Husband update

I just don't know how time gets away from me so fast. Seems like just yesterday I had posted. Anyhow, after many doctor visits, squeezing and cutting, stuffing and un-stuffing we have finally been told that the infection is gone! You just don't know how relieved I am to hear this. This is the best news I have heard in a long while. Although, this is not over now we have the healing to get through. I'm hoping that it fills in properly and don't leave much scar tissue. The last time he had this it left a large dark purplish scar on the inside of his arm.

We have been trying to figure out where he has contracted this again. I would assume it was at work since he is a diesel mechanic. I'm thinking about taking some bleach and antibacterial whips to his work and clean all his tools and tool box. Anything that I can soak in bleach water I will, anything that is electrical I'll just whip down. I think I will also buy the whips and leave them at work for him to whip down as he puts everything away each night. I don't know I'm just trying to safe guard him a little. This has been an expensive venture and I don't care to repeat it over and over.

Anyhow, with everything that has gone on good news from all the doctors for the three very important men in my life.

Remember me talking about my daddy. Well he had surgery in October to remove his big toe due to gangrene. It has healed beautifully. He had surgery on his heal November 18 to remove part of it and then skin graphs to repair it. They also took skin cancer off his nose and skin graphed it. His nose has healed good and is about done healing. His heal is doing great. Dr said he is about 80% healed.

Now my son had total ACL replacement and meniscus removal. He has done excellent. He returned back to high school right after thanksgiving break. He has been in therapy since Thanksgiving break and is doing well. They are so surprised how well he is doing. I guess being 16 has a lot to do with it.

So all great news to end a crazy 2013!

Hope all is doing well with you and yours!

FarmgirlPin It

Rushing the New Year

Hurry up 2013, get over and bring me a new and refreshed 2014. We are having the worst year ever here in our household. Between my father, my son and my husband they are all wearing me out. My father lost his toe and part of heal due to a bad infection. He also had to have his nose done due to skin cancer. He's lucky to be here, another 48 hours and we would of been planning his final arrangements way to early. He's got a great team of doctors, being stern with his is the only way to get him to come around and get things done in the best interest of his health.

My son had a football accident back in September then again in October with resulted in a total ACL replacement and meniscus removal in November. He just got released to go back to work this past weekend. But, he still has some healing to do.

Now for my husband he had a bad infection of MRSA back in September. He got rid of it pretty quickly with the proper meds and down time. Unfortunately, he has gotten it again but worse. He has it on his arm, in his knee and on his neck. Today, was his second Dr. appointment which they changed his meds. We go back tomorrow to see if they can draw some of the infection out that is if he makes it through the night. He's in a lot of pain due to the swelling.

These are some of the reasons why I haven't posted more to the blog. I would love to post more but I'm just exhausted here lately from all the running and not to mention my job takes a lot out of me when I have to travel with my husband back and forth. When we both work the same days we travel together since its an hour to both of our jobs. That makes my day start at 5:30 am and we don't get back home till after 11:30 pm.

Our daughter has been handling most everything here on the farm here lately. So I really haven't had much to post. All I can say is 2014 has to be better than 2013 and I'm welcoming it with wide open arms.

Hope everyone is doing well.

FarmgirlPin It

Friends across the miles

I've been chatting with another like minded gal for a while now. Come to find out she's just a few hours away. Which is great considering we have so much in common and our views are very similar. We have been bouncing ideas off of each other for a while now. Makes trying new things so much easier. Well yesterday the DH and I went for a drive and we got to meet up with her and her DH finally.

I had a rabbit that she was interested in for wool. I had gotten it from a friend because she moved. So anyhow the Jersey Woolly got a new home and his wool will become many different things as she learns and experiments with him. So he was the basis for our adventure yesterday.

Let's just say it was an adventure as I forgot to write a part of the directions down and we ended up in Athens, OH instead of southern Ohio. I told my husband that I thought there was a map in the door, which I was correct. He found a route that would get us where we needed to be. Boy was it a beautiful drive.

Her and her DH have a very interesting rabbit run and hopefully in the spring we can adapt our rabbits to something similar. Her bunnies seemed pretty darn happy. They also have a pretty nice homestead and with all the improvements she told me they have done and plan on doing its going to be pretty darn great when they are finished.

