HEAT!

How many weeks of July have had intense heat??

90+ degrees multiple times a week?! And that humidity. 🥵

It’s been good weather for baby animals…our broilers came recently…we have a light duty heat lamp in there only at night. And then only sometimes.

And the first “fall” batch of piglets arrived on the 25th. No heat lamp needed for them either!

God’s heat lamp is working extremely well. 🙂

Mama needs to cool off.

Time for some relaxing on the deck for the kitties too. The 3 Ninjas came into our lives back in May. Someone had too many farm cats so these 3 identically colored black kittens came into our lives and house for awhile to be tamed.

They have since well settled in and can now be found draped over the deck railings and chairs most of the hot weather days. No one can really tell them apart, so they are still known collectively as “The 3 Ninjas”. 😂

(They also regularly try sneaking back into the house if someone doesn’t close the back door all the way and then all we see is a streak of black as they race to hide before someone sees them….🥷)

The bus project

Felicity’s bus project is coming along, slowly but surely.

To refresh, she bought a retired school bus a number of months ago with the intent to turn it into a tiny house, with the assistence of various family members.

She and her new husband had a goal to be finished by the end of August to be able to live in it while he’s at college, but luckily God sent them other housing arrangements for the next couple years, so the deadline isn’t as close now. When they move back to Minnesota again after college, hopefully it’ll be a delightful little first home for them. 💜

Are these ducks here to stay?

We have had a miserable time trying to keep ducks going here. This is the second year that we purchased baby ducklings and the second year that some animal (probably a raccoon) has come along and had lunch at their expense. 😕

I decided maybe larger ones would be safer, so we found someone selling their retired 4-H ducks and thus moved in 5 Silver Appleyards. They are having a lovely time scavenging in the grass and pasture, and even though the chickens were wildly skeptical of these intruders at first, they’ve come around.

No particular plan for these guys and gals, other than entertainment. They’ve done their job well so far. And the raccoons haven’t shown up either.

Although the other day, someone saw a raccoon AND a red fox at the end of the driveway. 😯 Pray they stay away from all the small animals in our yard…..

The boys have tried make a tarp pond for them. So far, they prefer the slip and slide. 😂

Yum, chicken!

I mentioned earlier…our broilers have arrived. They happened to come on an extremely miserably hot day, in the back of an equally miserably hot van, and although were a little woozy and droopy, soon perked up. They’ve been doing well. Thank goodness! What a start to life.

With the heat, they’ve barely had a heat lamp and the covered tub they were put in, is soon to leave so they don’t get so hot anymore.

I’ve been eying the amount of chicken still in the freezer from last year and planning meals accordingly.

Any good chicken recipes you recommend? Email me at tastypork@piggeryrunfarm.com! Or things to do with broth that isn’t soup for these super hot days. We have lots of that in the freezer as well. I’ve heard good things about just heating up broth and drinking it plain…maybe I’ll try that.

I know…he’s not a broiler. But isn’t he pretty? 🙃

Melting aluminum

With the goal to make a working steam engine, Walter build a kiln for melting aluminum. His first trial runs with melting worked well (the extra propane cylinder was turned into the kiln) but his molds needed some tweaking.

Pork this month

We had our pig harvested this month and was able to try it out.

Excellent as usual! Such a treat. We were very low on pork in the freezer and this replenished it!

This was our first time with Brick House Meats in Gaylord. Very tasty, plus our customers thought so too!

These breakfast sausages are top notch.

Our next pigs are growing up fast…if you’re interested in trying our fabulous 100% Berkshire, check out current options: https://www.piggeryrunfarm.com/minnesota-registered-berkshire-pork/

Outdoor raised with lots of mud and sunshine and NO corn/soy/vaccines! Taste the difference. 🤤