Another full, productive month around the farm!  I love this time of year because signs of new life pop up everywhere you look.  Here’s what we accomplished in March:

+ Our biggest project of the month was the construction of the Critterfence!  We used six foot T-posts as the stakes and since we wanted to have three exits, my boys dug post holes for me and then filled with concrete for the gates.  I’m so happy to have the chickens and the deer finally away from all of the plants and trees.

+ The pigs went out to pasture!  Fred and Ethel are like an old married couple, but it was time to separate them as she (hopefully!) gets closer to delivery and will need increased feed.  Fortunately, the transition was painless and they were so gosh darn adorable.  If you haven’t seen a pig zoomie around a paddock in complete excitement and happiness, you’re missing out.

+ I removed sod to create a new bed for our potatoes this year.  Then we dug trenches (I was unhappy with the straw results last year, so we’re returning to the trench method) and whew, what a workout!  All clay and rocks, so I have a lot of amending and compost adding in my future.

+ We had a truck full of compost delivered.  I’m back with my beloved Gorilla wheelbarrow, making trip after trip after trip.

+ I mucked out the chicken coops – one of my least favorite jobs, but I had a full compost pile in just two days!

+ I direct seeded lettuce and beets.  I also started broccoli, cabbage, kale and brussels sprouts seeds.  In other seedling news, I potted up the marigolds and tomatoes into bigger pots.  I made a mistake and ordered 4″ pots instead of something smaller, so we are definitely crammed under the grow lights right now.

+ We lost Henny Penny to a surprise fox attack.  Henny Penny was one of the hens from our first year and she was very special to us.  She survived a hawk attack, sustaining an injury that left her blind in one eye.  She was a fighter and we rehabilitated her and eventually returned her back to the flock.  She was a favorite and we swear she knew her name and came when called.  Anyway, one day we noticed the detritus of an attack and after taking stock of the hens, realized that it was Henny Penny.  We were saddened but comforted that she probably didn’t even see it coming.

+ The first batch of broilers arrived!  The new hens arrived two days later with an unfortunate delay in shipping.  The poor things looked pretty weak when they arrived and we lost five within the first few days.  I’m really trying to beef up my flock this year, so we decided to supplement with more chicks from Tractor Supply.  Our current girls are exclusively Novogens, but we changed it up and bought eight Black Sex Links.  I’m excited to add a little variety to the crew.

+ I transplanted six blueberry bushes from one part of the garden into another.  I also pulled out three dead cherry trees so I can use the space to plant something new.

+ And surprise!  Our livestock guardian puppy arrived at the farm on the 26th.  I’m overwhelmed and nervous about adding him to the mix and training him correctly, but I’m excited to have his added layer of protection for our animals.  His name is Samson.

Here’s what we were doing on the farm last March 2022!

Another expensive, but really productive month on the farm!  I’ve been getting outside and working on farm chores/projects each morning (for at least 30 minutes) and that has done so much for my mental health.  Regardless of what the rest of the day looks like, I know something farm-related was accomplished and I don’t feel like an overwhelmed failure.  A few other accomplishments:

+ The biggest and most time intensive project was installing gravel on the garden pathways.  Lots and lots of hauling the wheelbarrow back and forth.  Halfway through, my husband brought home a Gorilla duel wheel wheelbarrow, and while I balked at the price, it’s worth its weight in gold!  We knocked out the rest during a long weekend and oh man, the finished project is so neat and tidy.  I’m obsessed!  It looks so great.

+ We ordered animal feed in bulk, so we’re all ready for the first batch of broilers next month.  We also ordered rolls of Critterfence to protect all of the plants and trees from deer and the chickens.  Lastly, in anticipation of little piglets this spring, I ordered items for birth including shoulder length OB gloves and materials for castration.  Oooh boy, what have we gotten ourselves into?!  I’m excited and terrified.

+ Seed starting has begun!  Tomatoes, jalapenos and marigolds are all under the grow lights and I direct seeded two types of spinach.  Much more to come.

+ I planned out a new compost system using pallets and wire we already own.  (My inspiration came from this post.)  It will go inside the food forest/garden area, making it easily accessible.

Here’s what we were doing on the farm last February 2022!

+ January is the month for purchasing!  I pre-ordered all of my chicks and ducklings (two sets of 150 broilers, 20 hens and 15 ducks!), with the first bunch arriving in mid-March.  I also ordered a ton of seeds, onion bunches, potato tubers, a few pepper starts for May arrival, and even a mushroom growing kit!  We also bought straw for the pigs.  It’s always hard to put up so much money on the front end, but I know it all pays off.