Feeling very fortunate to have finally met my sweet friend and her family.

Happy Homesteading!

~ Farm GirlPin It

The Recipe Folder

Sitting here going through an large folder of recipes my Granny gave me. Some are hand written by her, some by others, I've picked out some of the hand writing as to where they have came from, others are small booklets Granny has saved from here and there and then the magazine clippings and the crumbly newspaper clippings and whole pages. I'm definatly related to this woman. As I've been collecting recipes for 20 years in this same manner. Trying to decide why she saved this and that, as I know she would have never made some of the things. But, other recipes are very distinctive as to what I remember are some of her favorite flavors. 
I can't wait to make some of the recipes for my family. I know they won't be the exact same as if she made them because when something is made by Grannies hands and the love she poured into making them has a total different flavor than someone else's making the same recipe, but I'll be able to pass on the very recipe that she had once made with my stories attached. 
I've sat a many of times at my Grannies kitchen table and sadly to say she's never had the pleasure to sit at mine, YET. I do intend on changing that fact here soon. Some way, some how, I'll get Granny and my Pawey here to make new memories for me to share with my children and grandchildren.
I'm so blessed to still have two of my grandparents still with me today. ♥  I haven't had much of a chance to visit with them here lately. With taking on this new job over the summer it really has limited my free time. I pray that they continue to have pretty good health. I don't want to think of the day that I only have the memories of them. 

I'm teary eyed just thinking about them. 

~ Farm GirlPin It

Winter Piggies

Got a call last Thursday about buying some pigs, something we weren't planning on doing. I just haven't been keen on having more animals to feed during the colder months; actually I'm trying to get rid of some extra animals. But, we don't have any extra pork in the freezer. So we ended up talking the in laws into buying a piglet also and splitting the feed cost.

This is only the second time we have had pigs. Earlier this year we got piglets for my sons FFA project. Which he showed and sold at the county fair and he did very well. Guess we are going to get practice for next years fair.

Our little guy has a brother with him so he won't be lonely. Wilbur is smaller than the in laws piglet but is more aggressive. I love watching them argue over the chow. They are so funny. I'm hoping they will fill out fast and nicely so I don't have to worry about feeding into the new year. 

Wilbur on the left, not sure what the in laws have named theirs yet.

These are a york mixed piglets. They have light black markings on their skin. Can't really see it for all their white hair. They are so cute I hope they turn out well. 

I need to get to reading about raising hogs, so that we can raise good quality pigs. 

Happy homesteading 

~ Farm Girl

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Bye-Bye Garden

I have been so ready to see this dreadful garden season go away. Finally, the husband and son got all the tomato stakes out of the garden. I was so glad when I heard the tractor fire up. I look out and this is what I see.

 Crazy that he used the mower to knock the dreadful weeds down. But, such a blessing now I can see across the yard and it don't look so bad from the main road. 

Everything is gone except the very little sweet potato patch down at the far end of the garden. I'm not even sure if they bloomed so we may not have any sweet potatoes. In the next few weeks he'll plow the garden and we'll get all the rabbit droppings and hog manure put on it for the winter. Just maybe next years garden will be a success.

I wish I had the nerve to put in a fall or winter garden but, I feel its going to get cold quick. Which makes me think that the garden will not do any good. Cutting my losses this year and ready to move on.

~ Farm Girl

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Garden

This years garden was less than stellar. The weather started out good and we were getting peppers, green beans and cherry tomatoes fairly often. Then the rain started and it pretty much drowned everything out. Out of the 96 tomato plants I planted I only got some of the cherry tomatoes everything else rotted on the vines. My green beans did fairly well. I did can 33 quarts myself, my mother in law got 7 to 10 quarts from the third picking. I also got some cucumbers to make pickle relish. I got some hot banana pepper rings canned too.

I really had high hopes to can another 1000 jars this season but I fell extremely short. I can only hope that next year will be much better with bumper crops.

My mother and I went to Ohio and picked some tomatoes. Because of my work schedule I could only get them cleaned prepped and put in the freezer. I will be doing them up into spaghetti sauce in a few weeks. I still need to gather a few ingredients to get it all together.

I will be canning all winter but it will be only the stuff like meats and vegetables that I find on sale at the markets. I would rather be canning those kinds of things than nothing at all.

So how did your garden(s) do this year?

