The weather is crazy, the pigs are almost done growing,  we’re taking on a partnership with a nearby farm, and out on the pasture there’s a lot of rage towards feral dogs.
Or as we call it here on the farm: “Tuesday.”
NEWS FROM THE FARM

* What’s up with the pigs? The five piggies that are destined for freezer camp are finally… FINALLY… ready to reserve their on-way vacation. Yes, they were supposed to be Christmas hams for our customers. Yes, it’s now April. Unfortunately there was really no chance of them being ready for Christmas ham, because they were just not big enough to make it worth while yet. Someone may order a half hog from us, and if they don’t get enough sausage for a weekend’s worth of breakfast, that doesn’t do anyone any good. We knew that they were going to be a smaller breed regardless… but the size difference between where they were in November – and where Lollipop was at that age — was pretty significant. Now they’re getting to the point where sometimes I have to look twice to tell if the black pig with white feet is Lollipop or Harry. But since nothing is ever THAT easy on the farm, it’s worth noting that now the processor I wanted to use isn’t returning my calls or emails. <EPIC SIGH> It’s like Jack Spirko over at The Survival Podcast says… WHY DO PEOPLE HATE MONEY?!?!?
* Speaking of Lollipop. For the ongoing “things “late 90s, early 2000s JG” never thought would be in his future: having a stern conversation with a pig about her not showing her heat cycle, and having to negotiate with a nearby farm to send her on a romantic spa getaway to try to get her bred rather than AI’ing her. I mentioned this to some of my old USC buddies who knew me in my high end finance Marina del Rey – hanging out at the Bel Air Bay Club kind of days and they thought it was just about the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. And they about passed out when I continued on that I’ve been trying to woo this darn pig for months now. The little pigs are a lot paler colored so its easier to see when they’re cycling, and Ginny will go into standing heat for me. But that doesn’t do us any good. We want Lollipop for a breeder, not Ginny or the rest of the freezer camp crowd. So, Mrs Berg the neighborhood pig lady down the road from us is willing to work with us to see about sending her down there and hanging out with one of the un-related boars. At least get her bred, get her opened up with a first litter. Supposedly it’s a lot easier to spot a heat cycle in a sow than when they’re gilts. Then if she’s a good mom we can go and spend all the money on AI and start the genetic improvement project. If she’s not a good mom, or if there’s really something going on and she’s not going to be a good breeder, then…. well, that will be briefly sad. But culling and improving stock is very much part of the deal around here.
* Weather – It is indeed “Springtime in the Rockies” so that means wild fluctuations from blizzards to record high temperatures. Every year, it annoys he heck out of me to see all these folks on the regenerative agriculture or market farm Facebook pages with their beautiful fields of lettuce and kale, when we are just now in the last couple days getting the barest greening-up of our pasture grasses. Average last frost here between Yoder and Rush is in the may 11 to may 20 kind of timeframe. Sure it may be in the 70s during the day today but we have low 30s / high 20s and snow coming next weekend. Every year this happens, and every year people freak out on the neighborhood Facebook pages about how weird the weather is and how unusual it is to have blizzards that late.
* The other big fluctuation for us has been the amount of moisture. We were getting into some pretty bad drought levels on the official US dr...