Our First Farm Animals

We recently went to the local Amish community to purchase some piglets to use for rooting out an area for our garden in the spring.. We got 2 piglets for ourselves and 6 for various friends, (a total of 8 piglets). They weighed between 27 – 40 lbs each and were determined to get away!! Add mud, barbed-wire, small spaces, and angry mama pigs to that mix and you’ll get a very interesting evening!

They were not the most helpful little fellows!

I know this isn’t a great picture but it shows the action of the evening. (smile)

The beautiful sunset as we finally caught the last of the piglets!

~ Amy

Of Barbed Wire Fences

Hi! How is everyone today? I hope you are all enjoying getting a peek into what has been going on around here thru this blog!

The boys have been working on putting up a fence between ours and  the neighbor’s back pastures. They’re using field fencing, with a top strand of barbed wire, strung on T-posts and supported by H-bracing using Osage Orange posts, also known as Hedge wood. Osage Orange is an extremely dense wood that is naturally rot and pest resistant and should last for several decades.

The boys sprayed an orange streak every 12 feet to mark where the T-posts would need to go in.

Driving in the next T-post

Daniel wrapping the wire around a T-post (Note the orange spray paint beneath the pliers)

Josh with the next bundle of T-posts

Daddy driving a T-post

The finished line of T-posts

An H-brace (before the field fencing)

An H-brace after the field fencing

~ Amy

Views on Our Homestead

Cutting the fence for the driveway to go in

Digging the driveway

The driveway entrance

The house site

Breaking ground for the basement

An old two-room shack down the hill from the house

The front hillside (beside the driveway)

~ Amy