~ FarmgirlPin It

Quiet

There's a weird quietness in the air here. I hear no televisions playing back the hallway, no radios and no video games. This only means one thing.... I'm children less!! I'm not complaining one bit. Although I will miss them fighting between the two of them and their bull-headedness with me and what not and their silliness. This is the only time of the year when they are off to camp together. They both enjoy 4-H camp. It was the best thing we signed them up for. No matter how old they are getting they both come home and talk about it for weeks.

Here's a video from back in 2010 from final counsel circle. Click here

I wish I had experienced camps like this when I was a kid.If you have youngin's check into 4-H. The meetings are only once a month. The kids projects go to the fair as exhibits and its not all about animals there is plenty of other cool projects. Just all around good thing for the kids to do.

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

~ Farmgirl


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One person's trash is another person's treasure!!

This maybe a golden oldie but it works just great for this girl. I had a fairly nice one but as my son was putting it away and dropped it. It no longer worked with a busted motor. Boy they don't make them very well anymore. He picked me one up at the thrift store a while back ago but it only had one setting that worked. Man that was a pain in the rump. I got this one from my mother. I bet it has sat on the shelf in her basement for 10 plus years. They couldn't figure out how to use it or the settings (too many buttons I recon). LOL Anyhow, they were going to pitch it and I rescued it.

I used it today to make Hot Pepper Butter. It was FANTASTIC!!

What's one of your best freebie scores?

~ FarmgirlPin It

Another rainy day

I don't know about where you are at, but here in West Virginia its been raining pretty good since yesterday afternoon. We are suppose to have more rain throughout the day and evening. It may come down pretty hard at times. So, I was just telling a friend of mine that when it does dry out the garden is going to be over taken by weeds, it probably will look like a jungle in my front yard. I don't like weeds it takes forever to weed the garden or at least it feels like it to me.

Garden as seen out my front door.
You can even see the rain on the screen door.

I heard from an old man at one of the feed stores saying we are going to have an unusually wet summer. If that's the case we may not get anything out of the garden. It may all rot before it can be harvested. I'm hoping he was wrong but you know these old men most of them hit the nail on the head. 

So how's the weather where you are and how is your garden looking at the moment?

~ Farmgirl

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Lazy Day

Been a rainy day off and on. So we pretty much stayed in the house and just enjoyed our time as a family. Our daughter did go over and get a few of the bunnies and brought them over for play time. One of them has had an issue with its eye. I don't think that it ever opened, so I cleaned it with some warm water and mineral oil. Now it can see just fine.

I got to cuddle with this one for a bit. It is only 16 days old and such a chunk. Its a lot bigger than its sibling. These are the only two out of the whole bunch made it.

Look at that size difference! I'm trying to talk the DH into keeping on of them for our stock. I'm not sure if its working just yet.

This is the smallest baby buns foot. Isn't it so cute.. This bunnies fur feels like velvet. Well besides doing some house work and cooking this is pretty much all we did all day. Was nice to just veg out.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day.

~ Farmgirl

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Feet Up

It's been a very busy few days for us here on the farm and away from the farm. Sunday and Monday my daughter and I went and visited my parents over in Ohio. I helped my mother plant her garden. We put in 120 tomatoes and 48 pepper plants. They had to cut their garden back because of some septic work they are about to have done. It's weird seeing only half of it planted as she cans a lot also.

Yesterday and today  here on the farm we mowed, weeded the edges of the yard and pasture. Cleaned rabbit cages and made some repairs. We also planted a row of peas, row of Lima beans, 2 pounds of onion sets, 15 hills of squash,  9 hills of cucumber, and sweet potatoes. We are about finished with the planting. I just want to add two more rows of corn and maybe another row or two of Lima beans (this fool picked up the wrong kind of Lima beans so I'm short just a little bit) and a small pumpkin patch.

Our son went and cut some small saplings so we could have some tomato stakes. We desperately needed them. I'm hoping to get the rest of them done this weekend. We got one-third of them done just before it started raining here this evening.

Just after the first small storm passed by.

I got my shower between storms and now my feet are propped up for the evening while I watch the CMT Music Awards.

Hope everyone is having a good evening.

