This post is part of a monthly series, Then & Now, that uses photos to show the development and changes taking place on the farm.
I’m late posting our monthly segment of Then & Now for May. This is partially because we have been so, so busy. There has been so much stuff going on at the farm, every day feels like a race just to keep up, and not really keeping up.
We had also planned our spring Farm Day for mid-May. This is where friends and family come from around the region to see what’s been going on at the farm and to buy shares of pork, eggs, chicken, whatever we have on hand. But a couple days before Farm Day I started feeling sick. I have had so many tick bites this year (and every year) I was afraid it was Lyme disease. I went to the doctor to get tested for Lyme, which came back negative. But I tested positive for Covid. I was actually glad to have Covid - that’s way better than Lyme. But we had to cancel Farm Day so I could quarantine at home. I had about three days of flu-like symptoms, then fully recovered within five days or a week. It threw a wrench in our gears but we’ve re-scheduled Farm Day for June and it should be a good time.
We have some good news to share as of May 2022. You can read about it below. But one of the reasons I have kind of put off writing this update is that we had some sad occurrences during the month and I’m feeling more than a little heartbroken.
For practical reasons we sent our donkeys off to live on another farm. They’re well cared for but I miss them. Our little beagle went to another home as well where she has a new sister-from-another-mister and playmate. I miss her loud “ROOOOO!!!!!” sounds around the house and her crazy-but-cuddly beagle energy.
And this month we lost our beloved three-legged Anatolian mongrel mutt MacGyver. No stories to tell for now, I’m just sad, sad, sad. Tears come to my eyes whenever I think of him. RIP, buddy.
My heart hurts and so I’ve procrastinated writing this update. But here it is, better late than never.
What can we learn about the month of May in our area? The weather heats up and you’ll get some hot days - hot enough that the pigs will want to climb into their water tub for a soak. In wet years the grass grows like crazy - rotational grazing ops have to be in full-swing by May 1. Any pastures grazed from early in the season will shown signs of over-grazing in May, especially if it’s a drier year.
May is a beautiful month - time to get outside and get to work!
May 2020
By May 2020 we’d fought back some of the overgrowth, fixed the fences and shed in the main pasture, and brought home our starter flock of sheep and goats.
Note the junk piles in front of the trailer and along the drive to the left. We spent so much time the first year clearing junk, pulling stuff out of the ground, etc. Many trips to the dump and some pretty epic trash fires.
We uncovered an old flower garden with a giant chunk of petrified wood set right in the middle of it. I planted a dogwood tree and we designated this the memorial garden for my mom.
May 2021
On the first of May 2021 we got a big surprise - piglets! We did not know at the time, but all of our sows were pregnant. We’d only had the pigs for about ten days. They were in a small temporary pasture because the main pig area was still in preparation.
We were about to go into town for errands and I went down to check the pigs water as it was getting to be a hot day. I saw a little piglet poke its head up above the straw - and then another, and another!
We grabbed the electric netting and made an emergency farrowing pen around the mama and babies.
One little boar was white with black spots. We gave him to Rachael’s boss. Two other boys died within the first few days, sadly. We were left with three girls.
They’re cute little buggers!
Our boar had started to get a little aggressive, so we decided it was time for him to go. First, Rachael castrated him to avoid boar taint in the meat (although as we later learned this may not be an issue for kune kunes). We kept him on the trailer for two weeks after that and spoiled him, before taking him to our local family meat processing facility.
We had some beautiful, pleasant evenings during May 2021 so I took lots of animal photos. Going back through them, I see that this was the time our pastures began to be over-grazed, obvious in the photo below.
Millie and Theo of course wanted to be photographed a bunch.
Hey! Our baby fruit trees were starting to produce apples and peaches!
Mom’s memorial garden starting to look pretty nice with irises etc…
May 2022
May 1st 2022 was a sad day. We’d made the executive decision to re-home our donkeys. We had to sedate them to make transport less stressful. Here’s Rachael darting Theo with a sedative:
We got the donkeys to provide protection from predators for the sheep and goats. It’s uncertain if our donkeys would have been effective against, say, a pack of coyotes. Thankfully, they were never tested.
We expect the sheep and goats to be out of the main paddocks on rotational grazing using portable electric netting for about nine months out of the year. Since the donkeys weren’t with the sheep and goats during this period, they weren’t providing any predator protection. We would have to feed them hay year round since we don’t have enough fenced-in pasture to provide them an all-fresh-grass diet. A considerable expense, and they weren’t doing anything for us other than looking cool and making crazy donkey sounds at random times.
So off they went to a big cattle farm nearby with plenty of grass to munch on. But I miss them.
Bacon!
In May 2022 I began my adventure with bacon curing. With the help of a local buddy, we cured pork bellies from one of our pigs using a wet cure method and a dry cure method, for later comparison.
Wet cure brine.
Dry cure with salt, brown sugar, and black pepper.
After a week of dry cure and ten days of wet cure, we smoked the bellies.
Then we froze, sliced, and vacuum packed the bacon!
We have some friends in Virginia who have a beagle about Ruby’s age named Daisy. Daisy was lonely, so we decided that Ruby should go and live with them so Daisy will have a playmate. They are both so happy now!
Ruby (left) and Daisy.
I’m happy for them but sad for me - I miss the crazy Roo-Bot! Can’t wait to visit her and Daisy.
As I mentioned above, this month we lost our beloved MacGyver. I’m really tore up over it and don’t want to write any more. So heartbreaking.
Let’s end on some happy news, how about? Well, for one, my potatoes are doing great.
We’ve had some hot days and the pigs beat the heat by taking turns soaking in their water tub, which is adorable.
And we found out this month that we are most likely having a boy. We still have to confirm with blood tests, but one of the other vets at the clinic ultrasounded Rachael and seemed pretty confident that it’s a boy. And human. A human baby boy. How about that?
And even though during May she transitioned from first to second trimester, Rachael’s still out killing it on the yard work on her days off from the clinic.
My condolences on your pup 💔