It's Time

Rexy and his main girl

Now that we have the swine down to a manageable number, it's time to think about breeding the girls. 

We currently have Big Daddy Rex and Big Momma Fiona together and it's been about a month. We know that Fiona has been in heat once, but to make sure that she is pregnant we'll leave them together for the rest of December. At the beginning of the year we'll let Bridgette hang out with Rex and hopefully have a litter in May. Since we have two sows, I'm inclined to just let them breed once a year. I know, I know, I should let them have two litters a year, but I'm not convinced that we can support more pigs that we have now. If we let them have two litters each that would be AT LEAST thirty-two piglets that we would have to sell or grow out for meat. That's exactly double what we had this past year. It was not enjoyable for me, they were mostly girls and man they were just whiny as all get out. It got to the point that I couldn't wait to get them slaughtered and into our friend's freezers!

Here's something interesting that happened a couple of days ago - we had a note left on our gate from a gentleman who lives around 3 miles from us. He has obviously driven past our house because he could tell that our piggos have ear tags (which indicates that they are registered). He is looking for a boar and while we have a few right now, they are destined for freezer camp. Three of the boys and our youngest sow are all scheduled to be slaughtered in May 2023. We need to get more pork into the freezer and when May rolls around, Mr. Oliver will be 20 months old. That will be the oldest that we have let one of our hogs grow out to. He's already approximately 130 pound (hanging weight). Twenty months should really fill the freezer! Anyway, we have our first buyer for 2023. Once Fiona has her litter I'll be sure to start handling those piglets as much as possible and get our new buyer a really nice boar. So far all of our boys have been extremely sweet and very friendly. So, we'll be able to provide a good boar for our "neighbors" Tamworth sow. 

There are days that I get tired of the pigs. When they get bigger they sometimes are not as cute or amusing as when they are little like our little buddy Zeke

At the time that this photo was taken he was probably 35-40 pounds

I'm looking forward to what 2023 has in store for us. 

Official

It's official, I'm the Farm Manager here at Windswept Farm! 

We were in limbo for a couple of months wondering if the former manager (aka the hubs) would be selected for a full time job. The first one didn't stick, but the second one did and his first day was yesterday. Today will be his first full day in the local office instead of the Headquarters office in downtown PDX. 

Now, the only problem with me becoming the farm manager this week is that I have to be mindful of my back as this week is also National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child. Our church is the Central Drop Off Location for SW Washington. Also, I am a year-round volunteer and feel compelled to actually be present each day through next Monday (Nov 21). So, staying healthy is the goal for the week. Yesterday I did manage to strain my back a little, but I was able to still help out with schlepping shoeboxes. 

As of yesterday I have already taken over the feeding of the critters. That was something that I only did in the evening when Tom had his short stint with another engineering company last year (it didn't last, but we weren't sad). 

How did I strain my back? Well, yesterday I was fighting the young boars as they had gotten into the garage and Oliver totally had his head in the chicken mush :(  That was totally my bad, I should have checked to make sure that the garage door was 100% closed. Give the swine even just a little bit and they will work together to slide that door open! So getting them out of there was more than I thought I would be able to handle, but I eventually got them out. The three younger boys aren't so bad, but Oliver who is 14 months old is very stubborn. He had an opportunity, and he was testing the limits yesterday to see if he could get back in there. 

So, this week I'll just focus on getting settled into a new daytime routine and get some stuff done around the house. Starting next week I'll do projects and stuff to move my dreams forward. So many ideas! We started watching Justin Rhodes again and he is doing a video series call "100 Days of Building a Homestead." We don't need to build a homestead, but I do want to accomplish some stuff in 100 days. So that will start next week when my physical health will only affect my own projects and not OCC.

Me and the pigs are gonna be best friends...

Welcome!

Wow! This blog has been in the works for several months. Retired life really is quite busy! In this space I will post about our hogs and the happenings here on Windswept Farm.

We have been raising these wonderful hogs since 2018 - we really do love having them on our farm!

Here is the current run down of hogs on our farm:

Our main breeding pair: Rex & Fiona

A second sow: Bridgette

Five Gilts who are destined for freezer camp

Two young boars from Rex & Fiona who will be grown out for meat

A young boar from a litter from one year ago, destined for meat 

AND

We had a surprise litter of five piglets from one of the gilts (now sow). Since she spent 4 months growing piglets, she is not that big, so she will be staying with us until she is at a more suitable size for butchering. 

This is brief, but I plan to come back here more often since the pigs are the biggest attraction here on the farm. I'll explain that in a future post. 

Also, if you have Instagram check out our piggies there! We are @windswepthogs

Until next time...

PS: I know that the layout of the blog is a bit jumbled. I will be working on it!