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Snow Day

2/18/2015

Today is day three of being stuck at home. We got an inch of ice and last night an inch of snow on top. We live on the top of a hill and I have been unable to get down it, except on foot. The secondary road is still covered in ice. Here in Tennessee, we are ill prepared for such weather and the county we live in apparently only salts the major roads. I would rather be taking my days off work to do things around the farm, but I guess this is mother nature's way of telling me to slow down and rest. The upside is that I have been catching up on some reading and updating the website.

We are expecting a low of zero tonight. This is the lowest temperature I have seen in the ten years that I have lived in the state. I have been worried about the bees and the pigs making it through the next few days. This weekend, Nick and I wrapped the beehives with insulation and also added insulation to the roof of the pig house. I have packed two additional bales of straw in the pig house and half covered the entrance with several old towels to keep the heat in. I have been carting out bottles of warm water for them to drink the last few days. Still, I worry about tonight. I think I'm more upset about them being in the ice and snow than they are. I'm pretty sure that if we had a garage, I'd probably try to herd them into it and lay out sleeping bags for them. I'm sure all the experienced pig farmers out there would laugh hysterically over all of this, but being a first timer, I'm a bit like a nervous mother.

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A few lessons in fencing

2/15/2015

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We have decided to start a pasture rotation program for the pigs. They are active foragers and rooters and can be hard on the grass. Not to mention pasture rotation is healthier for the land and helps to keep the smell down. We have a large fenced pasture that was previously used for horses, which is about 18 acres. After much research, we decided to go with a wagon wheel design to make 6 smaller pastures.

With a wagon wheel design, all gates for the separate pastures meet up in a central hub. The idea is that you can move the animals into the hub and from there, into any of the other pastures with a minimal amount of effort. The other benefit is that all feeding and watering can take place from the central hub, rather than having to go pasture to pasture.

I started by using Google maps to get an areal view of the pasture and then mapped out the design on paper. I then bought land marking flags and marked out the pastures using those, to get an idea of what it would look like. I asked Nick to drive the tractor around the hub to make sure we could get it in and out when we need to haul water, hay or the pig houses around. My cleverness ended there.

A few lessons in fencing (learned the hard way):

1) When your kind neighbor lets you borrow the fence post auger and his tractor, measure the depth of the holes to make sure they are deep enough and all the same, or else you will have to go back and redo them all. Grrr....

2) If you don't want your fence posts to look like a band of drunk monkeys put them up, don't eyeball what you think is a straight line. Tie a long, highly visible string to the first and last post and use that as a guide.

3) They sell woven fence stretchers for a reason. If you try to pull a 200lb roll of fencing tight, you will likely either lose a finger or give yourself a hernia.

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Snow Day

A few lessons in fencing

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