~ Farmgirl


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Good Day Everyone

Well if you haven't noticed by now there's been some cleanup going on and a whole lotta adding of new recipes to the blog. I'm actually working on my canning and recipe folders trying to get things in a usable order. So I thought I would focus on many of my canning recipes since that time of the year is just right around the corner.

I've also been asked a few questions through the comments of different posts and I was doing some research on those. I get totally sidetracked most of the time, cause I find something that looks good and what not. I think I have answered every ones questions so far. But, you will see in the up coming weeks that I will be addressing them. So stay tuned.

Another big change made to the Blog here is that you can now print any recipe off this site. The printer button is located below my post in the comments box. You can't miss it! I absolutely hate trying to get recipes off my laptop while cooking. I did some research and found the easiest way I know how to get those recipes in your  hands. Hope you all enjoy!!

Please leave feedback to any message you see here on the Blog. I enjoy your comments and questions! If I don't know the answer I will seek someone that does.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

~ FarmgirlPin It

Beer-Brined Chicken

I had some friends come in from Virginia this weekend and not just any recipe would do for grilling chicken for them. I had to break out one of the best I have learned to make. This is one of my favorite go-to recipes when making chicken on the the grill. The chicken comes out so tender and pretty juicy. I made it this time with chicken breasts (wont be as juicy as the thighs) but its great with thigh meat also.

It's great severed up with many different sides. This time I paired it with corn on the cob and a nice hearty salad and my friend had brought up a carrot cake with walnuts and pineapple. It was so so delish. I'm still trying to figure out how she knew that I LOVED carrot cake.

Brine:
2 cups water
1/4 cup kosher (coarse) salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 (12 oz) bottles beer, chilled
2 cut-up whole chickens (3 to 31/2 lbs each) (for this recipe I used 6 lbs of chicken breasts)

Barbecue Rub:
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup vegetable oil (for brushing on chicken while on the grill)

In a 6 to 8 quart noncorrosive (stainless steel, enamel-coated or plastic or  large ziploc bag) container or stockpot, mix water, kosher salt and brown sugar, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Stir in beer ( it will foam some). Add chicken. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Line 15x10 inch pan with sides with paper towel. Remove chicken from brine; rinse thoroughly under cool running water and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brine. Place chicken in pan. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix all rub ingredients except oil; set aside.

Heat gas or charcoal grill for indirect cooking. Brush oil over chicken; sprinkle rub mixture over chicken.For two burner gas grill, heat one burner to medium; place chicken on unheated side. For one- burner gas grill, place chicken on grill over low heat. For charcoal grill, move medium coals to edge of firebox; place chicken over drip pan. Cover grill; cook 15 minutes.

Turn chicken over; cover grill and cook 20 to 30 minutes longer, turning occasionally, until juice of chicken is clear when thickest piece is cut to bone (170 degrees for breasts; 180 degrees for thighs and drumsticks).

Makes 8 servings

Note: The picture above I dredged my chicken in the rub. I like it the rub on pretty thick. So if your like me you may want to make double or triple rub.

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Good friends; Good eats

I found out mid last week that I was going to have weekend visitors. My good friend Diane and her husband, Calvin was coming to my house. OMG! I just couldn't believe it. I thought for sure that if they got a chance to take a mini vacation that they would of went to the beach, but instead they were coming to see me. I felt special.

This is from our visit in Jan 2013.

See I met Diane and Calvin on-line about the same time we moved back to WV, so that's been nearly 9 years ago. We chatted on-line 6 years before we got to meet for the first time in person. This weekend was the third time we've got together. We went and visited them down in VA in January.

This weekend we got to sit around and visit. We all went out for a little bit. I just hated that my husband missed almost all of it because he was working. Next time we'll have to do some planning so we all can visit. I foresee a trip in my near future.

I cooked up a storm just prior to their arrival. Saturday we had pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and strawberry pie. On Sunday I made beer-brined chicken, salad, and corn on the cob. Diane surprised me with a homemade carrot cake, which is my favorite. It was a great weekend filled with laughter and food. What a way to end the month of May.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.

~ Farmgirl

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Hot Dog Sauce

There's nothing I like better at a good ole cookout besides a hot dog with sauce and onions. (Shh, sometimes I like it piled high with slaw too.) It can't be any ole sauce either, it has to be homemade. The store bought just don't do it for me; maybe its because I'm totally spoiled or something. So any how I'm on a mission to find the best sauce this season. I make mine from scratch all the time and I have never wrote down the recipe; its always been a dash of this, a pinch of that and so on. So come along with me on my journey to find the ULTIMATE hot dog sauce out there. By the way, if you have a sauce I must try please email it to me.

Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef, chuck (for this recipe I used ground turkey, was out of beef)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup water

Directions:

Brown beef and onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain fat; cool mixture slightly. Place in a food processor; pulse until mixture is finely crumbled, about 5 or 6 pulses. Return meat  to skillet; stir in garlic. Cook for 3 minutes.

Mix in ketchup and barbecue sauce. Stir in the chili powder, mustard, pepper, salt, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, and water. Cook, uncovered, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Season sauce with additional salt, if necessary.

Makes 3 cups

Come on give it a try

~ Farm Girl

Recipe source allrecipes.com

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Early evening visitors

Sitting on the porch this evening waiting for the daughter to get home and out of the corner of my eye I see something moving over in the trees. Low and behold it was two squirrels feasting on the expired blooms of the wild cherry tree.  Here are a few pictures of the critters visiting my yard.

The bird landed on the feeder stand not 15 feet from me. It was so nice to see all the critters out and enjoy the day just as much as I was.

Hope everyone had a lovely evening

~ Farm Girl

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Operation Duck and Chicken Run

A few days ago I bartered a few jars of jelly for two ducks. I'm staring to get a hang of this bartering as I have done it a few times here lately to get things I needed or wanted for the farm and such. We got the ducks but didn't have any place to keep them. I couldn't turn them loose because my neighbors dogs would have them for an appetizer and I'm sure my two cats would chase them around and may even harm them. So we had them cooped up in travel kennel till we could get them something more fitting. 

It's been raining here for  a few days. The husband and I got up early and used the early morning hours to build a makeshift run for them from items we had already here on the farm. I found a few ideas on pintrest that would work great! I'm loving that site.

So we took the old swing set I got for FREE a few years ago. Borrowed the timbers from my blueberry bed. Purchased the netting and used some leftover rabbit wire for their door. Hubby also borrowed a tarp that wasn't being used from his parents to make them a shaded and dry area for when it starts to rain hard again. I think we have a total of $12 in the whole thing so far. I want to paint the swing set just to help protect it from more rust. 

Over all we are very pleased with how it came out and I know the ducks; Quackers and Cheese are very thankful for a large area to roam in.

Quackers and Cheese in the dog kennel

Enjoying some fresh water.

I'll take more pictures as I get the finishing touches on the run in the next few weeks.

Have a wonderful day!!

~ Farm Girl

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Lemon Chicken

I love, love, love lemon chicken and there are so many ways to make it. But, for me I find that every time that I have a craving for lemon chicken, I either don't have any chicken thawed out or I'm running on borrowed time. This recipe here will solve everyone's dinner woo's. You'll love the moist lemony chicken dish great severed with buttered noodles or even a baked potato.

1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
4 bone-in or boneless chicken brest halves, skin removed (I prefer boneless chicken)
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup minced fresh parsley (2 tablespoons of dried parsley is fine also)
1/2 cup chopped celery with leaves
1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cold water

In a pressure cooker, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender; remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Brown the chicken, a few pieces at a time, in the cooker. Return onion mixture and all chicken to pan. Add broth, water, lemon juice, parsley, celery, Italian seasoning, salt if desired and pepper. Close cover securely; place pressure regulator on vent pipe. (if you have a weighted gauge with lbs select 10 lbs.)

Bring cooker to full pressure over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 8 minutes. (Pressure regulator should maintain a slow steady rocking motion; adjust heat if needed.) Immediately cool according to manufacturer's directions until pressure is completely reduced. Remove chicken and keep warm.

Measure pan juice; return 1 1/2 cups to pan. Combine cornstarch and cold water until smooth; stir into pan juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over chicken.

Yeild: 4 Servings.

** Note: You can use half thawed or even frozen chicken in this recipe. You can skip the browning of the chicken. Just put all ingredients in pressure pot. Add a few extra tablespoons of lemon juice and 1/4 cup extra water and pressure cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this Lemon Chicken just as much as my family does.

Happy Cooking!!

~ Farm Girl

* Orginal recipe from Quick Cooking July/August 2000 magazine. 