+ I started the big planning process: sketching out crop placements, figuring out what seeds to start and when, and envisioning any potential projects.  The fire in my belly for farming is coming alive again.  I can’t wait to begin.

+ I also started constructing my DIY version of a very expensive seed starting system.  I may need a few more lights, but I’m so pumped about the set up.  I now have enough room to start 500+ seeds at one time!

+ Farm story of the month: We have our two pigs together in a permanent pen for winter.  Before we moved them in, we were supposed to fill the bottom with 24+” of wood chips.  The idea is that you’re creating a “carbonaceous diaper” (a Joel Salatin term) using deep bedding materials to soak up all of the pigs’ waste products through the winter.  Well…we were feeling pretty burnt out by this point last fall and only filled the pen to about 6″.  And man oh man, do I regret that.  We definitely didn’t think this one through!  A good farm is a non-smelly farm so we quickly needed more carbon products to cover manure.  And with no excess supply, that meant we had to start using the wood chip pathway around the food forest/garden.  Although I would be totally justified in sobbing at all of the wasted work, I’ve actually been quite unhappy with the wood chip pathway and this was the perfect excuse to pull it out.  So that’s a lot of what I’ve been up to this month: shoveling wood chips from the paths and flinging them into the pig pen.  Here’s hoping I have enough to last us until March, when they go back on pasture!

+ Our chickens started laying in odd, inconvenient spots, like in with the straw bales and under the front porch.  We gave them about a week of forced morning time in the coops and they quickly remembered the correct place to lay.  I much prefer collecting eggs from the nesting boxes than playing hide-and-seek all over the property.

+ I started laying the foundation for a hugelkultur bed, an idea I’ve been intrigued by and want to try out on a small scale.  We still have so many poplar logs from the storm last summer and I think this is a great way to use them.  We’ll see how this goes.

+ We’ve been selling our eggs to a few friends.  The price of eggs at the store is crazy right now so people think we’ve got a great deal.  (And for free-range non-GMO organic eggs, we definitely do!)  One more little financial avenue to paying off the mortgage.

+ Lastly, I decided to start an “accomplishment journal” for the farm.  Last year, I constantly felt behind or incompetent and never really acknowledged how much I achieved.  So for 2023, I’ve started using a wall calendar to jot down the things I do each day.  Definitely a confidence booster.

Here’s what we were doing on the farm last January 2022!

Please forgive this NOT seasonally appropriate homestead post – I’ve had it in my draft folder for months and want to get it published before year’s end!

This was the second year of raising meat chickens and we have learned so much.  In year one, we raised two batches: 50 in the first batch and 100 in the second.  This year in 2022, we raised two batches of 150 each.  We raise a heritage breed meat chicken called the Freedom Ranger.  They take a little longer to grow compared to the popular Cornish Cross, but we feel the extra time is worth it!  This variety produces tender, succulent meat with high levels of omega-3 fats.  SO delicious.

Below are four things we’ve learned along the way:

1. The startup costs can be expensive.

One of the hardest parts of homesteading has been starting from nothing.  It took quite a bit of money to get going.  From constructing the tractors to buying feed to acquiring all of the supplies for processing, it felt like cash was flying out of our wallets.  I’m sure it’s possible to find many of the items secondhand or frugally, but we weren’t that lucky.

2. Our first tractors were way too heavy.

Our first year, we mimicked a Joel Salatin design, but made one fatal design flaw: we used 2x4s throughout!  It was insanely heavy and required four of us to move it each morning.  For year two, we knew we wanted something different.  We went with two of what is technically an enclosed chicken run.  We added wood “skis” on the bottom for added stability and a rope for moving.  It’s not perfect and we have some improvement ideas for 2023, but we’re getting closer!

3. The everyday raising is super easy.

We moved the tractors each morning to fresh pasture and filled waterers and feeders at the same time.  On super hot days, we’d go in a few times to make sure there was enough water, but other than that, the day-to-day raising was very hands off.

4. Processing is a gratitude-filled experience.

It’s hard to describe the feeling on processing day.  It’s almost a spiritual experience.  These animals have been in our care for eleven weeks and we worked hard to create the best possible life for them.  They had plentiful food and drink, warm sunshine and fresh pasture.  And in the end, they provide us with food to feed our family.  I’m always filled with deep, deep gratitude.

