Holding Pattern
posted on
July 26, 2020
I can’t even tell you where the time goes around here! We are in a holding pattern:
Do Hay, Get Animals to the processor, call a processor, move animals to new pastures, throw in some crazy randomness, and before you know it another week has flown by.
Rob and I have lately been discussing back and forth on how we will do more chickens next year so that we can carry more inventory through the winter. I have a feeling (a very strong validated feeling since we are always running out before our next batch is fully grown) that we won’t be able to carry much of an inventory through winter and need to grow more next year. (SEVERE HAPPY DANCE BECAUSE YOU ARE SUCH A FREAKING AWESOME CUSTOMER AND THESE ARE OUR “PROBLEMS”) Our current space and flock are tapped out with max numbers now and it would mean getting another Astra (our Guardian dog...who was hard enough to find), more fence, fencer, feeders, shelter, watering system, etc. All great problems but another huge jump. So I’ll keep you up to date on what we come up with when we come up with something.
Our Pigs are just living the life. They love being out in the woods… which is where they are now and stay there all day. There was a bunch of berries and undergrowth in their current location that they have been feasting on. I wonder if that makes their meat sweeter?
We just purchased more fences (you really can't have too many portable fences) again for starting another group of pigs. We typically have 3 different groups during the summer and 1-2 during the winter. Pigs in 4 feet of snow out in Timbuktu in the middle of winter is no fun for them or us so we try to plan it out to have the majority raised in the bulk of good weather.
The cattle are doing fantastic and just love doing their thing. Grazing, pooping, drinking, socializing, moving to new pasture, and repeat. They are also in a holding pattern, although I’m not sure what kind of crazy randomness they have in their life. Maybe it’s when Patchy (our Border Collie) follows the buggy up to check on them. They don’t care for him or any dogs.
