Kate and I have grown our little menagerie over the last 6 months to include chickens, bees, pigs, goats and cats. As farming goes, on top of the livestock totem rests the cow; which we have just finally added to our little family. Her name is Bella. She caught pneumonia during that wicked cold snap two weeks ago and was rescued by one one of the farm hands. She is about 3 months old, is over three-quarters Red Devon and very sweet. I bottle feed her twice a day and hope to raise her as a mama and milk cow.

Loves the milk replacer

Red devons originally come from Devonshire England but were all sent to New Zealand as those kiwis love them some grass-fed animals. From NZ Charles Sydnor (part owner of our farm) purchased 12 pure-bred embryos a number of years ago and essentially started the breed off in the US. Red Devons have never been fed grain throughout their genetic history. This means that their rumens are bullet-proof, their beef marbles well on grass, they don’t get as monstrous as some other beef breeds and they are known for a very friendly disposition. Bella should get to about 1000 pounds and be able to breed once a year.

My 9-year old pitbull used to chase cats. He doesn’t look
that happy, but he’s trying so hard to be ok with this.

He's a good pillow

First, I must apologize for taking so long to write this, but Squirt is alive. Turned out he was too small to go to slaughter. I took him back to the Spring pen to live with all the other youngsters this week. Again, apologies for the drama and the late catchup post. Thank you for the sympathy and love.

Second, I have bad news. Everything was back to being ok, and then we had a wicked cold snap and Oscar died. It happened rather suddenly, although we had noticed some funny behavior in the days leading up to his death. He didn’t come eat to eat in the morning, he didn’t get up much for two days. This could have been normal, many pigs just chill out for a little while when the weather’s terrible or for their own reasons. Kate noticed he was really thirsty. We both spent some time rubbing his belly as he lay on his side (his classic snuggle move) in the days before his death and he didn’t let on that anything was wrong. Then, last monday morning, Kate found him cold and stiff, looking alive but clearly not.

Unlike Squirt (or what I thought was going to happen to Squirt), Oscar’s death came without warning. Honestly, it was less painful for me. Most likely because I didn’t know he was going to die and didn’t wrestle with the opportunity to prevent it. Now we mourn him like a lost loved one. Van Gogh, his best pig buddy, seems depressed as well, but is starting to come back around and has been doing a new trick. Now he lays on his side and lets us rub his belly. These pigs are incredible creatures.

Van Gogh getting the Belly Scratch

Squirt is the first pig I ever met. He was a ‘house-pig’ like Oscar and Van Gogh, only about two months before their time. When we first arrived at Elizabeth’s house here at Cane Creek we were greeted by a few-week-old Squirt who simply looked to us for more food. He was a demanding little pig, very curious and loved spending time with the dogs and nibbling our ankles to remind us he was hungry. Unfortunately, Squirt is a boy and the farm has enough studs around, so he has been growing with the rest of the market pigs in a big pen for some time. Since I pick the pigs most weeks that go to market (get slaughtered) I’ve lately been avoiding Squirt; he’s getting pretty big. He knows me (I also became immediately responsible for feeding him after we arrived) so he always comes to hang out when I work in his pen catching his friends, feeding and fixing huts. Being so friendly and thus catchable I knew that one day he’d end up on the trailer heading for market when I wasn’t working. That day is today. He is right now snuggling with the other 5 market pigs in our barn, waiting for this week’s trip to our processor (slaughterhouse) tomorrow.  Squirt is also the first pig I could recognize by voice (like a dog’s bark, each pig sounds different). When I approached the barn tonight to check on the market pigs, I heard the ‘whan, whan’ I know so well. I reached into his stall and scratched his head, running my hands over his eyes and around his face. The other pigs hadn’t noticed me and Squirt just enjoyed the friendliness. Tomorrow he will be shot in the head and butchered. Pigs like him are the highlights and the lowlights of this job; the first job ever to make me cry.

He will be missed

Some people think my last Livestock Farmer post trailed off into nowhere. Maybe it ended a little abruptly, either way, I was done writing about pigs. Yesterday and the day before were my two days off. I work Thursday through Monday, pretty much all the time since I live on the farm. I am the kind of person that used to like getting work email on my phone so I could work anywhere and thus not have to be in the office all day. Living on the farm is similar in that I can manage my time with a lot of flexibility. I regularly work after dinner in exchange for a long lunch or afternoon expedition. I’m also available for any crisis that arise in the middle of the night or when no one else is around. Heavy rains, escaping and sick animals don’t keep business hours. With plenty to do on my days on, what do I do on my days off?

I used to fill a lot of my free time with socializing, bars, driving-out-of-the-city-adventures and random hobbies like hunting, fishing and housework. Then, when I had a mostly boring job, I lived for the two days a week I could finally do what I wanted. Now that I have a mostly fulfilling job I find myself puttering around like a recent retiree not knowing what to do with myself. I get bored. I miss socializing, but not as much as I’m happy to be where I want to be. In other words, the trade is worth it, except when you have two days off and nothing to do with them. Then it starts to feel overwhelming. I ended up driving to our farmers market in Carrboro yesterday. It’s the most social time of the week for me and since I started taking Wednesdays off, I’ve missed the market a lot. I chatted with some pretty cool beekeepers and farmers and felt partially sustained with enough socializing for one day. But man, did I feel kinda pathetic driving 40 minutes to have a couple conversations with strangers I barely know.

I’ve got plans to take a class on Permaculture beginning in January and Kate and I are going to make a trip to New York City sometime soon. I guess I need more going on than bees, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys, turkeys, geese, dogs and cats.

Rudy has been saying with kate’s parents on the vineyard (off and on while Kate and I travel) and they give him a great life. The vineyard has great dog parks like “trade winds” where I am now. It’s an active air strip for tiny planes and Rudy gets exhausted chasing his ball all over the place. Kate and I wouldn’t be able to have nearly as much traveling fun without her parents looking after our animals, so thank you very much.

Every year I inherit my mom’s old iPhone. This year I got the sweet 3GS for about two weeks until Kate put it in the washing machine…thus I was faced with the decision to buy a new one or go old school flip phone. Since much of my communication to the world outside snow camp, NC happens through this blog and phone calls and I’m addicted to words with friends and chess, I caved. Good news is I can now snap more photos for the blog more easily and i’ve got this front facing camera too!

Every summer my family visits cape cod for a week. This summer is the first time I’ve had such a locally focused job, which makes it impossible to work while on vacation. So, this is the first real vacation I think I’ve ever had while employed.