Sunny, windy, 45 degrees
It's been nice but chilly outside. It's strange to think 45 degrees would feel so cold just after winter, maybe it's because we got spoiled by that week of 50's and 6o's.

Things are getting busier here on the farm. We are finally moving forward with our big fencing project, hooray! We've been gathering materials and waiting for a neighbor to have the time to get to it. Finally, after several months of waiting, we felt we had put in the due neighborly patience and gave up and we placed an ad on Craigslist for fencing help. We got a couple of local ex-farmers with the type of equipment and know-how, plus the ability to show up and get started right away - exactly what we were looking for. We are getting started tomorrow morning. I'll try to take plenty of pictures to document progress. After all, a good fence is something one only hopes to do once in a lifetime!

We will be putting up woven wire, or field fence as it's called around here, around the outside perimeter of most of our owned land, at least that which is currently hay and crop ground. It totals about 4 acres. This is where the pigs will be pastured this summer!

The last of the snow melted last Sunday. The grass is slowly greening up, and the songbirds are returning in droves. The cranes have been back for a while now, and they add their strange rising, guttural trumpeting to the geese honking and the pheasants squawking across the fields. It can sure get loud out here at times, especially at dawn.

I pulled the hog hut out of it's winter resting spot in the garden, so we can be ready to till the garden soon. The ground is just about dry enough now. If it weren't for fencing, I'd say we would get to it this weekend.

The garlic is coming up now, and I've pulled the layer of straw mulch away from the green tips poking up out of the ground. I had to put up a quick little wire fence around it though, because the chickens were always going in there and scratching up the straw and picking at the tops of the garlic! Hopefully they were getting bugs and weed seeds, too!

The new pigs have settled in nicely to their digs. It's still too cold to put the babies outside and they still even have a heat lamp on in the barn. I think as they grow and the weather warms a bit it won't be long before they are ready to go outside. They are very fun to watch frolic and play like puppies. One night I was checking on them, and one of them threw up. Now I have never actually seen a pig throw up and didn't know if this was serious or not. I took the little guy's temp (normal)and watched him for a good while. He ate, pushed his brothers around, drank, and acted totally normal. So I guess baby pigs can be like puppies and human babies - just ralph for no apparent reason, then go right on like nothing happened! I think, for that reason, I will name that guy Ralph.