Some Of Our Favorite Things for Raising Meat Chickens

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One note: We started collecting our supplies back in 2021 and unfortunately, the prices of most items below have exploded in price since then.  An even bigger hurdle for the beginner homesteader.  #thanksinflation

• BABIES
  • Heat Plates
  • Feeders and Waterers
  • Chick Stands
• OUT ON PASTURE
  • Enclosed Chicken Run “Tractors”
  • Bigger Feeders
  • 5 gallon Waterers
  • Electric Fencing and Energizer
• PROCESSING
  • Transport Crates (we’ve tried a few different types and these are our favorite)
  • Processing Cones
  • Stainless Steel Prep Tables
  • Scalder (this one is similar to the one we have)
  • Plucker
  • Chill Tanks
  • Poultry Shrink Bags

+ We finished the permanent winter pig pen for Ethel.  And since our life is a circus, it was not a smooth process!  Within hours of putting her inside, she managed to pull the gate off the hinges and frolicked around the property in all her newfound freedom.  (She also made a mess of part of my food forest.)  After half an hour of excitement, we finally convinced her to go back and take a nap.  Oh pigs…

+ And speaking of Ethel: her due date came and went and we realized that she wasn’t pregnant after all.  I had conflicting emotions because while I was sad we wouldn’t have any baby piglets, I was also SO grateful for a fall/winter of less work!  Our new plan is to put Fred back into the paddock with her in December and pray for babies in the spring.

+ In sad news, our four sweet ducks flew off one day and never returned.  We miss them.  We also lost three more hens due to freak incidents.  It’s been a hard month of loss and death.

+ The garden is pretty much finished for the season.  (I still have tomatoes, jalapenos, figs and a few surprise strawberries left.)  I chopped and dropped the dry corn stalks and started working the soil with the old chicken coop bedding.  A layer of leaves will go on next!

August was the month that I hit a homesteading wall.  After months of pushing myself to the extreme, I crashed and burned, limping my way to the processing finish line.  Thankfully, by month’s end and a little restructuring of my workload, I’m in a much better mental place and ready to tackle the rest of the year.  Here’s what we accomplished in August:

+ After the big storm back in June, we let our 27 laying hens free range.  We mostly had our eyes on them throughout the day and everyone always came back to the coop at night…or so we thought.  After a few days of asking, “Does this look like 27 chickens?” we decided to count them and eight were missing!  My husband and boys walked the property and could see clumps of feathers in places but no bodies, so we’re assuming a fox was picking them off one by one.  So sad.  We quickly beefed up the fencing around the coop and that seemed to fix the problem.

+ I harvested corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapenos.  We are also having a banner year for green beans – they keep coming and coming!

+ Fiona finally made it to the processor!  We definitely learned some things from the first trip and made a paddock with the trailer inside the Thursday before.  (So thankful for a farmer friend who let us borrow it for so long!)  Fiona was nervous and skittish, but she eventually warmed up to it once we left her alone.  We put all of her meals inside, which forced her hand once she was hungry enough.  On the big day, she went in easily, but man, the look on her face!  Once we locked the ramp, she was confused and shocked and looked like she couldn’t believe we had just betrayed her.  We felt horrible.  We’ll sure miss our little puppy pig, but are thankful for the meat she’ll provide.

+ The ducks started laying!  We’re hoping for little baby ducklings in the future.

+ After a few months of being together, we separated Fred and Ethel in different paddocks.  If Ethel is pregnant (we’re still not convinced that she is…) she needs increased feed for the last third of her pregnancy.  Fred can be quite aggressive with food, often pushing her out of her own feed pan, so this arrangement works better.  And if it turns out that she’s not actually pregnant, well…she’s just going to be well fed for a month.

+ We worked on the construction of a permanent pig pen that will double as a winter paddock and a place for farrowing.  Really excited with how it’s coming along!

+ I amended the spring garden soil and sowed a few things for a fall garden.  My heart’s not completely in it (I’m so tired!) but I’m going to try and see what happens anyway.

+ And the biggest August accomplishment: we processed the Broilers 2.0 and are officially done with chicken season 2022!  Like last time, we split the processing between two days (this time back to back!) and hired friends to help.  It went really smoothly and I felt so much pride for my family.  Homesteading requires all hands on deck and the kids have worked so hard.  So grateful that we can live this life together.

+ The weather has been so hot and we had our work cut out for us making sure the animals were continually watered.  The pigs are extra vulnerable because they can’t sweat.  They loved their wallows and were constantly covered in mud.  Living their best life!  In other pig news, we saw some behavior that may mean that Ethel actually isn’t pregnant like we originally thought.  It’s wait and see at this point…I obviously have no idea what I’m doing.

