Spring Projects Abound! 5/20/23

Life has been busy here on the farm this spring! We’ve been working through a long list that we made, and we’re making good progress. I really like to get these projects out of the way right away in the spring so that we can spend the summer on maintenance and fun!

The first thing we tackled was a project we had hoped to get completed last fall, the white plastic corral fence. It had been beautiful at one time, about 15 years ago when it just held horses in, but my milk cows pretty much finished it off and it had to go!

It was a miserable, rainy day when we replaced the fence, but with the help of my brother-in-law Curt, we got it done! Once the old coral was removed, we replaced it with fence matching what we have in the dairy cow pasture- railroad tie corners, T-posts and electric wire. I love the beautiful black fences you see as you drive through Tennessee, but even more than those, I love a clean, simple fence that ‘disappears’ and allows you to appreciate the beautiful animals inside it.

Removing the plastic fence, and replacing it with a narrow cow path to the milk barn, created a lovely, big open yard between the cow path and hog barn. We’ve decided to do something really special with this area for our members! But first, we had to clear out some things and repair the sod. Yesterday I managed to take down the power line to the hog barn and ruin a perfectly good gate while doing just that!

Once the ground dries out a little more in the new yard, the top soil will be smoothed and grass seed planted.

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Next up was a maternity pen for Pumpkin the pig! She’s getting close to farrowing, and we wanted to make the experience more accessible for our members. Pumpkin is a very docile mama sow, actually, all of our mama’s a pretty darn good, so we thought it would be special for our members to be able to see her with her piglets up close once they arrive.

The shelter had been in the new yard we needed to clear out anyway, and is portable so we drug it over next to the hog barn and created a pen with pig fencing panels. This was a quick and easy project, but will make things a lot more nice for Pumpkin and those who want to see her!

I’d say she’s enjoying her new digs! Literally- pigs love to dig.

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Last, but definitely not least was dividing our back pasture to accommodate our bison who have been patiently waiting their turn to roam the plains. Once again, Curt came up to spend the day with Andy, Emily, Travis (Emily’s boyfriend), Faith and I putting up more fence.

I was so proud to finally use the new-to-me, but classic, tractor we bought last month. Isn’t she a dandy???

The pasture was soooooo wet, it made digging the holes quite a challenge. Here are some snapshots of how our day went….

That covers the ugly, muddy and frustrating part of making fence that day. We did manage to finally get all the dividing fence up. Here are some pictures of all the beauty of that day too!

And finally…..