Diamond

We got a horse named Diamond. No we weren't in the market for a horse. They are high maintenance and expensive. But this lady, Rhonda, from church who totally knows horses thought that Diamond would be perfect for our family. And she really needed a new home for her. It was someone else's anyway and she wasn't able to care for her anymore. So we told Rhonda that we were very cautious about just getting a horse, we know nothing about them. Also, so far we've raised our animals for meat, and for our own good. Horses are more recreational. Anyway, Rhonda told us that if its not working out, then we can give Diamond back.
So we thought this would be a perfect time for us to see if maybe a horse is a good fit for us. So far its been just ok. I mean, Diamond is totally broke (that's horse language for totally trained and rideable). She is sweet, calm around the kids, has never shown aggression. I mean, she's exactly what anyone would want in a horse. We haven't fallen in live with her. We have barely riden her. We had to go out and learn and get all the riding stuff first. Great deals on Craigslist. Nathan has gotten used to riding her, but me and the boys haven't. I feel like since she's good with Nathan, it needs to be him leading the way when it comes to us getting on her. Anyway, here are pics

Baby piglets

I cannot believe I haven't Blogged about baby piglets yet. Well, it was probably better to wait anyhow.  When they were born, there was a lot of drama and emotion and things that just didn't go right. We were sad to lose half of mama pigs litter, but its all learning. We will do things much differently next time. Also, she had her piglets on the coldest night of the year, in the middle of a blizzard and a couple piglets died because of that. Others died because mama squished them. There was also a ton of straw in there and when we went out to check on them, mama was rooting around the straw, burying the piglets, they were suffocating under the deep layers of straw. It was our first time and her first time, in horrible cold stormy conditions. Ugh. But we have 5 sweet little guys and they have been such a joy for us!

Pig slaughter

So we had our feeder pig slaughtered a couple weeks ago. It was very cool seeing the process. Bernadino is the guy in town that comes out to do the service. And he is just a down home country dude that's been doing this all his life. He was very respectful and clean about what he was doing. He was super friendly and he even threw Hank a pig hoof! Haha. Also, the neighbor kids were over watching the whole thing. It was so stinkin country, I loved it.

Snow day

Last week we had a great snow day. It was so fun watching the storm roll in the night before. After quite a mild winter, it was great for the boys to finally be able to play in the snow!

Indio Fair

Last week we had a great time at the Indio fair. Colt's only requests were to get cotton candy and to ride the ferris wheel... Well we got to work right away! Here are some highlights of the day.


Cotton candy... CHECK!




This was funny because we left our real horse on the farm, to pay to ride on plastic horses. Hahaha.










The boys rode lots of rides!



Watched a Creepy puppet show. Ooo, I hate creepy puppets! Bleeeehhh!



Colt was so brave climbing the rock wall!



This was the first year we didn't bring a stroller, so by the end the boys got shoulder rides. I know, they are spoiled.



We certainly didn't spend much time looking at farm animals, for obvious reasons.
But! I could NOT BELIEVE HOW CUTE THESE BABY PIGGIES WERE! And, our mama pig is pregnant right now so I cannot wait to see her cute little babies! I cannot believe how cute and little and pink and fresh these piglets were. And our grown pigs are so fat and stinky and dirty. Hahaha



Ostrich races were classic!




Ok. Do you see anything wrong with this sign!?! Ugh! I'm pretty sure they had paramedics standing by that booth!




And this was the drive home... By the way, we did ride the ferris wheel too! Just didn't get a pic. Great day at the fair!

Pigs

We have thoroughly enjoyed pigs. They definately live up to their name! They will eat and eat and eat and eat. And they eat anything. In the farm world, pigs are very sufficient gardeners. We had them in one area for a few months, then we moved them over to a completely different area. The new area was pure tumbleweeds, and big rooted brush, about three feet tall dense dry weeds. Within two days, the pigs had the new area completely plowed, and fertilized with not a weed in sight. Amazing. Very efficient gardeners, just like all the books say.
It's been very cool learning how to rotate crops and animals to most effectively use up the land and space. Here are some pics of the pigs:


This is what they look like when they eat. All three butts just porkin away. The one on the right is the one we castrated ourselves (see last summers post) and he is also one that we are raising for pork. The correct term for that is "our feeder". The others are mom and dad (sow and boar) who we are keeping for breeding.




Daddy pig



Pepper pots. That's momma. And she is going to have babies in march. If all goes well, she will have about 8-10 babies and we will sell them for about 60$ each. We'll see how that goes. Fun fact: sows are pregnant for 3months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. :-)
And hello, look at the nuts on daddy pig. Look at those nuts! I had to feel them and just holding one of them is like holding a mango in your hand.



Colt hangin out with daddy while doing some farm chores with me.

Enjoying our beef

This is our cow given back to us in pretty little packages. This was only half too! Really, our meat is very lean because we didn't take the time to "finish him out" the proper way. You are supposed to corral them into a confined area, then feed them grain for a period of time. You can do it for a month or up to 4 or 5 months. Well we built his area and started on the grain, very slowly at first. He was doing good so we up'd his grain. After a couple weeks we noticed we was getting lethargic and he had diarrhea. This can potentially kill a cow. So we got nervous and put him back out to pasture. We also called and scheduled Bernadino to come out right then because we were afraid that the cow wouldn't get any better. But by the time Bernadino came, our cow was back to normal, so we could've waited to butcher. We were eager though and we are new at all of this. We just wanted our meat I guess, so we got back very lean meat as a result. When you spend the time at the end to finish them off on the grain, it not only fattens them up, but it makes their meat very sweet.
So anyway, we've enjoyed lots of roasts, made beef jerky, and Nathan has his steak and eggs. It's been nice to have " unlimited" ground beef for burgers or to have in easy casseroles as well.
So now Molly is our lonley heiffer. We wondered about maybe getting a companion for her, but she's doing great without a man in her life. We are actually looking for a calf to raise up with her. We figure our freezer full of beef will last about a year, and by then, our calf will be ready to finish off. So we'll see what we do. We just kind of keep our eyes peeled for a good seller, now that we know what we are looking for and what we can handle.








This pic is of Molly socializing with the neighbors horses. I'm serious, she loves them and sometimes I see her totally talking to and flirting with one of them.

Marinating beef jerky