Starting with Pigs

Often while outside working on our farm something will trigger a memory that I have the opportunity to dwell on for some time.  Every so often, life gets mundane, even for me. I will go about my daily work, and not think about how far we've come. As sad as it sounds, I will get into phases where I take what we have for granted. Not only our nice house and land but the knowledge that we have acquired over the last four years. Today as I was feeding our pigs, I had the opportunity to think about where we started with pigs a few years back. After I give the pigs their feed I will sit quietly on my 4 wheeler and just watch them eat. It is at this time that I evaluate my herd. In this certain pasture I have my three breeding sows and a few feeder pigs. Due to staggered breeding, my sows are mostly in different stages, such as ready to breed, already bred, nursing piglets or weaning piglets. While they eat, I normally will evaluate how my sows are doing in their current state, or how the piglets are growing and developing. But today I got lost in my thoughts and rather than checking out my pigs, I began to think back to how it all got started in pigs.
It was in early Spring of 2008 I believe when we started thinking about pigs. I really wanted to raise my own pork chops and I started researching how to do it. All the reading I did led me to believe that it wasn't that difficult to raise a pig. At this point I still hadn't figured out that book learning and on the farm learning are vastly different. After some discussion, we decided on getting two weaner pigs, piglets just weaned off the sow. We thought that it is always best to raise animals in groups, at least two, so they have companionship. We didn't know any pig raisers yet so we started perusing craig's list and other places to find pigs for sale. A spot was selected and I constructed a pen to house our newest additions to the farm family. Finally all preparations were complete and we found a farmer that had the right size pigs available. Zaner and I loaded up a pet carrier in the back of the pick up and we were off to get our pigs. It was an exciting trip, even though it was only about 10 miles away. Whenever I go on an animal buying trip with the kids we are all giddy like the day before Christmas. It's exciting to be getting a new thing, but even more exciting to get a cute little piggy. I really don't remember too much of the conversation that day but I do remember the look on Zane's face the whole trip. He had a huge smile on his face and couldn't sit still, it must have seemed to him like it took hours to cover the short ten mile trip. That is one of my favorite things to do is watch my children in excited anticipation to get something fun. To watch that childlike exuberance and see him looking at me like I'm the greatest dad ever for getting him pigs, just makes me feel good. I get a warm feeling now as I just remember those times. The farm we were travelling to was in the city, actually over the years the city had built up around the farm. For a time, I thought we had gotten lost because I was driving on a street of "million dollar" homes and I was thinking, "No way someone in one of these houses is raising pigs." But, out of the blue we drove by a farm, right on the main street. There stood the "Pig Lady", Lurene, who now is one of our best friends with whom we work often. Lurene directed me down to the pig pen and we got out of the truck to start shopping. There was a pen of about 30 weaner pigs all running around like crazy kid animals. They were all black and white except one, who was red and white. Zane jumped out of the truck, pointed at the "different" one and hollered, "I want that one, and I'm naming him Booger!" Obviously he had been putting some thought into this pig raising idea. You know, dad has been planning what kind of feed to buy, what kind of pen to construct, where to put feeders, how to get water to the pen, the five year old has been thinking, "what are we going to name them?" A smile crossed Lurene's face as she was seeing the same thing I had been relishing, the happiness and excitement of a child. She asked me if that one was one that I wanted, like I knew anything about pigs. At this particular point in my farming life I couldn't tell a good pig from a worthless cull. I shrugged and said, "Sure." I had told her on the phone that I wanted two, so she asked me which other one I wanted. I told her to pick out a nice one for me. She agreed and stepped into the pig pen and looked at me like I was coming in with her, nope. I had never touched a pig in my life and had no idea what to expect. They are fast little buggers. She chased them and got them cornered and grabbed ol "Booger". That pig let out a squeal like she had just ripped its ears off. Booger weighed probably 70 lbs and was squealing like it was crazy. She picked it up by the back legs and started carrying it over to the edge of the pen. I thought this was odd because the extent of my animal purchasing to this point was buying a puppy or kitty. When picking up your puppy, you don't grab the thing by its back legs and let it squeal and kick around, you cuddle it and make it feel safe and warm. She reached the edge of the pen and tried to hand me the pig and I smiled and said, "Put it in there" pointing at the pet carrier in the back of the truck. She must have thought I was out of my mind. She said, "Just take it." "Nope." The pig was squealing like a trapped bear and flailing all around, I was sure I would drop that thing then I would be chasing it through the back yards of the aforementioned million dollar homes. Poor Lurene just shook her head and stepped over the fence while carrying booger and stuffed him in the pet crate. One day I will have to ask her of her first impression of me on that day, probably city slicker scaredy pants. We got the second pig, "Bacon", and headed home. The next six months went along without any significant trouble as we raised our first set of pigs. The day finally came when it was time to butcher. We had the mobile slaughter unit come to the house to do the job. As I was chatting with the slaughter guy, Mike, I found out that he raised pigs himself. My pig wasn't raised very well, we had fed it the wrong stuff and it wasn't very big. He showed me the things he looks for in a pig and we discussed ways that I could do better next time. I didn't really think there would be a next time, because I just thought the whole pig raising thing was too much trouble. But Mike said he would call me when he had some more pigs available to sell so I could start my next batch. A few weeks went by as the pig was being processed at the butcher, and I grew more and more certain that we just didn't have time to raise pigs. The day finally came for us to pick up our cut up pig from the butcher and it was very exciting that we would be eating our very own pork that night for dinner. The dinner was a hit. The pork chops were thick and amazingly juicy. I was proud of the kids that not one of them was "sad" to be eating "booger" (?) but instead made comments on how yummy it was. Part of the lesson of raising our own food is to teach our children that in order for us to eat, something else has to give up its own life, and that's why we respect our food and our animals. Like I mentioned before, we had decided to not raise any more pigs because we didn't feel we had the time. As dinner was served, I cut into my first bite of pork, while I was chewing that first bite of amazing taste the phone rang. It was Mike and he asked me "I got some weaner pigs ready to go, how many you want?" My simple answer was, "Five."
So it began. Today I sit here looking over my herd of pigs and am amazed at how far we've come with this venture. Not four years ago, I didn't know how to pick a pig up, now we have three breeding sows, a boar and several feeder pigs. We still learn every day, but our knowledge is immense compared to that first day we brought Booger home. It's another example in my life where God has led us into something we didn't feel we were ready for or capable of, yet it was the thing that He wanted us to do, so He guides us along the way. Today I couldn't really imagine not seeing my pigs run around the pasture, it just wouldn't seem like the farm without our piggies.

