Greetings all! Happy 4th of July from us here at Porch Swing. We've been so pleased by the lovely feedback we've gotten at the Farmers' Markets at the River Market, Hillcrest and Bernice Garden. All of Aaron work on sausage crafting has come to fruition - many delicious brats, Italians and breakfast sausages in people's lives. We've also been stoked to see old friends and new ones at the markets.
Back on the farm, we've also been plugging away. The warm weather means that pigs need some water to cool off in so we run new pools in the morning for them to roll about in. By the end of the day, we have all brown pigs - not spotted, not black. These are our spotted teenagers enjoying the pool.
And the runts are growing. You may have seen them on Instagram. We had a very large litter and the sow didn't have enough milk for all of them so the two little ones were losing out in the competition for resources. I started out bottle feeding them and then moved them to a dog food dish. They get a mix of milk replacer, pig food and egg yolks 2 or 3 times a day. They are real cute but a bit of a menace at this point because they are always underfoot. This, on a very small level, must be what their mom must feel like with the other 12 piglets. Lots of squeaky clamoring.
And we have a new man in our life. Meet Mick Jagger, our new boar! He came to us from Wisconsin and brings with him more genetic diversity for our herd. His parents are recent imports from England, bringing fresh blood for the breed. He's pretty darling, loving a tummy rub. He's in a pen by himself right now, in quarantine for a couple weeks so I've been spending extra time with him. I'm sure I'm less interesting that pig companions but I'll have to do for now.
He's a couple months old so he has a while before he gets some girlfriends of his own.
Thanks for checking in here! Have a great week! Best, Holly