We decided the path could really benefit from the addition of some trees for shade while we are sitting and watching the kids play. So, we ordered 25 American Plum trees, 5 chokecherry trees and a single Eastern Red Cedar (because that’s all they had for sale).
Planting was a family affair. Daughter drove her car with the trees in the back and shovels. Husband and I would dig the holes and the kids would work together to plant the trees.
The problem with getting out there was that Daughter had ice cream and Carnitas the pig really, really wanted it.
It’s been a few months since we planted the trees and it’s been not great. They were eaten. We put tree collars on them. They were smacked and broken by hail. They were potentially eaten again, in spite of the collars. We have maybe 8 left. /sigh
I wanted to immediately put up some swings for the kids. Give them something to keep them occupied on the property.
I bought a 4x6x12 board and 1/2 inch x 2 feet threaded rods.
I also bought the swings and the swing brackets off Amazon.
I put the board up at 10 feet because that is where we intend to have the platform for this section start.
This is where things get tricky. I left the kids with Husband and went out with the hammer drill to drill holes in the pole and put it up. Turns out I neither had the right drill nor the right drill bit. I thought using a paddle drill bit would be the best idea but boy, it’s not. I had to pull it out every few seconds to get rid of the wood chips so it wouldn’t get stuck. It took FOREVER to drill a single hole. Then it killed the drill. It got so hot drilling that hole that I had to stop and let it cool down before doing the other hole.
The next problem is hoisting the board up there alone. It’s really heavy. So I propped it up and bolted it loosely to one side. Then I put a rope around the other side and started hoisting it up for the second bolt. Now yes, it should have two bolts on each side. Drill couldn’t handle it though so I settled with one and the intent to put another in later.
Covid-19 has changed a lot of things in the world. Our property can now be added to the list. Being stuck home with the kids we decided we really needed more to do. It had to be on our property because the oil drilling has made it uncomfortable to walk the road like we used to.
Really ruins the view
So Husband took the tractor out and made a path. We made some plans. Planted some flags and had the electric company out to put up 24 telephone poles along the way. We had this large pile of telephone poles we got for free from the railroad.
They got them all up quick and then we wandered the path admiring their work and dreaming.
This is a large structure that is going to have four platforms on it just for hanging out. We have two separate structures going up near each other. This pic shows husband evaluating the distance between poles for accuracy. Our measuring is on point, obviously. This set of poles will be a rope swing. The one near it is going to be a ladder climber.Next on the path are the two poles I was most excited about- the zipline!50 feet apart these poles will have the zipline going over the path. You can see the corner tower poles in the back there. Husband envisions a rustic lookout being built here.On to the teepee climber. These poles will host a triangle climber structure with the middle left open for the tractor to go through.This is the exact center of our property and will have a clubhouse tower on it that I intend to put a larger zipline up on when we put the rest of the poles up on the other half of the property.
As you can see we have a lot of plans. Expensive plans. We believe it will take years to finish all of these. This is the back part of our property. We have more poles and more acres to add on to when this half is finished.
I have been busy during quarantine preparing the greenhouse for spring planting. I have bags and bags of leaves from my work to use as mulch. My son’s old bed frame as a nice trellis area and a drive to get it done.
First I had to dig a trench under the wood frame for the greenhouse and fill it with rocks. I got to thinking that having planting beds against the frame would really speed up rotting of the greenhouse. After brainstorming several solutions with the people at permies.com I decided the easiest, and probably most effective, would be trenching and filling with rock, making a french drain of sorts under the greenhouse frame.
Then I broad forked the in ground greenhouse beds. Our ground is hard clay and this wasn’t easy! Then the kids assisted me in spreading mulch.
Then I put out the giant pots. I intend to use these to plant things the ground squirrels can’t resist eating. These are not filled yet but I have started the process by putting a bunch of dead branches in the bottom of the pots. I will fill them with compost as soon as I can get some.
I hung some pots up around the walls for storage and because I love the look. Added solar lights, which aren’t super bright at night but work well enough and I do enjoy the look of the lights.
I intend to make a potting bench on the right side of the back wall. I have water barrels coming and am going to wait for them before I build the bench. All in all I am excited to start planting!
I debated how I would write this post and decided I would write about several different categories. I am basing my opinions off our current American Guinea Hogs versus the commercial pigs we raised several years ago.
Temperament
I have enjoyed these pigs. Our big boar is the kids favorite. In fact, they petitioned heavily for his continued existence on the farm. He’s gentle with the kids and with other animals. I have no fear of him attacking anyone. Though I should say that my husband and the pig hate each other. We had two sows who were calm and easy to work with. The third was not as great. She did make some half-hearted efforts to bite me several times. The babies have been pretty easy to handle. They’re friendly but don’t particularly like to be touched.
They are easy on the fences and most everything else around. I have had to reinforce a few spots but that is mostly from separating the boar from the sows. He made a pretty good effort in the beginning to get back to them, then his lazy nature won out and he hasn’t tried since.
Size
This is highly variable I’ve found. Our boar is approximately 350lbs. The sow we bought with him was around 250lbs. We bought two other sows and they topped off at around 170lbs each. Their kids are still quite small at 8 months of age. I was really hoping they’d grow like their Dad, but it isn’t looking like it.
The smaller size is nice when handling them. They are still all muscle but we were able to shove them onto the horse trailer without too much effort. This may also speak to their temperament.
Hardiness
The cold does not appear to bother them once they are grown enough to be weaned. Like all other pigs they cannot handle the cold while piglets. They have thick, long black hair that keeps them cozy with minimal effort on my part. The downside to this being that scraping and skinning involves A LOT of hair. It’s everywhere at butcher time.
Time Investment
These pigs obviously take much longer to grow to butcher size. I’d estimate about two years before they’ve stopped growing entirely.
Feed Input
I think this probably equals out to a commercial hog. I don’t feed them anything from Spring to Fall. They graze the property with the occasional table scrap snack. They get FAT on grazing alone. However, I feed during the winter. As these pigs have to be kept for a longer period of time the feed input probably equals out to a heavily fed, short duration commercial hog.
Quality of Meat
They are delicious. Some of the best tasting meat we’ve ever had. Even considering that one of them was 3 years old the meat is just perfect. It isn’t tough. The flavor, again, amazing. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, the quantity leaves something to be desired. Check out this pork chop. I laughed so hard. Once you cut the fat off these pigs there just isn’t a whole lot left. We did get a ton of lard and we’ve been cooking with it. It adds great flavor to everything. Husband has been joking that we’ll be out of pork by the fall, and we killed 6 pigs. It may not be a joke, we really might eat it all by then.
