The first fall egg

After the spring chicken slaughter by a neighborhood dog and the poor luck with our "straight run" chick replacement purchases we have our first eggs from one of our few spring hens.  She is a barred rock/black copper maran cross and has so far been an awesome producer of medium brown eggs.  We have her in with this years barred rock rooster and are very excited to see what the chicks will look like.

It's all about the experience, right?

Well the pigs are off the the butcher and this round has had its own learning curve.  From the logistics of moving pigs to the prices set to make it worth the time, everything was new.  We have enjoyed it from the rush to get the fence and the building put up (three days after we got the pigs) to the most recent question of "How are we going to get them Heuvelton?"  Depending on the exact fuel costs from trips to feed and transport we are somewhere between losing money on this venture and breaking even.  With a minor price increase next year and some tweaks in our operation I think we can make a profit while still keeping customers happy.

One benefit to the pigs that doesn't have a dollar value is their ability to till up some of the overgrown areas of the property.  I hope to get some before and after photos next year to show just how impressive it is.  Below are a few photos of the adventure that was getting the pigs to market.

Finishing the Pigs

We have just about finished the last two pigs.  The first one to go went mid July because he was a bully and always pushed the other two out of the way at feeding time.  Guess that is what you get for being a jerk.  Anyway we had no trouble selling two halves at 3.20/lb and actually got a call about dinner time from one of the customers to tell us the pork was excellent and they will definitely be buying another half next year.  That was a good feeling and makes me even more eager to get our own half in the freezer.

Draining the Ponds

After walking the property several times, there seemed to be three main ponds.  After going to Real Property and getting an aerial photo of the property I could see no less than 10 beaver dams.  I called the NYDEC and after a short wait got a one year permit to break dams and shoot the beaver.  Once that was done we were ready to play hydroengineer.  With my wife, Jess  and father-in-Law, Scott we started at the top dam and worked our way downstream using a shovel and a rebar hook to rip a hole in the dams.  In hindsight we probably should have started at the bottom and worked upstream as we kept flooding ourselves out, but it was good to see the water start moving.  Within minutes of breaking a dam we could see the level of the ponds go down.  There has been a lot of rain this spring so it is good for the water to have somewhere to go.  As of yet we have seen no sign of any beaver activity.  I think we got lucky and they already moved on.

The "Barn"

We have had laying hens for the last 3 years, but so far we have not had a coop that was winterized enough to keep them all year.  This year we wanted to build something that would allow us to do that and make the addition of a few pigs.  Again budgetary constraints had us settle on an insulated 12x8ft building with power.  The layout allowed for 44 sq.ft of pig space and 28 sq.ft of chicken space with 24 sq.ft left as food storage.  Its a bit tight, but it will allow us to get our chickens to a mature weight and allow us to add pigs to our livestock inventory.

The Tractor

I felt one huge step towards bringing back the land was a tractor.  With the size of our operation we didn't need anything huge, but something big enough to get the job done.  With our budget it definitely wasn't going to be something new...After looking at several options and test driving a smaller New Holland, we settled on a 59HP Mahindra 4WD.  It fit all the prerequisites...It was a 4WD diesel, it has a bucket, and is in the right HP range.  After the first couple months I have been very happy with it.

Exploring the Woods

December was mostly exploring which the dogs absolutely loved.  There are some four wheeler trails, but many are pretty overgrown.  There is so much dead, standing wood that I wonder how long it will be until I need to cut a live tree.  I am not a huge fan of winter, but with wood to cut it should help to pass the time.  My hope is to have firewood to sell within the next two years.  One of the biggest challanges will be getting to it.