and worry about getting stuck!  I am definitely looking forward to the warm weather that is supposed to be coming tomorrow through Monday, because it has certainly been cold the past couple of days!  We have had the wood stove in the farrowing room burning as much and as hot as it can because it really makes a big difference in the entire barn.

On Monday, Dad and I spent some time moving some pigs around from the cold nursery up to the finishing barn.  It took us almost an hour and a half to get 35 pigs loaded!  It can be very frustrating trying to move them, because ten 150 pound pigs don't always go where you want them to.  Or they stop in the hallway and refuse to move anymore, and there isn't much you can do about it by yourself.  So I would get up and use our rattle paddle that uses noise to get them to move and we don't have to hit them.  Dad used the sorting board behind them so they couldn't back up, and with some patience they finally moved and we got them all loaded up!  I checked in on them in the finishing house, and they are doing great up there.  

Dad and I also replaced the plastic curtain that hangs up on the sides that helps keep it warmer in the barn on Monday afternoon.  It took some time, but it's much better now.  Next week we have to replace the curtain on the other side. It's a pretty long process, because you have to tear the old curtain down, pull the nails out the boards, and then measure out the new plastic sheet.  Then, we had to take the rod that holds the curtain up, and put it through the new curtain, then hang it back up and nail it back in.  It's really amazing how much heat the curtains keep in the barn!  Then in the summertime, we can lower them so that we can let the hot air out during the day, and put it back up if it gets too cool at nighttime.

This afternoon is going to be a busy one for me!  Dad just left to get the pigs loaded up to take them to Harrisonburg, and then I have to go feed four bales of hay to some of our cows.  After that, I have to work on moving some sows around and back to the gestation barn, and pressure wash and then disinfect some pens in the hot nursery so that I can move the weaned pigs over tomorrow.  It's a big job, but it is very important that the pens get very clean and disinfected before I move new pigs over!  

We had two new sets of babies born this week!  One litter was born on Monday morning, she had five babies that are all doing well.  Then we had another littler born this morning!  They were still trying to figure out the whole walking and eating thing when I was down there this morning.  It's pretty entertaining to watch- they will be trying to go one way, and their legs won't cooperate with them so they go another!  It doesn't take long for them to figure it out though- by the time I go down later this afternoon they will have it down.

New Picture and Recipe!

Notice the new background for the blog?  That is actually a picture that I took on our farm!  It is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken- in the beginning of May when all the flowers are blooming and the grass is super green and growing.
Also, check out our facebook page (www.facebook.com/papaweaver) for a new recipe!  This is a super easy recipe that I make on a regular basis- my boyfriend even makes it!  I have made it for both breakfast and dinner and love it both ways!