Chasing after worry

Right around sundown each day we like to take a little walk around and "shut down" the farm.  Just take a quick look around for anything unusual, like someone left a gate open, left water on, didn't collect eggs etc.  On this particular night I was walking around and noticed some of our turkeys getting up on the fence between their pasture and the chicken pasture.  They were roosting for the night.  Well its really not that big of deal, because they are just "going to bed", even though I have fine buildings for them to sleep on out in the pasture. For some reason, I didn't think this was an "ok" thing.  I walked over and started knocking turkeys off the fence, there were about five of them so no big deal.  After I knocked the last one off the fence I noticed one turkey at the end of the pasture had gotten over the fence and now couldn't figure out how to get back in.  This is very normal as turkeys tend to be challenged in the area of thinking.  The poor thing was pacing the fence right where the big gun sprinkler was spraying.  It was soaked, it looked like a cat that just got "accidentally" pushed in the bath tub. (Don't ask)  So I wandered down there and started to climb the fence to get my wayward charge back in.  While climbing the barb wire fence, just as I was stepping over, my foot slipped and I fell.  On my way down, I straddled the fence which certainly didn't feel to well, and the fence acted like a springboard and vaulted me into the turkey pasture where I landed with a very non- triumphant thud on my rear end.  My only positive thought was that we live far out in the country and I'm quite sure nobody witnessed my gymnastic moment.  On to the lost turkey.  Trying to catch the thing was not easy.  I must have chased the little stinker a mile and it kept getting away.  The whole time I'm yelling at it that I am just trying to help, as if the turkey can understand me.  Feels pretty foolish as I look back on it now, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do.  Finally the turkey was caught and placed back into the pen and I turned to walk back up to the house and relax for dinner.  As I turned I saw the turkeys back up on that stupid fence roosting again.  It was the same five plus a few more now.  Bad examples leading their peers into trouble.  Now, sad to say, I got angry.  Why won't you stupid turkeys do things the way that I expect things to go.  So this time I ran up the hill screaming like a madman.  Of course if I scared the wits out of them, they would learn their lesson.  (Who was challenged in the thinking department now)  Rather than getting scared and jumping off the fence and doing what I wanted, they simply looked at me, probably saying to one another, "Those humans sure are stupid."  I got to them and knocked them all off the fence again back into their proper pasture.  Job well done.  Now I ventured into the hen house to make one last check of nesting boxes.  Not finding any eggs, I walked back out the door and back up on the fence were even more turkeys.   As the steam shot out of my ears I grabbed a big stick laying there and started swinging it around and hollering like a Mongolian war lord, that didn't work either, so I once again pushed them all off the fence.  Now it was about dark and I walked up to the house.  As I reached the door I heard the all too familiar sound of wings flapping.  Turning around I saw several turkeys on the fence and others quickly jumping up, as if to say, "Hurry up before that crazy dude comes back!"  At this point laughter over took me.  It was now that I realized, "Why do I care if the turkeys choose to sleep on the fence?" 
So many times in my life I do this same thing.  As if there is not enough real issues in this life to cause stress, I will make things up to worry about.  How many times have I let things that really don't matter bother me?  Too often I'm afraid.  But that's what maturing is all about I suppose.  I went back in the house in a rather good mood and shared my experience with my wife and we both enjoyed a nice chuckle at my expense.