+ I harvested zucchini, squash, green beans, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, jalapenos, and even a few raspberries.  We are continually tickled by the fact that we can make meals that use ingredients we grew ourselves!

+ We dealt with a horrible Japanese beetle infestation that ate through the leaves of most of our fruit trees.  A huge blow, but thankfully it looks like the trees themselves will survive.  I’m already making preparations to proactively combat them next year.

+ I continued working on the food forest.  (Broken record at this point…)  More compost, more rocks, more wood chips…

+ We have a final decision on the ducks: two boys and two girls!  They are really looking different these days with different colored beaks and coloring.  I especially love the little flippy feather on the boys’ tails.

+ Fiona update: a farmer friend generously found us an open spot with his pig processor!  Such a relief to have that fiasco sorted out.  If all goes to plan, she should be off the property by mid-August.

June was a slower month here at the farm, which was welcome!  Grateful for a month to generally coast and just enjoy the fruits of our labor.  Here are a few things we did accomplish:

+ Broiler chickens 2.0 arrived on June 2!  They arrived super healthy and we’ve only lost one so far.

+ We harvested peas, strawberries, spinach and lettuce.  We have also picked the first raspberries, blueberries, jalapenos, onions and new potatoes.

+ We borrowed a friend’s wood splitter to help us cut firewood.  The big storm really helped us get ready for winter, ha.

+ I continued working on the food forest.  We have so many areas to fill with compost and it definitely won’t all happen this year (because $$$), but I’m trying to do what I can with what I have.  The big vision is slowly coming to life!

+ We received our first Chip Drop!  So, so excited!  We did edit our request to offer $20 for delivery and heard from an arborist pretty quickly afterward.  (Chip Drop is free for gardeners, but costs $20 per drop for the arborists, so it seems fair, especially with gas prices so high.)  In even more exciting news, the same arborist later dropped off a second load for free.  It pays to know your community!  We plan to fill our garden paths and then use the rest for a permanent winter shelter for the pigs.

+ And the “We don’t know what we’re doing!” story of the month: two of our pigs, Phyllis and Fiona, were scheduled to go to the butcher on the 30th.  Just like everything we do around here, trying to get them on the trailer was a complete circus.  We were on a time crunch and had to be on the road by a certain time to drive the 45 minutes to get them in the stall by 8am.  So we’re in the dark in headlamps, pleading with pigs to climb the ramp up to the trailer!  Insanity.  (Recall that you can’t force a pig to do anything, you have to convince her that she wants to do it.)  We managed to get Phyllis on board but Fiona was adamantly opposed.  With time ticking and us panicking, we ultimately decided to leave her behind.  So one pig went to the butcher and we’re deciding next steps for Fiona.  Anyone in the market for a beautiful, friendly, slightly stubborn Tamworth/Berkshire mix gilt?  🙂

+ The ducklings went outside!  Gosh, I loved these guys and their adorable perma-grin!  We reconfigured one of the pig’s “winter house” into an A-frame hut for them and it’s working great so far.  In other duck news, I’ve been learning a lot about how to supplement regular chicken feed to fit their needs (they need niacin!) as well as guessing whether our straight run duckies are hens or drakes.

+ We want to fill our pathways around the garden and food forest with wood chips, but the steep price tag put this goal pretty low on the needs list.  We got a tip from a friend about a website called Chip Drop, where you sign up and if an arborist is in the area, they can drop off a truck full at any time, completely free.  No deliveries yet, but we’re praying!

+ I did more work on the food forest, but fizzled out as days of thunderstorms and hot temperatures appeared.  I was hoping to be a little further ahead, but keep reminding myself that reaching this incredibly lofty goal is a marathon, not a sprint.

+ I sowed all the things!  I planted beans, zucchini and squash, cucumbers, corn, and sunflowers.  I also transplanted a ton of tomatoes and peppers.

+ We opened chicken preorders to a small group of friends and acquaintances and had a modest response.  Any little bit that helps with our feed costs is a huge blessing.  Speaking of feed costs, we put in another big feed order.  We were kicking ourselves for procrastinating because the bags went up 25 cents a bag since our order last month!

+ I ordered a new cover crop mix for summer consisting of peas, oats and a dwarf Siberian kale.  My spring cover crops have grown in beautifully and it’s so fun to see the pigs explore and eat when we move them to new paddocks each week.

