It's Cold, but at least it's sunny!

It's cold out there!  That wind just makes everything that much colder, but I was super happy to see the sun when I woke up this morning.  All the clouds and gray don't make the cold much fun when you have to be outside all the time.  Everyone has been staying busy on the farm.  Matt is getting ready to head back to Blacksburg this weekend, so starting next week it's just going to be me and Dad on the farm taking care of everything.  My brother is the one that always grinds all the feed, and I have been informed that I am going to take over that job starting next week.  Today I'm supposed to be getting some "training" on how to do everything.  It takes a long time to grind and mix all the batches of feed that we have for all of our pigs!  We have a breeding barn mix, a hot nursery mix, a cold nursery mix, and then a grower mix.  The pigs at all those stages need different levels of protein in their diets so that they can continue to grow big and strong, so they need different amounts of soybean meal in their diets.  The little pigs also get some special mixtures that taste like molasses so that they eat their feed better, because it can be a shock to go from drinking all milk to just feed!  That why we try to start feeding them some feed before they are weaned so that they are more used to it when they go in the hot nursery.
We have had a bunch of baby pigs born this week!  Mostly white ones, but we also have 11 red and black polka dotted ones!  They are super cute.  On weeks like this, I am very glad that we have barns to put our pigs in.  The baby pigs like it about 80 degrees on them so that they stay warm, and the sows need it about 65-70 degrees in the barn.  It would be very hard to get it that warm if they were outside pigs!  We have the wood stove going, the propane heat on, and heat lamps on the baby pigs so that they can stay the temperature they need to be.  It's pretty warm in there for me- I have to take my jacket off if I'm in there for very long and I still get hot!  But, the baby pigs love it.  They are growing and playing with each other and doing a lot of eating and sleeping under the heat lamp.  
Dad is on his way home from all of his deliveries in Northern Virginia and Fredericksburg, and then around Orange, and as soon as he gets home I am headed out to make more deliveries!  I have to go to Albemarle to make a delivery to Arganica, and then drop some sides off at Kite's Hams so that they can cure our bacon for us so that in about six weeks that bacon will be ready for everyone to buy and eat!