Open the Gate!

Small town fairs are the best.  I like going to the larger county fairs for sure but in my opinion you can't beat a truly small town celebration.  We had the opportunity to enjoy such a time a couple of weeks ago when we attended Benton City Daze, our local community event.  We enjoyed the whole time but one event will stick with me for quite some time.  When we first heard that Benton City Daze was happening, the flyer said that there would be mutton bustin (sheep riding) for the little kids and calf riding for the older kids.  All three of my children were completely excited about the idea of riding these animals.  I was NOT so excited.  It was my thought that these kids didn't have a clue what they were signing up for.  I even told them, "You know, this isn't like the pony rides, where the thing walks along while you smile for pictures from mom."  All I got was "Pleeeeeeaaasssssee Daddy!".  Fine.  I wasn't worried so much that they might get hurt, they're pretty tough.  It troubled me more the psychological hurt that could happen.  LOL right now you're thinking I'm pretty wierd, and you're right.  Though I'm ashamed of it a little bit now, I was sure that they would chicken out once they climbed on these critters in the chute.  Not that that would bother me, but I didn't want them to feel "ashamed" of themselves if they got scared and the other kids went through with it.  Just a Dad over thinking everything. 
I soon found out that I was wrong and underestimated my children.  We arrived and got signed up and my daughter Zoey was the first to go.  She climbed right down onto the sheep and started the routine.  There was a young bull rider in the chute with her to get her all set up.  When she got all set up and ready to go, she looked pretty nervous but didn't say anything.  I asked her if she was alright and she said a resounding "Yep!".  I said just hold on as tight as you can and don't let go.  I had told all three of them the same thing, "It's your decision to ride and you can decide not to at any time, but you have to make the call.  When you're ready you have to look at the gate man and tell him 'Open the gate!'.  So I told Zoey everything was ready and we were waiting on her.  Immediately she hollered "Open the gate!."  That ol sheep took off outta there like a rocket but Zoey hung on and would not let go.  The sheep took a hard right and she slid off to the side but would not let go.  So at this point, my daughter was riding on the side of the sheep.  She continued to slide until she was directly under the sheep but she still held on.  The clown was chasing her hollerin,  "Let go, let go!"  Finally she dropped and that was done.  To my amusement she jumped right up and jogged across the arena like nothing had happened.  Job well done. 
There was no time to enjoy the moment for Dad though because, Isaac, my baby was up next.  As Isaac was sitting on his sheep preparing I could see that he was taking a completely different approach than Zoey.  His approach was ignorance.  That's right my three year old had absolutely no clue what was about to happen, and for that I felt kind of bad, but if I took him off the sheep at this point he would have cried all day, so gotta let him go.  I asked him, "You ready?".  He said "Sure."   He then said the magic words, "Open the gate."  Didn't take long for Isaac to find out this wasn't what he was expecting.  The sheep exploded out of the chute and little Isaac hung on like a trooper but only made it about two jumps before he flew off the sheep, face first into a pile of horse poop.  Nervous Dad was running right behind as Isaac rolled over, looked me in the eye, and held his hands out palms up and said to me, "I fell in poop!".  He's a trooper.  He stood up and walked out of the arena with his head held high.
 Next up was my oldest boy, Zane.  Now he was too big for one of the little sheep so he had to ride a bull calf.  I know my children pretty well and I could tell when Zane climbed down on that calf that he was genuinely scared.  Poor kid.  He couldn't back out now, his little sister and baby brother had just rode their critter, no way was he going to "chicken" out.  I said "It's your call, Zaner."  He looked up and said the words...... "Open the gate."  One jump, Zane had it licked.  And then that silly little calf put the brakes on and stopped, Zane kept going, flying straight over the top.  He flew about ten feet and belly flopped on the ground.  He popped straight up and jogged out of the arena and a relieved Dad met him outside the gate.
 It was over, they had all did their adventure ride and no major injuries.  As we sat and listened to them for the next couple hours it was fun to listen to their stories.  Nobody claimed victory over the other siblings for doing any better than the others, they were just all happy and proud.  It hit me that they didn't care that none of them made a "qualified" eight second ride, none of them knew what their score was they all just knew that they were really scared to do something and they had the courage to holler "Open the gate!"  That convinced me that my children had just learned a valuable life lesson.