You will need to use one of these for this recipe: Pressure Cooker

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Operation Pig Pen

The past two days have been extremely busy here on the farm. We finally located a few pigs for my son's FFA fair project. We didn't think that we were going to be able to get his project underway but with the help of a few friends and unsuspecting souls it got underway and completed in just two days.

The prime location for the hog pen would of been up in the tree line but that wasn't possible as it stays to wet there and we couldn't have them to far from a water source. The only choice we really had was to remove part of the falling down barn and locate them there. Okay this is probably a blessing in disguise.

Day One:

BEFORE picture. At least 120 year old barn crumbling. 

After picture. 

We couldn't clean up the whole building as behind it is pasture and is holding in one bull that will be going to the butcher shop soon. The building is acting as a fence. Sometime next week we will have to build new fence so that we can remove the rest for more expansion. 

We had to move all the debris from the barn across the creek and to our burn pile. It don't seem like much but, really it was. I know I had a good chunk of it all cleaned up before my son and husband made it back from Farmer Bob's. 

This will be burned. Hopefully very soon.

After having a cleared lot to work with they drilled holes for the posts which was a fallen down yellow locust tree, thanks to storm Drencho last end of June early July. 

Drilling post holes

Measuring for the next hole

All posts set 

It seemed like it took forever to get to this stage of the build. There was a lot of father and son bonding going on too. I hope that our son learned a lot from this build. And now we are ready to start putting up the side boards. The lumber used for the sides is lumber that was timbered off the farm back in 1991 and 1992. It had been piled up in the old shed since then. 

Saw mill lumber from the farm. At least 24 years old.

Add the side boards.

And like any other off the cuff builder some of the plans changed and the bedding area of the pen was moved to a different location. It was suppose to be off to the right but it got put on the back. 

Added bedding area

Thankfully my sons friend showed up after school to help them. It made my work a little easier as I was pulled away to go and work my sons mowing job. I do this from time to time when he has track meets, football practice or camp. Building the pig pen was really important so I tackled the mowing. 

Getting the roof done

They wanted to get the roof done before the extra help was gone. I don't blame them. There was no way I was getting up there to tack the roofing on. 

This scared the ba jibbies out of me. But, boys will be boys.
I think they were having a good time, anyhow.

Last thing few nails before we called it a night.
Not much more light to work in.

This was the finish of day one! We were so thankful to have the Son's buddy to help. My son helped him build his pig pen so it was payback time for him. 

Day Two:

Moved along pretty fast as much of the work was done. We only had to finish putting up the walls and make the door. On this day it was only our Daughter, Myself and Daddy working. Our son has a job at the local stock market with his buddy and they had to go to work. 

We spent the first part of the morning going to the stock market to pick up the piggies. This was our meeting place of choice, plus we had some paper work to do. 

Piggies in the stock trailer. Ready to go to their new home.

So we made it home around lunch time and got straight to work. It was rather warm yesterday and we didn't want them to stay in the trailer too long. We finished up the hut and put the door together and on the cage then turned the piggies loose in the pen while we were finishing up the sides. 

Now that's a door!

Completed hut!

Sissy helping out too!

Completed Pig Pen

Now that we have arrived at the completed Pig Pen. The only thing we have left to do is finish the watering system. Which will probably be completed early this week. We only need an elbow to install the self water. 

This whole pen cost us roughly around 25 dollars. When pulling the old barn down we found some door hinges from the old barn. Our only expense was the gas to run the chainsaw, diesel to run the tractor to drill holes and retrieve the fallen locust tree, and the two partial boxes of nails. Everything else came off the farm. 

This pig pen was probably an over kill but we shouldn't have to replace it anytime soon.

We took a page right out of Eustace Conway book. If you don't know who I'm talking about he is a naturalist. Living on Turtle Island Preserve in North Carolina. He's fighting hard to keep his land and to build and live as natural as possible. I first heard about him on television on a show called Mountain Men on the History Channel. Very, very interesting  man. 

But, back to what my real story is about. 

Meet Forest on the left and Bubba on the right.

One last photo of the happy piggies.

I learned a lot during my time out there with my husband and children. WE all worked together to complete a project that will give us many years of use.

Have a great rest of the weekend my friends.

~ Farm Girl

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