Farrowing

When I was a little boy, my dad built his own farrowing huts for a pasture farrowing system.  Ever since then, we have continuously had a farrow to finish hog operation on our farm.  When I was in grade school, he remodeled our old dairy barn into a farrowing house with 24 crates in it.  That's when I started doing outside chores.  We  fed the sows by hand from 5 gallon buckets, and bedded the crates with fresh straw every couple of days.  Then we cleaned them out by hand also (with pitchfork, scraper, and shovel), and "limed" the barn between groups.
In 1973 Dad built our first confinement hog house.  It was a farrow/nursery building with a full pit and concrete slats.  It was a great labor saver, but it wasn't the ideal environment for newborn piglets.  After I came home from college and was farming full time, I designed a new farrowing/nursery building. An Ag Engineer did the specs and drawings, and we built it with the help of Vernon, Ted, and Myron Blunier.  It was put into service in 1980.  It has been remodeled and updated, but it is the building we are still using today.

I still believe that a small operation that utilizes family labor, grows its own corn, and uses modern technology and production practices can compete with the large operations.
But it takes desire, dedication to details, time commitment, and good animal husbandry skills.

Our crates, gestation feeders, and equipment are showing their age, and the next generation doesn't act enthused about raising hogs.  It has become especially time consuming during planting and harvest to do a good job with the hogs as the grain operation has grown.
So my brother and I have decided to stop farrowing and switch to a wean to finish operation.  We stopped breeding sows the end of December, and yesterday the first group of sows went to market.

We hope you enjoy the sausage and brats.

Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.
Isaiah 66:9

Aunt Freida

Monday we drove to O'Hare to retrieve daughter #2.  We are thankful to have her safely home from her 3 weeks in India.  Her Flight was 3 hours late, so we did a little shopping at Oakbrook Shopping Center on the way up. 

My Aunt Freida passed away on Saturday.  Today was her funeral. 
When I was growing up, and my family went to Lester, Iowa to visit my Grandpa and Grandma, I usually stayed at Andy and Freida's house.  They lived in a bungalow style house, and they converted the attic into the neatest boys bedroom I ever saw.  I loved to stay up there with their sons.  She grew up one of 14 kids on a dairy farm north of town.  She was about 12 years older than my Mom, so she had different experiences and stories to tell that we always enjoyed listening to.  She had a pleasant personality and always seemed to have a positive outlook, even during disappointing situations.  She was well known for her "Freida buns" (dinner rolls) that she baked and passed out to others.  She bought her flour from the Butter Braid factory 50 pounds at a time.  She spent her whole life in NW Iowa until they moved to central Illinois less than 3 years ago.  She made literally hundreds of dozens of buns since she moved to Illinois until her health stopped her.  A large percentage of the 84 nieces and nephews were able to come to the visitation or funeral.  It was a cold day, but our hearts were warmed.
I was honoured to be a pall bearer.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:1-3

Snow

Thursday we had our first real snow/snowstorm of the winter.  When I went out to start chores at 6:00 in the morning it had not started snowing yet, but within 15 minutes it was.  We spent the day at the Precision Planting Winter Conference in Tremont.  We were saddened to hear that one of their dealers was killed in a weather induced car accident on his way to the conference.   The first storm of the season always reminds us how our driving needs to change with the weather.  I think we ended up with about 5 inches.

On Saturday morning our grain leg wouldn't start, so I climbed to the top to see if there was a problem up there.  Everything was fine on top, and I enjoyed a beautiful view of the white countryside on a calm, peaceful winter day.  Zeller Electric was called out on a Saturday, and we were thankful that Jon was available to immediately come out.  The problem turned out to be condensation moisture had gotten into the starter contactors and frozen.  After we thawed and dried them out, everything worked again and we were able to move the corn we needed for feed.

I was reminded in Church Sunday how blessed I am.  This verse was in one of the scripture readings.
I am thankful and humbled

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
III John 1:4

Squirrel

A local funeral brought some of my Lyon County, Iowa cousins out Friday afternoon.  We kept them overnight and enjoyed some blessed Christian fellowship Friday evening/Saturday morning.  It was bittersweet since this was the first time we saw a cousin-in-law since he lost his wife, but grateful that he came to stay with us.  I wish we could spend more time with all of my Iowa relatives, because I always enjoy the times we do spend together.  I always enjoy our visits to Northwest Iowa, and we are past due for a trip to visit there.

After all, they've got it made out there.

This fall, Son #1 eliminated the squirrel population here on the farm.  We've had 3 carcasses waiting in the freezer for a feast.  Tonight we had a squirrel stroganoff recipe from the L.L. Bean cookbook.  I thought it was quite good.  Tastes like chicken!  Dark meat.  I thought the old farmer's wife was quite brave to cook and eat it, knowing her mild dislike of rodent-like animals.

Daughter #2 is still in India.  It sounds like she is having some great experiences so far.  You can follow her journey here. We look forward to hearing all about it when she gets home.  We are praying for safety and health on the rest of the trip. 
Maybe she will bring us some monkey meat to try.

 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
I Corinthians 1:9

 

The week

The week surrounding Christmas brought us mild winter weather.  Which meant we never had a white Christmas.  We had an enjoyable week of food and fellowship anyway. 
The marathon is over now.  The usual number of books entered our house as gifts again this year, along with many other nice gifts, clothes, tools, and weapons.  My wife and I bought each other Belgian waffle makers.  Both were impulse buys.  Everyone had a good laugh.  In a couple of months we will be receiving a new puppy as a gift.  It is still too young to be weaned.  We've been dog less for a couple of years now, so it will be nice to have a dog again.  Although I'm not sure I'm up to training a puppy. 

Two days after Christmas we took daughter #2 up to O'Hare airport to fly to India.  She will be there for three weeks in a Study Abroad program.  The Mrs. and I shopped a while in Schaumburg as long as we were up North.

We again kept the nephews at our house for two nights during the holidays.  They are easy, low maintenance guests to keep, but they seem to have their days and nights mixed up.  It's usually entertaining (while we are still up), and the rousing games go late into the night.  One "night" the last light didn't go off until after 6 in the morning, after I was already up for the new day!
I forget what it was like to be young.

I dropped a plastic cap down the drain of our basement sink Saturday night.  This afternoon I took the drain apart to retrieve it.  As is typical, the pipes were rotten and they broke apart during dis- assembly.  Fortunately, this time I had all the parts I needed in my plumbing parts box, and all it cost me was an hour of time that I hadn't counted on.

Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
Zephaniah 1:7