Newly shorn sheep in March.

I just realized that the last time I posted here was on March 1!  Talk about time flying by so quickly.  We’ve been busy keeping the farm going.  The sheep were sheared by Clayton in March.  There were 75 in all.

Bred gilts left to right, Shelly, Berry and Lily awaiting the big day!

Then we started farrowing the hogs on March 12.  Farrowing did not end until May 7.   There were 32 sows and gilts and the whole process was very time consuming.

May 18th, Silvana and I got sick of all the work (hee hee) and took off for The Duppong’s Ranch out in North Dakota for a few days.  There was a wedding to attend and some cattle work out there.  It was just what the Dr. ordered for some renewal of the soul!!!  Of course it was great to see Maggie while we were there.  The Duppong’s are always so much fun to spend time with and I love it out there!!! We had fun traveling and stopping into random tiny towns along the way.

Silvana, Sandra, Renae Duppong and Maggie getting ready to move the cattle in for tagging, branding and shots.

In between all of this there were a bunch of butcher hogs that were loaded and sold.

Loading hogs first then the fences were all removed and replaced.

Lambing started on March 28 and ended on June 6th!!! Bella and I tried to handle most of the lambing as Marisa and Silvana had their hands full with the farrowing.

Ladies in waiting.

The broiler chickens came in early in April and were in the freezer by June 11.  We only did a small group since I still have last years chicken in the freezer.

25 broilers fed totally organic thanks to Rick Fonders’s excellent feed!

We started fixing fences on all of the hog pens which had to be replaced due to having become worn out over the years.  As we sold butcher hogs we needed to have things ready for the weanlings.

Replacing old fences.

In the middle of May we received a ton of rain.  We sunk our first poles for the new hog barn on May 26.  That has been keeping us busy.  We’re building a mono slope hog barn which is 120′ by 37′.   The dirt work began earlier in May.

Dirt work began mud and all

In the beginning of June the girls made 5 splits from our bee hives and caught a swarm as well.   As of today there are 17 hives.  They seem to be doing well and so far they’ve added 20 honey supers.  So, we’ll see how that goes.

In June we sold a total of 54 lambs right off of the pasture.  They were still with their mothers.  The price was fantastic at $2.40 a pound!!  We sure earned it with all of the running around!  We kept 20 ewe lambs back and there are still quite a few lambs out on pasture that are not weaned yet and will be sold in the next couple of weeks.   There is another group of 5 ewes and their lambs in the barn.  They came in late and we didn’t want to lose them in the heat.

A new mother with her lambs.

In need of new blood, we purchased three yearling Targhee Rams for the next season.  They are 240 #’ers and came in for $400 each.  I sure hope they live and are good breeders!

In between all of this we managed to plant two gardens which are in need of more weeding!  Come to think of it, we could use a bunch of rain as well.

There were 2 grandbabies born this year….. Rowland Geppetto Callens and Rafe Tristan Ryland!

Clayton, Angelica & Rowland Geppetto.

Rafe Tristan Ryland, son of Peter and Francesca!

I’ll be back with some photos of the new building’s progress.  Life is good!