I was up in the loft of the barn counting bales, and just happened to have my camera.
I was hoping to get a shot of Godot and Carlos Garcia, which was difficult as they are still keeping to the darkest corners.
I love watching the animals from up there.
The animals forget I am up there if I sit still long enough. I sit on the bales and watch them. My life feels big and full and right from my lofty perch.
Though Poppy was suspicious. With the money Sheila has raised with her calenders I have begun to buy her (and Poppy by default) a very good show pig feed that will not make her fat (ter) mixed with a great rabbit feed that is almost all alfalfa. And her vegetables of course. She likes it, even eats less of it but she still looks longingly at the oats barrel. Both these feeds are free of animal products, chemicals or medications and made with good clean American grain.
The two plonkers began to eat their hay today, they will be raised on hay and milk and oats mixed with alfalfa pellets and eggs.
I loaded all these images last night, as usual. But what was unusual was that I had a pig sleeping on my lap while I was working. MOST unusual. I made a ramp so Tima can get up onto the couch. I know, I know what you are going to say. But last night was her last night sleeping in the house. Tonight she will start sleeping in her barn night bed, where Poppy was, now that it is cleaned out and limed. And in the day she is in the orchard. But she is allowed to come to the house to visit at times (well as often as she can probably), especially the evenings when I am sitting down to write. And she only eats vegetables so she smells very sweet. It is fun to be all grown up and allowed to make my own rules.
Good morning. We had another quiet good day yesterday. Today is the first day that my 100 lavenders might be due but after that there should not be anything new on the farm until the arrival of the chickens, ducks and bees in early May.
So I am consolidating, finding my rhythm again. Step, step, peck. I take little chicken steps, then pause for a scratch and a peck before taking another chicken step or my tiny Paddington Bear brain gets overwhelmed.
I hope you have a lovely day. I think that today is going to be a beautiful spring day here today. I hope you get some warmth too.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
61 responses to “from above”
There was an article this morning in our paper about the virus killing all the baby pigs, and how it is believed it has come over from China. There was no mention at all of the food they’re fed. Did you ever find out more about that?
Every morning I look forward to reading your post, i love the stories and your pictures!
I have studied it in depth Marcia, it is deeply unsettling, may or may not have come from china, and has everything to do with overcrowding, overmedicating and feed that has pig fat and pig blood in it. It is a cycle they will have to work very hard to break and has killed and is killing millions of piglets. Pork is going to be very expensive this year. Though I will be growing my own. Thank you for popping in every morning.. I love to share my coffee with you.. c
I love all your photos of the babies (today and yesterday) of the babies all snuggled together. How do you keep yourself from lying down with them and joining in the snuggle? I don’t think I could… which is why I couldn’t be a meat farmer. I know you love your animals, all of them, and I revere your ability to raise some for food.
Thank you, but I am not a hard person Lacey. I do love my animals too. I am trying to grow meat gently and carefully with dignity for both me and the animal. I believe in healthy food. I need to know where my food comes from. In fact if I could not grow my own I would be a vegetarian. That looks strange written down but I am deeply unsettled by the state of the meat growing industries. c
Indeed. I have a feeling that your animal food suppliers are less regulated than in UK and France, and big business will always stretch the limits.
One of my daughter’s teachers has enlightened her class on the horrific conditions that exist in the US meat growing industries. We can’t grow our own, so we have decided to go vegetarian. Unfortunately, can’t seem to convince the men in the family, so I’m preparing two meals a day for now. Don’t tell the boys, but they are eating more meatless dishes than they know about 😉
I switched to a plant-based diet over a year ago for this very reason. But the men in my family aren’t convinced either, so I have to cook two meals, also. I have stopped buying pork completely since I read the post a few weeks ago on here. If I could raise my own, it would be a different story.
Same.. when I travel I seek good organic traceable meat and eggs otherwise I am a glorious vegetarian. I don’t mind. c
My daughter went vegetarian when she was ten. I am too lazy to cook two meals, so if someone wants meat, they have to cook it themselves. I do have meat occasionally, and then my daughter has to cook her own. I’m just lazy. They’re lucky they get the one meal!
Not lazy – smart!
poppy and sheila look so cute together! an the plonkers bums are so cute! enjoy your warm weather. we are going to be 75 degrees tomorrow!
I am so looking forward to the warm days, we won’t be complaining about hot days this year will we! Oh and the books came, the chicken tractor book is especially good reading.. thank you! Is your garden growing yet, i hope to get out into mine today.. c
“It is fun to be all grown up and allowed to make my own rules.”
i think i say this to myself on a daily basis 🙂
It is a good thing to say..surely we must be getting a little wiser by now.. Morning Kate… welcome to the comments lounge!.. c
Thank you for sharing your life on the farm! I do so enjoy reading about it and the pictures are wonderful. Your barn looks so neat and clean and the animals all seem happy. How big will Tima get? There are people who keep pigs as pets, so I assume she could be house trained somehow if you wanted.
