Nigella & Bertie are parents......

Not long born! 

I sometimes forget that not everyone follows us on Facebook so after having supper with friends last night this post is for them and anyone else who is not on Facebook. 

Five days old and rather happy!

Two weeks today our lovely gilt Nigella gave birth.  She showed no signs the day before that she was going into labour. She had looked huge for ages and we had an approximate due date for a week later, but well laid plans never really pan out!  

While doing the morning milking Michael appeared at the door with camera on shoulder so I knew it was either immanent or had happened.  Once milking was done we headed down to the barn and Nigella was laying down with lots of little piglets attached and feeding.  It was a little disappointing not to have been there with her, especially after having been there for our goats, but from what we had read pigs can either give birth really fast or it could be an hour between each piglet. 

Nigella had a total of 10 piglets but we did lose one, we think she must have trodden on it or either laid on it while birthing. But for her first litter she did a great job.

Nigella has been a great mum so far and her piglets are getting bigger by the day.  I think the only thing we where taken aback about was how small they are especially in comparison to mum.  They have learnt to move quickly and get out of Nigella's way when she gets up and moves around or when she is getting ready to nurse.  She likes to dig all the straw up and get into a comfy position then does a lot of grunting and all the piglets come running and latch onto the "milk bar".

They are fun to watch especially in comparison to the baby goats as the piglets like to nest and they burrow deep into a mound of straw. We have to be really careful when heading into their pen to feed Nigella as you don't always see them.

We did have our first break away yesterday morning.  Our barn is in a gully and while we where bringing the horses up from their paddock we noticed a little bit of movement at the entrance.  We initially thought it was our other pigs heading out to their paddock for a mid morning root up but there where too many heads!  Nigella was a little frantic by the time we had got down but it did not take too long to herd them back in with her.  We have created a separate area for them as our barn is an open barn so all the pigs are able to sleep and nest together in the evenings when they come back in from rooting everything up!  In a couple of weeks Nigella and her piglets will be in their own paddock and the piglets will be learning to respect the electric fence which will be entertaining. I can imagine we will be hearing lots of little squeals! 

This won't be our last litter this year as Ina is due in August and Delia all being well will be due in September.  

It's nearly May......

Straw bales beds in the greenhouse

I think I have come to the conclusion that April is that blur blar month that you are willing it to warm up, dry out and green up so you really feel like Spring is actually here.  This April has been  colder than last year but when I compare it to two years ago it is pretty much on a par, well apart from the ice storm we had!  

We were thankful for the rain this month as our cistern had run dry in the house and we had to start using the well again for water.  We have spent all winter bucketing water from the stream to keep as much pressure off the well as possible.  Michael is installing our solar pump this weekend onto the capped spring we have so this will help with the watering of the animals and greenhouse and will reduce the pressure on our dug well.

Napa cabbage and beets

Seeding started in March in the greenhouse, thanks to straw bales and horse manure everything has germinated and is growing really well.  With the colder weather we have used vapour barrier over the beds with floating row covers to keep the heat in overnight. Some of the crops are so ready to go into the ground but overnight temperatures and a water logged field (who thought I would be saying that after last years lack of rain!) This has meant that we have not been able to get out and cultivate yet or start transplanting some of our crops. With  tomatoes, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers being potted up the greenhouse is starting to get a little crowded! 

Our new egg layers

Even though April is that dreary month it always seems to fly by. We have been busy with the arrival of new chicks, meat and eggs layers, milking our goats Eva and Elly.  I should say I have been milking Eva rather successfully and after a week of milking her in the mornings we are starting to get a quart of milk from her which is rather exciting.  Once we are up to twice a day let the cheese making commence.  We are also freezing her milk for our soap making that we will start again in the fall.  Elly Belly is a whole different story!  Trying to milk a goat who is five and never been milked is a rather steep learning curve! So no milk for us from her but we are now at the stage she will get into the stanchion on her own, will eat her grain here, and we are able to wash her udders. As of this morning I think I managed to get ten squirts of milk out of her before she started kicking and trust me for such a small goat she can really kick! Each day that passes she is getting better.

Nigella

We are also going to be farrowing shortly.  Nigella one of our gilts is pregnant, we were planning on covering both our gilts this year but it seems that Bertie had been ahead of the game and Nigella is getting larger by the day.  Both Michael and I are feeling rather sorry for her, she is huge! She waddles around the paddock has a root up or a drink and then lays down for a rather long nap! Ina has just come back into heat so we are hoping that Bertie covers her this time and then it will be another 3 months 3 weeks 3 days before the next litter arrives.

The farm is also taking part in the Healthy Soils Project that is ran through OMAFRA.  As we grow into our farm we are slowly taking back more land. With this new project that is running it has allowed us to have a technician come out and take soil samples from our growing area and also from another field we are looking at putting into vegetable production.  This project will allow us to see what cover crops we can use at the end or the beginning of the season to increase soil fertility and health. We will  participate in this next year as some of our fields leave grain production and go into pasture.

We have now sold all our CSA Vegetable shares for this season.  We feel rather humbled by the support we have been given and are excited to see all our returning members and meet our new members over the coming months.  We always plant more than we need and if mother nature works with us this year we will be looking at adding a Saturday pick up from the farm.  Our aim is to develop the CSA and to get a big enough membership so we do not have to attend a farmers market.  I will miss the hustle and bustle of a market, chatting with customers and other vendors but with all we have to do on the farm just between Michael and I something has to give.  We have found, out of everything we do the market is one of the most time consuming things to get ready for.  We are able to attend markets as an occasional vendor,  so we might do this for long weekends or special events but our aim is to have the CSA large enough that we can still manage everything between the two of us.