+ Fred and Ethel have been together in the same paddock for about a month now and we think we may have a pregnant pig.  It’s so hard to tell for sure and obviously I have no idea what I’m doing, so we’ll see.

+ A funny pig story: Fiona is lovingly known as our “puppy pig” because she’s smaller than the rest, but infinitely friendlier.  If she sees us across the property, she’ll call for us until we come over and scratch her ears or belly.  Anyway, one evening, we were hanging out in the living room when one of the kids looked out the window and exclaimed, “There’s a pig loose!”  We all groaned as we put on our boots because you can’t make a pig move, you have to convince her that she wants to move.  We ran outside and were shocked to see that it was Fiona, who had escaped from her paddock clear on the other side of the property!  In a miracle of miracles, once we sweet talked her, she followed us – like a puppy! – alll the way back home.  And that’s why she’s our favorite pig.

+ To wrap up this full month, we processed our first batch of broilers on Memorial Day weekend.  I think we had 143 birds in all and split them up between two work days.  We hired some friends to help us and that made the process go quickly and smoothly.  No rest for the weary though…more baby chicks will be arriving today, June 1!

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+ Well, the suffering brassica situation was a huge fail.  Just a few days after planting, we had two days of hard frost and even though I tried to cover and protect them, not a single one made it.  Womp womp.  My husband picked up a handful of established transplants from a big box store and while it’s not ideal (and $$$), I’m hoping I’ll have much better luck with these.

+ I planted potatoes using the no-dig straw method.  I also sowed lettuce, carrots, spinach and kale.  In other spring garden news, I ordered a “collection” of intermediate day onion transplants, not realizing the sheer amount that comes in the package!  We have onions here, there and everywhere now.

+ I fertilized all of the fruit and nut trees with this fertilizer as well as the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

+ In an effort to make a little money back to the farm, we started selling our excess eggs every Saturday.  We only made one sale the first day, but you should have heard the whooping and cheering from my kids when they ran home, cash in hand.

+ The broilers went out to pasture.  There is something so beautiful about watching them explore and run and eat out in the sunshine.  This is how all of our food should be grown!

+ We got four little Khaki Campbell ducks!  They are so adorable and have grown so quickly.  The breed is known for being a little skittish, so we’re all working hard to teach them that they can trust us.  After one short “field trip” to the front yard last week, they even followed behind my son back to their temporary home in the garage.  We now call him “Papa Duck”, ha!

+ My husband finished up the woodshed and started chopping up dead trees to fill it.

+ I discovered a new small business via a Pinterest ad of all places.  The shop is called Barebones and I ordered their Japanese weeding hoe.  The hoe is definitely built for right-handers, which I didn’t think about until it arrived.  As a leftie, I’m going to have to hold it a little wonky and pray I don’t chop my fingers off.

+ I transplanted a handful of tomatoes slightly earlier than normal and integrated a tip I learned about using milk cartons as mini greenhouses.  It worked great and their growth was promising…until we had yet another random freeze and it killed just about all of them.  One step forward and two steps back over here.

+ We started the breeding process by putting Fred and Ethel in the same paddock together.  Since we’re still figuring out estrus cycles (oh man, the things I have had to research and learn this month…), they’ll be together for about 30 days and hopefully we’ll have a pregnant pig at the end of it.  We’re all super excited for baby piglets in late summer!

+ My husband is trying his hand at growing his own tobacco.  We have no idea what we’re doing but Youtube is a great teacher.

+ After watching a video about taking your garden vertical, I completely changed my plans for the in-ground beds.  We made trellises from sixteen foot cattle panels and a bunch of T-posts and I cannot wait to have a shady tunnel full of food this summer.

+ And finally, the project that has been taking up all of my time: the food forest!  We’ve been planning for awhile now and decided 2022 was the year we make it happen.  It’s a huge project and will take years to finish, but I’m so excited to get the infrastructure and main elements in.  This month, we added more fruit trees (including summercrisp pears and white lady peaches), two “pink lemonade” blueberry bushes, and two grape trellises.  The food forest will wrap around my existing garden with a pathway throughout.  We have the weed paper path laid and just need to have wood chips delivered to cover it.  Next up: flowers!

