Brrr. Cold and wet.

300+ pigs fed and I'm tuckered out.

So much to do this week.

Farming is a daily slice of heaven...to Betsy there's not enough time in the day.

Driving in style

Pig STYle that is!

Easier to navigate the farm sans trailer in this oh so crazy wet and muddy weather created by the newest snow melt and now rain.  

I wasn't behind the wheel but sat inbetween the pigs and driver to prevent any type of potentially dangerous movement of the pigs, though they remained calm and still during the short trip to the barn to be weighed.

The buyers from PA were tickled, but mentioned they wouldn't be driving back in their truck and to please put them in the trailer. :)

Going to a great home...until market weight I suspect.

Pondering

Zoom in.

He sat there, unphased by my obvious presence.

Pondering.

Cutsie!

Belly bells.

I generally don't name animals...and when I do, it's not very exciting or clever. Take Belly for instance.  He had trouble with parasites early on and (clearly) bounced back with vengeance. 

When referencing him to my coworker who isn't a native English speaker I settled on my go to names, and by that I mean descriptions. Belly, Skinny, Baby Belly, Dots etc. You get the picture...though half the time I'm pointing or talking with my hands which adds a bit of humor I'm sure. I'd be invincible in charades after 6 months working with a language barrier. Fortunately, for the coworker I work with the most (and whose English was the worst) his English has vastly improved.  Between my endless stream of ideas and chatter, our arguments over who what where when why and how, and impromptu grammar(er?..my auto correct is throwing me off, do both words exist? Can't exit blogger to check as it will erase or freeze this post in forever blogger limbo) and spelling/pronunciation lessons (eyes vs ice/ hot vs hat/ father vs feather) we now communicate with relative ease. Unfortunately for me my Spanish is not picking up steam. 

Anyone with advice on picking up a second language. My 3 years of high school Spanish didn't give me much of a foundation. We tried all English all Spanish days but that's not practical (or safe) in a work environment, especially one with livestock and heavy equipment.

So, back to Belly.

His slaughter date is fast approaching and I'm scrambling to market him myself hoping for an on farm kill.  He is not organic which removes him from the majority of our market pigs who are all already spoken for and greatly anticipated.  Our organic pork is used at the farms restaurant located in the "town" of Upperville a few miles away (which reminds me to check crow flying distance. It's much closer than driving, I can even hear the towns church bells while feeding pigs on the southern end of the property!) and sold as retail cuts at the farms store in Middleburg.

For those of you unfamiliar, meat is required to be USDA inspected for retail resale cuts and for use in restaurants.  Furthermore, our meat must be handled and processed under strict organic and human guidelines and standards.  On the retail labels you can even identify the individual pigs ear tag ID!  To be USDA inspected, the pigs must be transported to a local slaughter house. For the majority of our pigs this is not something I stress about. Most market pigs and I have a working relationship, some are especially outgoing but most want food food food!

...tbc

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