Early Thursday Report.....

Another early start cause, yep, girls are due and their rooms are not ready yet. Had to scope out a vehicle with the web cam around 2:30, not sure what he was doing at that time of morning, nobody is up that early. Four degrees this morning, snow yesterday more comming today, I'm cold and in need of coffee and "all is well on the farm today" remains to be seen.......TTFN.........:)

Another Thursday From HELL.....

These are Lana and Liz's babies in the nursery and as you can see they are growing like pigs on a mission, which is what a pigs mission is, if of course, a pig has a mission, which I believe every pig does, so therefore it is safe to say that they are growing and that growing is their mission or am I mission something here??? Either way, all the 4-H pigs (all 10,000 of them, sure feels like it some times) are looking fabulous and growing like pigs......on a mission....I'm done.....:)

Actually it has been more like the 2 weeks from hell and Thursday was just a compounding of all those problems. We were just starting to adjust to loosing an employee and Lori and I were swetting bullets to get sows in before they, well you know, in the gestation barn, I even started at 3:00 A.M. Thursday hoping to get ahead of the game, (it's not really a game but that is what they say and so I said it too but when you find a sow in gestation doing well, you know, it is not a game but I'll say it that way cause everybody else does but it ain't) then Steve shows up and informs us (us being Lori and me(I) that the other two valued team members were not showing up ON THURSDAY!!!! A sin in itself!!! Soooooooo, that meant us (we) three had to do chores, feed, check bins, grind feed, wean sows, heat check, catch and vaccinate 300 pigs and give them to Steve to vaccinate again and sort, fix heaters, water lines and make sure all was right in the world, help move the jewish settelers off of the North bank, finally got the color map finished for Hilary's trip back to Arkansa, wash the farrowing house and get sows in before they, well you know, all over the place, and answer the phone and other miscellaneous non important trivial stuff like breathing and eating (HUGE on Lori's list) and stopping once to go to the bath room and all this with Steve and Lori both sick just not feverish. Luckly, Dustin showed up later in the morning which helped out a whole bunch and needless to say we gotter done!!!

Well, I am working the weekend and so far I have managed NOT to tear up anything or myself. The weather has turned around a little bit and today has turned out to be a very nice day in more ways than one. I think I will retire to the couch now for some R&C (root beer and chips) as I believe everyone else has, so for now everyone is resting for the day and all is well on the farm once again..........:)

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude.......

This is Liz. Not only is she Lana's sister, as you can see, she is her neighbor also. And like her sister she also has had a most excellent litter of lill red babies with some most excellent potential champions. (read that twice) There were roughly 25 pigs between them so a few are "eating out" so to speak to make room for the others and so all lill bellies get full of milk but sooner or later they will be reunited, you might say a "reed-union"!!!

Got a call from Lori about an hour ago with some questions about a heater, her weekend and it ain't working right but we gotter goin. Yes the photo of the flood is in the past and now we are dealing with a little snow, -5 temperatures and -20 wind chills, go figure. As of the time of this post to my knowledge nothing is froze beyond repair or reheating but the day is young.

I think we are going to venture out again to test our metal and see what is going on so I must go get my insulation on, which as I get older seems to take longer and require more items to do the job that only a few used to do, and then out we will go.

For now all is functioning normally, all are warm and cozy and all is well on the farm once again.

Lil Red Babies.....

This is Lana, (she is the big one with all the food spouts) and Lana is one of our "home grown" girls and, as you can see, she just had a brand spankin fresh outa the box new litter of little red babies and they are doing just fine. We are quit sure their are some future mommies in the bunch and if you look close you will see the biggest baby boy (Grand Champion what you say) lying right up next to the food spouts waiting for the dinner bell (grunter bell) to sound. He didn't get that big by being last in line!!

Well, the day is almost over, the fog, drizzle, and snow are about to give way to some below zero temps, the piggies are asleep, we are home and all is well on the farm once again......:)

Well, I don't know about you, but this old body doesn't appreciate a change in temperature of this magnitude!!! The weather went from ice to flood in about a week causing undo stress and strain to all who had to be out in it (us) and I can't say it did much for the ones who were stuck inside either. At this point in time the weather man is calling for Sunny and 40 today, snow tomorrow and temps falling next week to only 20s for highs, go figure. Kim and Susan are stuck inside where they are from all the snow throwing darts at one another to stay unbored (my word) but at least that is consistent and isn't such a strain on the system...the weather I mean, not the dart throwing.

Mother Nature is giving us her usual fits at the Unit as well and although we know it is coming it is still difficult to accept as something we can do little to change but we are inching in that direction ever so diligently, although I believe she will win in the end. We have started having our 4-H pigs and I must say they look pretty good at this point in time. The initial litters out of Paint Shop (our boar) are very good looking little boogers and me thinks me smell a few Champions in the mix!! The Duroc gilts are due next week and everything Lori and I have are crossed for luck in anticipation of some most excellent replacement gilts as well as a few Champion barrows (that's unbored for you city folk) for the fairs.

It is time to make an attempt to get all the Christmas lights down before the snow so I will take my leave of you, (I like that, got it from Spock's dad in "The Journey Home") everyone is home playing except Steve, it is his weekend, and all is well on the farm once again..........

Icycold......

Haven't updated this Blog for some time but I thought I would share this photo of a very cold and very icy morning a few days ago. If memory is working, it was about 3 degrees and everything, including me, was covered with a thin layer of ice.......wish you could have been there...........:)

He is wearing Daddy's what.......

Ok, I know it is Halloween but you have got to be kidding.... Maybe it's just me but it appears the outfit he is trying to put on is not his....and maybe it's just me but it appears that it is not Lori's either.....and maybe it's just me but it appears that the only one left that it would fit is
Eric......maybe it's just me but Eric used to dress up as a what.....maybe he got it to wear to the opening Monday when the pigs arrive (pork, not the cops)........maybe Debbie wasn't kidding when she told me at the wedding that Lori was marrying a clown.....maybe I just made all this up...then again, maybe i didn't....

Either way, I couldn't make up the smile on this young mans face......GO BABY J......:)

Zoo Trip.....

Well, from the report I got the trip to the zoo was enjoyed by all, including the animals and I don't mean the three in the photo....:)


Baby J had a great time although he didn't want to pet the Dolphins he did get into flinging the fish at them, it's a guy thing, you wouldn't understand, it would take hours and several containers of alcohol to explain it and you still wouldn't get it but after the several containers no one would care......
Lori got to visit with some friends she worked with previously at the zoo (I mean people not animals) so that was a pleasant surprise and all in all it sounded like a good time was had by all... including the ammimals...(one container).:)

Baby J...........

Ok Debbie, here is a photo of Baby J enjoying a tour of a quality combine with mom and Terry, (he is the one driving, you know how Lori drives) and having a great day I might add. If you enlarge the photo you can see that Lori is having a bad hair day also...(does that run in the family).....:)

Debbie's new doooooo.....

Debbie what have you done.......that was 6-8 inches longer a few days ago!!! It WAS a heck of a party but wholly cow girl, you didn't have to cut all that off............:)

No kidding aside, it looks great but if you don't like it don't worry just hang around you'll grow more...........

If you can, send us a shot of the back just in case...(i had to beg to get this photo by the way)