Nancy
http://www.workingmomadventures.com
Morning nancy, yes i am house training her. (She answers back though) .. they like to be out on the grass too so a big garden would be essential. They get about as big as a large dog, about 180 – 200 pounds. Though you have to be careful not to let them get into the grain bin, then they will get fat. Tima eats only vegetables and hay. With some milk and an egg. Very easy care and so cuddly. And when she is out of her run she will not let me out of her sight. i have never met a pig like her. They make great pets.
How lovely to have a little piggy sleep on your lap and yes, nothing nicer than being grown up and making your own rules.
Have a beautiful day C.
🙂 Mandy xo
Morning Mandy.. c
I am busy typing my letter to your sis. 🙂 Will hopefully email you this afternoon. x
I like to start my day knowing all is well on the farm! Good Morning!
Morning Bev, yes, i am just on and all is well so far today.. Sheila and Poppy are lying out in the sun.. it promises to be a warm day! c
What is the age difference in the Plonkers and Poppy? Poppy is such a long little piggy. I love how she and Sheila are bonded right now. I hope that remains as she ages.
The Herefords (Poppy) are a long breed, they are such pretty pigs. The Plonkers are just a little older than Poppy. But she is well and catching up fast.
It is a very good thing to be all grown up and allowed to make decisions about what animals are allowed in the house and when. 🙂 I think you have made a very wise decision there, Ce! Very wise. Have a lovely day.
I will beth Ann.. you too I hope.. c
Morning, Celi 🙂
I am so amazed at how Sheila and Poppy have become close, how Sheila just has become her adopted Mama……as a child on our farm we raised hogs, and I remember well how grown Mama hogs would rarely “adopt” any orphan piglets, and usually would try to kill the little ones……we always had to keep them separated. I wonder if Sheila welcomes Poppy because she’s not been a Mom before….or maybe it’s because she’s just a sweet, loving pig…….I wonder if she will also welcome Tima into her fold? Aren’t animals just so fascinating? Each with their own unique personality.
I am thrilled, i did give them quite a long time with the panel between them and even fed them together right at the divider, but even so it is amazing. Poppy will nuzzle at Sheilas belly and Sheila will roll right over with soft feeding grunts, so Poppy can lay in there along her teat lline where it is warm. Quite extraordinary really. They are both out in the field and I am confdent that poppy will not Pop out the gaps in the fence .. I don’t think she will leave Sheila. It is amazing.. and maybe it is because Sheila is the maiden aunt, she has an extra well of tenderness for all of the little ones, even cats, you remember chickens sleeping with her in the winter.. hmm.. c
I had a Maiden Aunt also and she was absolutely “my second Mom”. Sheila will be a fabulous Maiden Aunt! 🙂
Funny how that works, I had forgotten but my dear departed gelding had a maiden aunt too. She would stand over him as he laid flat out sleeping in the pasture and his mom would be able to wander off a bit and graze. She took a lot from that little guy and never retaliated or was mean to him.
I know how you feel with the chicken steps. You can be rolling along with things happening right and left but soon you have to stop and take a big breath and see just where you are and where you’re going next. Otherwise it feels as if everything will spin right out of orbit.
time to sit and watch, to ponder a bit and just be – precious moments of life.
I enjoyed your high life tour, thank you. At last, after a couple of weeks when the grass never dried, Jock is mowing the pocket handkerchief lawn. It was looking very scruffy, though I enjoy the crop of dandelions. They spread the muck yesterday on the big field opposite the house (it’s made a fun poem) and today they have limed it and spread liquid sewage, so it won’t belong before the maize is sown. I’m sure it will grow as high as an elephant’s eye and we will lose our view of trees and meadows.
Just about to step outside and hang laundry on the line. Seventy glorious degrees predicted for Minnesota today, the warmest the temps have been in six months.
thank you audrey that reminds me, i must put more towels in the washing machine. I LOVE a line dried towel, i will do that right now, the work clothes are out already.. isn’t it wonderful, the sun is feeding me!
I woke to sunshine this morning, after cloudy, rainy days. What a joy. Great view from the loft, it’s nice to watch everyone when they don’t think anyone is looking. 🙂
I’m once again without words about how beautiful and peaceful — blissful — it all seems. I love how the animals seek each other out, lie together, close, protective, warm. Such a life. I know there are deaths and hardships, frostbites and pain, lost babies, lost mothers…but it just makes these silences all the more precious.
Morning Charlotte, i have always thought that Happy is a fleeting feeling. And to fully feel that deep heady happiness you must have fully felt the misery. Today is warm and still and I feel liberated by it. This happiness. c
Happy is fleeting but contentment lasts forever.