Piggies!!! - First Morning in the New Pig Pen

Well, here they are!  As promised, 6 Hampshire/Yorkshire crosses for your entertainment and culinary pleasure!  Of course the farmer I bought them from gave me the runt, so Elaine immediately fell in love.  So once again, butcher day will be a tear-jerker.  They have their dates already set.  Three will see the man on December 16th (sorry Grammy, I know that's your birthday... at least the deed is not done that day!), and the other three will go on December 30th.  Delivery is approximately 1 1/2 to 2 weeks later.  As always, I will keep the piggies' progress as up to date as I can throughout the process.  For those interested, not all of the pork is sold, so let me know if you're in the market for pork.  I will be taking orders by the piece as I did last time, but may not have as much depending on how sales of halves and quarters go.  I am estimating approximately $200 for a quarter, and $400 for a half.  As always, I will be selling at cost, so if I save more than that, the savings will trickle down to all buyers. 

Elaine already named them...



This season the pigs have a new pen in the barn.  It is approximately 2 1/2 times the size of the old one, and the floor is over 6 inches of natural rough cut lumber sawdust.  It gives the little guys a clean, comfortable, open expanse to grow up in.  I am also building a 1200+ square foot outdoor pen that will be available to them as soon as they're too big to escape the split-rail fencing I constructed it out of.  It is located on the East side of our barn, and is shaded before the hot afternoon sun takes its toll.  I will be utilizing the old silo foundation leftover from the demolition as a mud bog for them.  I haven't really thought that project through, but that's the plan.  The setup I envision when complete is something spectacular.  Just up the hill from the outdoor pig pen is where the apple orchard will be once installed, and just past the orchard is the small portion of woods that we own.  The idea: each spring start the pigs in the barn where they're safest while young, then move them to the woods during the heat of summer to allow them a more natural environment while escaping the sun, then finish them in the apple orchard in the Fall for a great way to clean up orchard waste and fertilize the ground while they're "pigging out!"  It's the stuff real food is made of!

Thanks for reading,
-Jay