Piggie Update

 Just in case anyone was wondering what the piggies look like after 4 weeks, the top picture is the boy, and the bottom is the girl.  You can see that they are getting bigger!  As well they should since all they do is eat. 

They are very happy, and they both come right up to me.  The girl is a little bit more cautious than the boy.  She still needs to sniff my hand before she'll get near me.  They both like to nip at my pant legs, and try to scratch their sides using my leg.  That probably won't be okay when they're 200 lbs!

Thanks for reading,

-Jay

Efficiency Renovation

I realized that I haven't said much about anything other than the pigs, and this farm has much more to explore!  The efficiency is my current project.  This is pretty much a before picture, even though the interior has almost completely been gutted.  I plan to change it's look quite a bit, so this picture will suffice.  I will try to remember to update the blog regarding this project more often, or at least every time I make progress on the renovations.

Today I had Nature's Way Pest Control stop by for a free pest inspection, and I'm very impressed with them.  They adjusted their usual inspection hours for me because I'm on the Swing shift, so that was the first thing that impressed me.  I told them sometime between 9am and noon, and the earlier the better, and they were here right at 9am.  Awesome.  The inspection revealed that there was damage caused by carpenter ants, powder post beetles, and water.  He told me that as long as I am replacing the damaged wood that I don't need to have the building treated!  How often does that happen?  I figured he was going to tell me that I was going to need hundreds of dollars of treatments.  He even gave me a few pointers for the renovation, and was on his way after only about 15 minutes.  So that's my not-so-shameless plug for today!

Thanks for reading,

-Jay

P.S. Just wanted to publicly thank Chris Roney for helping me with the beginnings of this project, and I'm sure more to come.  Thanks man!

Piggie Update

It's been almost three weeks since we brought the pigs home and so far so good.  They've settled in quite nicely to their pen and have both begun to be okay with me petting them. I'm still worried about Elaine getting attached, but she doesn't go  to see them very much, so maybe I'll be okay.  They look like they've doubled in size already!  They love to eat, and they drink a lot more water than I expected.  I am checking on them two or three times per day!  I'm already through two hundred pounds of food and it's only going to go faster.  I'm thinking about getting more than 600 lbs next time.  If anyone feels like getting a workout let me know!  I'll take any available help to move the bags into the barn.  I will start attaching photos now that I know how to do it.  Thanks for reading!

- Jay

Piggies Day 4

I know this is going to sound kind of ridiculous, but they already look bigger!  Even Elaine said so.  They seem to be coming around a little bit, not because they're getting used to us, but I think they're just getting braver, so they don't hide as much.  I keep talking to Elaine about their impending fate, in an attempt to keep her grounded, but I know she's going to have trouble.  It's so strange when you think about how far removed we as Americans have become from our food, just in the last 100 years.  Human beings have been around for millenia, and food production was always the same up until the last century.

I was walking into work with a couple coworkers the other day and I had brought one of them a dozen eggs.  The other guy saw the eggs and said "I can't eat farm fresh eggs.  The flavor is just different enough that I can taste it.  It's not that it's a bad flavor, it's just that I know where they came from."  It's really sad that this guy is like that, but in reality, it's the American way.  The industrial food system of today has removed us from our food in a way that traditional food production actually disgusts people.  My hens are clean, happy, and fed locally grown layer mash that is milled just 20 minutes from our farm.  What is gross about that?  I think about the eggs that this guy eats, the eggs from the supermarket and that grosses me out!  Could you imagine living the way those hens live?

So here we are with our hens and our pigs, and I feel great about it.  It is conversations like that one that I believe will help Elaine overcome her issue with raising pigs.  Her responses are always spontaneous, and she gets exasperated with people who don't understand.  Now if only she could apply that to the reality of our farm.

Piggies, day 2

Well, they are definitely eating like pigs!  They like to dump their water bowl and drag it around.  I don't think they understand that that's why they're thirsty!  So, I finally filled the K9 feeder to try to fix the problem.  Hopefully they don't figure out how to tip that over, because that would be an awful mess.  They still don't care much for Bear, and almost tried to escape the pen through the rails to get away from him.  I hope that didn't give them any ideas!  My next challenge is to manage the stench.  I'm thinking that if I keep layering sawdust that will help.  They really like the straw, but I think the sawdust should fall below it, and keep the wet stuff dry.  That should take care of it.  Also, it should begin to compost which could add some heat to the pen!  We'll see what happens.  But either way, they look healthy, and I think they're adjusting.  Unfortunately, Elaine named them.  Project "get Elaine to be okay with raising pigs" just hit another hurdle!  If anyone is interested, she named them Hamlet and Honey.  She's ridiculous. 
- Jay

The Lavasseur Family Farm began on April 19, 2012, with the purchase of our little two acre property in Gansevoort, New York.  However, the concept began one year prior.  After watching Food, Inc. Elaine and I decided that the corrupt industrial food system of the United States was not suitable to be feeding our kids, and we made a plan to move away from it.  We began researching ways to buy healthy, natural food, and found the Saratoga Springs Farmers Market.  We also changed our search criteria regarding our eventual real estate purchase.  After about ten months of searching, we found our little gem on this Earth here in Gansevoort.  It was important to Elaine and I that the farm not just be a farm, but a home, and one that can keep us close to the things we love; civilization!  I don't know that we ever thought we would be farmers, nor do I think we woke up the day after watching Food, Inc. and planned we would end up this way, but here we are.  We are here to make the best of what we have, and what we can manage to create.  Our kids are the driving factor for this journey, and it's the best motivation you can have.
- Jay