Farm Girl Friday -20 September 2013

After yesterday's post you are probably wondering what I'll post for Farm Girl Friday this week.  Well I thought I'd show you around the barns.  It's very strange out there.

Wow, it is so weird to be in the 'sow barn' and have it completely empty.  Also it is SO quiet!  Usually when I go in this barn it stirs up the sows because they were accustomed to just Dad and Colin.  Now all you hear is the clucking of the chickens in the old pens or the cats trying to convince you to feed them (more).

Tearing apart the wiener pens.  Colin has big plans for the farrowing barn.  It's the newest barn and still in pretty good shape.  Pigs are so hard on everything (the farmer included).

Once the wiener pens were out the new (cat proof) chicken pens went in.  These will be great.  All the layers will now be on the main level of the barn so I can gather eggs now.  Also, I like that there are proper doors that actually open and close!

Colin took out the side wall and put in some new doors.  They slide so easily Ella can move them.  For the first time in his entire life Colin won't have to scrape off the trucks this winter.  Yep, he's turning the rest of the farrowing barn into machine storage and truck garage.  Hurray!  The trucks are too tall for me to shovel off easily.

The finishing barn is still full of piggies.  We will probably have pork through October.  After that Colin plans on turning that barn into grain storage.  That way we can store our combined crops and sell them when the market is up, not just because they are ready for harvest.

It is amazing how little time Colin spends in the barns these days.  Colin finds it strange to actually have time on his hands to do what he 'wants' instead of chores that 'must' be done.  Colin has been in the pig business for 20 years -something people don't realize.  Add to that the 15 or so years of 'free' labour before that and he's really looking forward to taking it 'easy'.  Not that he's sitting around twiddling his thumbs.  He's busy these days cleaning wheat and other early grain crops.

What's a Farm Girl going to do now that her Farmer actually has time for himself?  Well maybe we'll actually be able to get away for a short holiday to celebrate our wedding anniversary (a couple months later).