As I thought about this story the other day, it brought me back to a decision we had recently made to move to a larger acreage farm and expand our business.  At the time the opportunity came to us, we didn't have any money to make the move let alone purchase extra animals and feed.  It just seemed like it was the right move for us.  We didn't quite know how it was all going to work out but we felt God was working in our lives and asking us to live faithfully.  We knew it was going to be incredibly difficult.  Just like I told my kids, "I don't think you understand what you are getting yourself into.", I felt that many of our friends were thinking the same thing about us.  We finally decided that this could be our only opportunity to move to a "real" farm and grow a sustainable operation.  We made the move.

No way of telling right now how this is all going to turn out.  We may be like Zoey and hang on to our dream refusing to let go while it drags us across the arena.  We may be like Zane and have our dream suddenly stop while we fly straight to the ground with a loud thud.  We may be like Isaac and not realize what we are getting ourselves into and land face first in a big old pile of horse poop.  But whatever happens, just like our children, one day when we look back on all this we can proudly say that we had the courage to holler, "Open the gate!"

Todays trouble is enough for today...

It was a normal morning of activity around the farm.  My wife, Chera was preparing for the farmers market, I was up enjoying a nice cup of coffee contemplating the day ahead.  As I often do in the morning I was sipping my coffee while staring out the window to the East, watching the pink glow of the sun as it rose over the hill.  As I was enjoying this wonderful view, I watched a group of our Thanksgiving turkeys run across the driveway.  "Hmmmmm, turkeys don't go there?"  was my thought as I took another sip of coffee.  It was one of those moments when my mind wasn't completely aware of what was happening, and then it hit, "Oh man, the turkeys are out."  About that moment Chera came up from the garage and said "Turkeys are out."  Yep that confirmed it.  "No big deal", I thought.  They're not in any danger, I will just finish my coffee then go out and get them back in.  Then I turned and looked out my South window.  Change of view, check out the valley and Horse Heaven Hills, beautiful.  Now a new thought entered my mind, "Why is my cow inside my chicken tractor?".  It is 5:30 in the morning, my mind isn't quite ready for all this stimulation.  As I stare in disbelief I see that all three of my chicken tractors have been destroyed, chickens are scattered in the pasture and cows are enjoying the chicken feed for breakfast.  "Stupid cows."
My first goal was to get my turkeys back into their pasture.  Sounds easier than it is folks.  If you have ever owned turkeys or worked with them you will understand me when I say that their capacity for intelligent thought is lacking.  I would chase they would run away.  Then they would follow me as I would walk away.  It was like playing the kids game, "Red light/Green light".  As long as my back was to them, they would follow me where I walked.  As soon as I would turn and look at them they would scatter.  So.... I kinda had fun with that for awhile, I mean "why not, right?".  Soon I was joined outside by my two son's and my neighbor who had been watching my activity from next door, (for how long, I don't know).  With four turkey herders we were much more effective and we got the turkeys back into their pasture.  Now that the turkeys were where they were supposed to be I stood back to reflect one why they had gotten out.  Two days before I had noticed that they were getting the pasture eaten down and they were ready to move to a new pasture.  Unfortunately, I let other things catch my attention and kept putting it off.  So the reason they finally pushed through their fence was they wanted fresher pasture grass to eat, only makes sense.
Now it was off to my destroyed chicken tractors.  Our "chicken tractors" are simply moveable, bottomless pens that I move around the pasture so my chickens can continually graze on fresh pasture and still be protected from predators. The cows had did quite a number on the structure of the tractors and it took me some time to repair them enough to hold chickens again.  Then I spent another hour or so chasing chickens to repopulate the tractors.  While I was doing all this i kept thinking that just the week before I had decided that it wasn't a good idea to house the cows and chickens tractors in the same pasture.  They had been doing fine together for some time but I knew that a blow up was imminent.  My plan was to move the cows to the North pasture, but I got busy doing other things and it just never happened.
By the time I finished corralling chickens it was near 10 o'clock in the morning and I hadn't even started my regular morning chores or fed the kids breakfast.  With Chera at market all day, and me starting basically 4 hours behind, you can imagine I wasn't feeling too optimistic about my chances on this particular day.
The rest of the day I struggled with a bad attitude to say the least.  I really didn't enjoy the day and remained behind in my work for a few days because of this messed up day.   It was then that I remembered something that Jesus said that I hadn't thought of in this way before.
Matthew 6: 34 So do not worry about tomorrow.  Let tomorrow worry about itself.  Living faithfully is a large enough task for today.
  On this particular day this verse hit me a little different.  You see, I had all kinds of things to worry about on this day.  However, I got to thinking, if I had only done the things that I knew needed done in the past days, I wouldn't have had to go through the worries I was facing today.  The Lord spoke to me on this.  If I truly give my full effort today and do the things He put before me today, most of "tomorrows" worries will be taken care of before they even occur.  Attack that to-do list, both the spiritual and worldly to-do list today!!