I'm back.

Typing is pretty slow as Kit is trying to chew my fingers as I type.  Then she tries to help me type. Lil' cutie!  I haven't posted because I just did not have the time.  Then I ran out of  "DATA".  We get our internet through a Sprint DSL card.  We are only allowed 5GB a month.  How much is 5 GB?  That is a good question.  And I do not have an answer for you.  Around the 10th of every month I start checking our usage.  When I see we are almost out or even over our allotted DATA we are done with the internet until 12am on the 20th.  Makes it really tough when you are doing virtual school.  We ran out of DATA on Wednesday or Thursday.  Colin has spent a lot of time at the library this week so he could use their internet.  I love the speed of the card, and the cost is not bad, unless you go over.  That part is really bad, and you can't upgrade.  We have discussed buying a 2nd card, but its a 2 year commitment.  Its also really frustrating when you have posted something for sale and you can't check your e-mails anymore.  Oh well no one wanted to buy our sows anyway.

We have definitely decided to sell the sows.  IF we go into breeding again we want to do purebreds.  But right now we would rather just raise feeders.  The time and money needed to do breeders just isn't right for us right now. We have located someone close to us who is breeding pigs and could keep us in feeders.  We started raising breeders in the first place because we couldn't find any feeders.  Now with a breeder so close, we don't need to breed.  That should help us lower our feed costs some and even free us up in our daily life and hopefully allow us to leave the farm once in awhile.  The breeding pigs need to be fed 2x a day.  Even if the fencing was perfect, they should not have access to feed at all times.  Pigs do not stop growing.  If they are allowed to eat non-stop they will eventually get to big to breed or even move.  In the wild they spend a lot of time on the move searching for food, so on the farm breeder's feed needs to be limited.  Feeders on the other hand can be left with a self-feeder.  And eventually the go to butcher and we can say ok, we are leaving for a weekend, we'll get new feeders next week.  Gives us a little more freedom, which is something our family needs for awhile.  So if you are looking for a good deal on some pork let me know.  We want $250 per sow.  If you talk real nice to us we'll take $200 a pig. They are between 400-600lbs.  Depending on your processor you would get hams, bacon, sausage, ground pork, lard and maybe some roasts.  (Lard is the best for pie making by the way.) I would deliver free to any of the local processors.  Or I could deliver to you.

Speaking of processors, what is up with people?  Our usual processor was very rude last time we dealt with them, so we want to try someone else.  We have called this new processor 5 times in the past month to arrange a slaughter date.  NOTHING.  We want to give these people our business and they cannot get someone out here to slaughter a pig.  Time to try yet another processor.  We didn't think it would be so hard to get someone to take our money.

Calli had her final performance tonight.  She loved it.  And she did a great job. Here is a link promoting the play.  Calli is in the very first shot.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhyyeBBK12w

Colin rode our horse Shakespeare this afternoon.  He really enjoyed it, but wishes we had a saddle.

I worked on settling the calves in the barn today.  We moved them into the barn yesterday.  The door is open and they can go in or out.  Hopefully they will get the shelter and the ventilation they need.  Here is a picture of Nicely the cat and Bear and a calf all eating calf starter. Goofy animals!