Sleeping in the Shade

“This was not a good week for laundry” was too long a title for this week, but in my opinion it sums up the week, especially the first half of the week. With alternating beautiful sun and sudden downpours, it was still a welcome change from the intense heat of earlier this summer. All of us here at the farm have settled into more seasonable weather of wearing warm layers in the cool mornings and slowly losing layers throughout the day as the sun warms us and we eventually seek respite in the shade.

Chickens are grateful the deluge has abated and our pastures are bursting with vigor after some unprecedented summer rainfall. Pigs have been loving life. With all the rain there is an endless network of swales and drainages for them to play in, flop about it and generally be pigs in. This week during chores the pigs had made “shade houses” under some shrubs and I tried to do it justice with my phone camera. There are a few more pigs in there you just cannot see and I didn’t want to disturb the group nap for the sake of a photo.

I am reminded of how different this life is than the vast majority of pigs in this country. Most pigs never leave their concrete floor, never know the feeling of mud on their noses or the fantastic scratch the buckthorn can give. Our pigs have never stood on concrete.

Time Away

Racey, Lewis and Lovett ventured into the Adirondack Mountains this week for some fun in the woods with family. I stayed behind until Wednesday to ferry (literally) some chickens across Lake Champlain to our friends Bruce and Beth at Maple Wind Farm who own a USDA processing facility. We had some scheduling snafus and we are taking some chickens over there to help our own processing schedule work. I am excited to go and see their operation again, I always learn something new.

After dropping off the chickens I will head up to the mountains to meet up with the family and have a little time away. Thank you to Sophie, Otis, Holly, Healey, Kirsten and so many others for making it possible for us to have this time.

Pig Finder

Can you find the pig in the shade house?