Well, I figured it was about time I got back to posting a weekly summary like last year, so here's the first addition of our weekly Farm Fodder. We had a new gilt, Matilda, farrow her 1st litter. Matilda's a daughter of Dottie, and she was bred to our Large Black boar Roscoe Jr. She had 9 piglets and mashed 1 of them, so that's not a very good start, but she does have her mom's ability to produce loads of milk, and the piglets look really good so she'll get another chance to improve her born alive average. Here's... Continue reading

Market season is full speed ahead, and time seems to be speeding up accordingly. We opened a week ago to the largest crowd I've seen, and business was booming. I had a lady there with me so I could train her to run the Broken Arrow booth which opened yesterday. At our own market yesterday the crowd was down a good bit, no doubt due to the Sand Springs Herb Festival, but it was still a good sized crowd, and we brought the brat cart out of hibernation. Here's a photo of our new brat slinger, Brian Goss, doing his... Continue reading

Sometimes things work their way into your conscience slowly, and sometimes they strike you like a bolt of lightning. At the farm today, after feeding and watering all the pigs, I got my video cam out to get a glimpse of Twiggs and her new piglets. Twiggy farrowed in the same lot as Dottie, but I noticed something today that I saw when Dottie was in the same spot, but I really didn't notice it at all. Maybell and Dottie are in the pasture with Jethro, as they were weaned recently, and while I was walking over to video Twiggs... Continue reading

I arrived at the farm this morning to a pleasant surprise. Perk had farrowed 14 nice piglets. Twiggs farrowed the day before and had 11 or 12, but I couldn't get an accurate count because she wouldn't let me get near enough to them. This was a much better result, more like we expect number wise, hence the apple for Jethro, the boar that bred both girls, reference. Here's a short vid I took of Perk's piglets this morning: I'm going to try and video Twigg's piglets tomorrow. Geez and Myfoot's pigs are growing well. I turned them in an... Continue reading

Busy, busy, busy. Too many irons in the fire right now, but I did take the time to get this short video of Geez and Myfoot's piglets after turning them out of their farrowing arks: Nice and plump little pigs, a good sign that both girls are milking well. Perk and Twiggs are right around the corner, and I'm setting their farrowing pasture up so I can move them on Saturday. I'll write a more detailed post next week when things settle down a little. Hope you enjoy the video! Pork & Greens Continue reading

Good comes with bad, high comes with low, and keep comes with cull. On my type of farm the most crucial number that decides how well the business goes is the number of piglets born per sow, and second is the number of those piglets she can raise to weaning age. Without the piglets on the ground it doesn't matter how fast or slow they grow, or how much feed it's taking to get them to market size. They have to be there first, and then the other things can be looked at in kind. Which brings us to the... Continue reading

The wind was fierce, the cold bitter, snow and ice blowing in from the north, and wouldn't you know it, Dottie picks this night to have her piglets. It's the kind of cold where you have to walk backwards into the wind to keep your face from freeze burning and your lips from splittng like so much seasoned wood. Dottie's ark was well supplied with straw, and from what I could see of the piglets they appeared to be faring well in the frigid weather. I say appeared to be because being the cantankerous old flea bag that she is,... Continue reading

Here's a video about our farm that I forgot to post on here. This was made in conjunction with a series about local farmers that are involved with the Cherry Street Farmers' Market: Thanks for watching, and hopefully you get a window view of what we're all about! Pork & Greens Continue reading

They say you're not supposed to. But everyone probably does it - have favorites that is, especially regarding family members, whether it's children, parents, etc. In my case, it's an Uncle, an Uncle that just passed away on December 5th at the grand old age of 87. Uncle Fred Lee. Born Robert Fred Lee in College Park, Georgia, he could trace his roots back to good stock as in the Robert E. Lee line of Civil War fame. When World War II broke out he, like millions of other young American boys, volunteered to do his part. He joined the... Continue reading

We've taken a bit of a hiatus from the blogosphere, a little time to recharge the batteries perhaps, but we're back at it, fresh from a much needed Thanksgiving break. Thanksgiving always brings back pleasant memories from my childhood. I grew up with a large, extended family on my dad's side, with 7 aunts and uncles and beaucoup cousins. My grandparents had a home tucked into the end of a valley in the mountains of northeast Georgia. Creeks with crystal clear water crossed the pastures, and mountains lush with oaks and hickorys surrounded the house on 3 sides. Barns and... Continue reading

"All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey" - great tune to describe the day, except it was humid and warm, nothing winter-like at all carried in the winds. That's for next week. Down at the farm it's been a tale of opposites. The cooler weather has the pigs a growing, and the end of market season has me a slowing. The non-stop, working every day pace of spring and summer drains your battery dry, and this time of year puts you in some type of stupor until some rest and decompression get you ready for a new... Continue reading

...hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Beautiful words, but lacking heft unless you stared them in the face, and we've had over 4000 young men and women in the last decade take those words and give them a heft that you or I will never know, an ultimate testament to friendship, and also the saddest testament of all. And that doesn't even begin to account for the hundreds of thousands before them. Sometime in our busy lives we need to set a moment aside, take the enormity of the sacrifice in,... Continue reading

Aaargghh! This morning that's how my fingers felt after feeding, numbness mixed with stinging, and that was wearing gloves. My disenchantment with cold weather isn't strictly from being a southern boy though. Many moons ago when I served as a paratrooper in the Army, we had a training exercise coming up in Hohensfels, Germany during the month of October. We were always given a packing list of what to take depending on the weather forecast. One item on the list was our winter sleeping bags, fart sacks to us airborne types, but those dudes were heavy and bulky, and anyway,... Continue reading

Foghat. Not the band, it's what I wish I had been wearing this morning while trying to feed. Pea soup thick, I guess the Serpentine, or Snake Creek in Okmulgeesh lingo, was pumping her moisture into the flow, and I literally couldn't see five feet in front of me. Jethro scared the life out of me by sneaking up from behind, and I must have scared his dumb behind as well cause he promptly turned around and ran into a tree. Life at the farm carries on, and the next project on the plate is to get some newly selected... Continue reading

A big thanks to all of you that were able to make it out to tour the farm today and see where and how your pork is raised, and eat a few dawgs and banger burgers too. Here's a select few photos from the day. Kids sizing up kids: and here's Amber Kimball and family feeding some cookies: and here's Merry Schepers with her own cookie action: and here's getting ready to chow on some dawgs and banger burgers: and here's Krista Waldron and family: Again, we appreciate all of you who attended and for those that couldn't make, or... Continue reading

Wow. Either my math skills are eroding or my boar Jetho has started breeding telepathically. I got to the farm this morning with the plan of moving Perk and Twiggs to their farrowing spot, as they're due to farrow next week. Well, you know what they say about plans, they never last beyond the first contact, and in this case it was simply the contact of my boots with ground. Twiggs was out with Dottie, Jethro, and Maybell throwing their usual morning feeding time fit, but Perk was no where to be found, well, I actually did find her, but... Continue reading