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March was our busiest month yet on the homestead and it was filled with so many highs and lows.  This lifestyle is exhausting, but so hugely satisfying.  I’m definitely sleeping soundly at night!  A farm isn’t built in a day, but we’re making progress in the right direction, little by little.  Here’s what we accomplished this month:

+ I started more seeds under the grow lights.  (I bought these trays – thanks for the tip, Torrie!)  In other seed starting news, with the busyness of everyday life, I didn’t keep a close enough eye on my brassicas and they suddenly started looking a little leggy.  I swear it happened overnight!  I watched a few videos on Youtube on how to fix the problem, so I hope I caught it in time.  I just planted them in the garden, so now I’m at the “pray and see what happens” part of gardening.

+ I amended my garden soil with a mix of bone meal and fish meal.

+ The first batch of baby chicks arrived and it was our biggest order yet: 150 broilers (+3 extra) and 15 hens (+1 extra).  Sadly, we had a rocky start and within the first four days, we lost eleven chicks.  We’ve never seen so much premature death and it was discouraging and sad.  Thankfully, by day five, the rest really hit their stride and look healthy and strong.  Praying for smooth sailing from here on out.

+ We continued work on the new woodshed and it’s slowly coming along.  We have a big job ahead of us to fill it up before next winter!

+ I sowed peas, beets and spinach and transplanted the brassicas.

+ I just about finished up the new chicken tractors.  (I have to troubleshoot one door and then I’ll be done.)  Our birds are all pasture raised and this new set-up will be a lot easier to move everyday.  It should give them a little extra breathing room too.

+ We moved the lady pigs to one specific area so they could till it up in preparation for planting.  Thinking smarter not harder!  By the end of the month, the weather was warm enough for me to start “mob seeding” behind the pigs as they move paddocks each week.  The idea is to seed heavily a mixture of brassicas, clover and legumes, letting them grow untouched for at least 21 days.  When the pigs are returned to that paddock later on, they can enjoy foraging, which simultaneously improves soil health and helps with feed costs too!  Super pumped to see how this plays out.

+ We discovered the power of diatomaceous earth for helping with mites.  A life saver!

+ In other pig news, we measured the girls again for a weight estimate.  Both gained about 25 pounds since last month.  They won’t be headed to the butcher until late June, so I think they’re progressing right on target.

+ I turned the soil in the in-ground garden beds with my new favorite tool: the broadfork!  Man, I love that thing!  So easy and a great workout too.  We also broke ground on a brand new bed.

+ I started edging around the “cottage garden” flower beds to hopefully help with grass intrusion.  (It was a huge problem last year.)  I used another cool tool for this project. I’m hoping to plant a ton of flowers this year and help out our pollinators!

+ Lots of big bulk ordering occurred.  The price of feed has been going up and up and up, so we’re locking in a price now by ordering what we’ll need through processing day.  I ordered the next batch of chicks to arrive at the beginning of June.  We also ordered a truckload of compost, which I hope will be enough for all of these beds!

+ Lastly, we also started the process of creating a “food forest” around our apple tree orchard.  I love this permaculture idea and think it will take advantage of unused space as well as being beneficial for the trees.  We’re going with the lasagna method to create the rows of beds.

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February was a welcome relief from January’s bitterly cold temperatures and we were able to check off quite a few pressing tasks.  Still not where I’d like us to be, but progress!  Here’s what we accomplished around the homestead during the second month of 2022:

+ Fred had to be separated from the ladies, so Mark and the boys built him a new little A-frame house.  I was worried sick that he would be lonely, but he seems to love his bachelor life.  On the first day, he cozied right up and slept the entire afternoon!  I think he also appreciates that he doesn’t have to share his meals anymore, ha!

+ I made another few batches of fodder for the chickens.

+ On one beautiful spring-like day, I put together a new chicken tractor for the broilers.  We’ve had this run since last summer’s hawk attacks, but ended up never putting it together.  This works to our benefit because with a few tweaks, it will be perfect for our dudes.  (Ours is similar to this one, but yikes – inflation has even hit chicken runs!)

+ I finally tested my garden soil with this kit.  Our pH was around 6-6.5, so great for vegetables.  Unfortunately, the soil was very deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus, so I will have to add some amendments before planting.

+ I pruned some of the fruit trees.

+ We measured the pigs for a rough weight estimate using this calculator.  The ladies that will be going to the butcher in June are roughly 115-130 pounds, which seems about right for pasture raised Berkshire/Tamworth pigs in the winter.  I’m sure they’ll pack on the pounds quickly as the weather gets warmer.

+ We’re running out of room! We definitely could use a barn, but since that’s $$$ we don’t have, we’re making do with what we have.  On one of the warmer weekend days, we rearranged and organized and moved things around our shed and garage.  It’s amazing what a good cleanout can do!