It’s like I could see the future. At least the part about it
taking another year to write a blog post…or three years! Holy crap! My last
post was in September of 2021! A couple of quick lessons learned, life moves at
a fast pace and when you put things off, the days turn in to weeks, the weeks
to months and the months to years, like, three years. If I continue to not make
the time, it doesn’t happen…Just like everything else. I hinted about a new
adventure on our farm back then and for those of you left wondering for three
years, the adventure that I was referring to was adding Kunekune pigs to our
farm. What an adventure it has been! Kunekune pigs are a smaller breed of pig
that are grazers instead of foragers and tend to not root as much because of
this and their upturned snout. A perfect pig for us to manage, they
are extremely social and well behaved. They also provide meat that is high in
omegas and vitamins D and E. Our adventure started with a decision to add the
pigs to the farm. This meant building fences, shelters, hauling hay, purchasing
feed, figuring out how to water the pigs (an adventure in itself during the
winter), how to care for the pigs, administer shots and the list goes on. This
would definitely bump our Farmer status up from beginner to at least an
advanced beginner 😊. I could write so much about the pigs and
what we have learned from raising them. I’m not sure where to start but I can
say that overall, there have been times of amazement, uncertainty, frustration,
satisfaction and a lot of humor (because if you don’t laugh, you might go
crazy). We have had piglets on the farm, we have chased pigs down that have
gotten out of fences, we have moved pigs from pasture to pasture, we have
loaded pigs in trailers and hauled them to slaughter, we have nursed them back
to health, we have fed and watered them every day, we have given belly rubs, we
have given them ear tags, we have hauled in spent grains from a local brewery
to supplement feed, above all, we (the entire family) have learned and we have
experienced. There are times when I question my sanity and why we brought the
pigs into the mix in the first place. Adding them was definitely a huge step
from just having bees and chickens and also took us to a new level of responsibility.
We keep pressing on, learning to better manage and become better farmers. All in
all, still having fun and always remembering to laugh.
