Panels, Apples, and Two Barn Cats: Late Fall at Reber Rock Farm
posted on
November 14, 2026
November was waiting here all along. Temperatures took a turn to the cold, towards numb fingers, towards rosy cheeks. And a few times, a wind made me turn my back and pull close the lapel of my coat.
I love the fall and the season change. The leaves have all blown from the trees, and most days start with a few extra layers.
A new trick for loading pigs
This week on the farm, we continued our weekly pig loading. Terron, Racey, and I have been getting better at the process: coaxing happy pigs on pasture to walk onto our hog cart so we can bring them to our processor.
Above, you can see Terron and me celebrating for Racey, the camerawoman. We tried something new, which you can see in the background: a few panels connected to our cart.
In our first couple of weeks, the biggest, happiest, and friendliest of the pigs were easily enticed onto the cart using apples and other treats. As the weeks went by, you can imagine, the pigs willing to go on the cart easily selected themselves first. We also ran out of apples as the deer and other wildlife cleaned them up.
Now we're down to just two weeks left, and most of the animals that are left are the ones who are not as easy. So we used the panels to create a larger area to entice them in, and it worked marvelously, which I hope you can see in the smiles on our faces, especially Terron's. He was as giddy as I was at how well and easily we were able to load this week's pigs.
Kit Kat and Mittens
On our way up to the house one evening this week, our two barn cats followed us with love and playfulness. Kit Kat is the orange tomcat who thought he was a duck for a long time, as he was raised with Lovett's ducks. The other is Mittens, who is as friendly as she is mischievous. Here are a couple of fun photos Racey took.
Wherever and however you're planning to celebrate, we are proud to have you in our farm family, and we hope whatever stories and food make it from our farm to your table bring people together and build connection.
-Nathan
