Pigs love pumpkins

 

Pickle and Petunia made it through the night in their little shelter.  What a better way to celebrate than with a pumpkin.

They're here

Yes, we have 2 little piggies.  It's picture time.

Petunia is belted, Pickle is not.

Look at that nice ham on Petunia.

This is the first time that they have been out of the barn.  They are loving the dirt and leaves.

root, root, root.

And still more rooting.

The ham shot.

Pickle has a leaf stuck on his nose.

They are never far from each other.

OOOh what is this?

Smells good.

How do I eat you?

Maybe later.

The end of the first day.

Yummy stuff

Have I mentioned how much I love the Autumn? The time  of cooling weather, changing leaves and all the good things that come out of the kitchen.  We have 3 huge apple trees that were overflowing with apples this year.  I have made a few wonderful apple pies and am ready to move on to a new challenge.  Apple Cider Donuts.  I first fell in love with Cider Donuts when we lived in Delaware and the local orchard made them.  You could buy a bag of them for $5, fresh and hot, covered in cinnamon sugar.  Thanks to the cover of Hobby Farms Home magazine, Mom and I were really craving fresh donuts.  After sitting on the recipe for a week or so, we did it.  Before I share pictures, I just want to say that there is nothing in the world as good as a fresh hot donut that you made yourself.

Step 1: Get the apples.

Step 2: Make the dough, (this is not step 2) Step 3: Cut the dough into donut shape.

Step 4:  Fry those puppies up.

Step 5: Roll them in cinnamon sugar.  Still piping hot.

This is  what happens when you get tired of cutting the dough, just throw the bits and pieces into the hot oil, funny looking but still just as tasty.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of us eating them, but eat them we did and were they goooood.
I highly recommend home made donuts.

So what are you waiting for, it's 'Time to make the Donuts'!

Goats and Shoats

There have been occasions when the weather is not the greatest or when the goats refuse to leave the barn in the morning, that I will leave them in the barn and just open the outside doors.  They will usually mosey on out at their leisure.   Unfortunately, there are also occasions that I forget to latch the gates to the feed area.  The chaos that I return to is by default my making, but ooooooh the goats.  The pictures are not the best because I took them with my camera and the guilty parties where not going to hold still while I gathered the evidence against them.

Glowing eyes of 'bad' goats.

Archie, Alice's other kid and a couple of 'innocent' Angora's.   They said they just took a wrong turn, the gate is right next to their pen's gate.

Alice and her kid Angus, Alice is the 'gate cracker', she knows just how to open the closed gates.

So we are becoming pros at dealing with the chaos that the goats throw at us.  Hmmm how shall we celebrate, Get Pigs!   Yes in about 2 weeks we will be bringing home a barrow and a gilt, aka a boy and girl  pig.   Yes we have heard how trouble free pigs are, how docile and respectfull of their domicile, not at all like goats who walk through electric fences, open gates, eat massive amounts of unauthorized grain.  No I am sure that the pigs will be quite a vacation for us.  And as Sarah would say, 'yes, I am wearing my sarcastic hat'

These piglets are 'cousins' of the 2 we are getting.

Trying to get a picture of the 'grandpappy' pig.  Weighing in at around 800 lbs and the size of a Yugo.

Full facial of granpappy, really doesn't do him justice.  

The pigs are a cross of Hampshire, Tamworth and Yorkshire.  I am sure they will give me plenty of stories for the blog, keep in touch to see what happens!

Autumn

My favorite time of year.  Normally the days are getting cooler, (today it was in the high 70's) and the nights call for a fire in the stove.  There is a sudden rush of activity to get the farm ready for the winter, which seems to be coming sooner than we think.  This year our apple trees are overloaded with apples.  They aren't the prettiest but they sure do taste good.

There are even good apples on the ground.

from this to....

 

to this!  Yummy.

Every fall we feed the goats and sheep as much pumpkin as they can eat. This year we were rewarded with 'volunteer' pumpkin vines.  This is just a small fraction of the beautiful pumpkins that the goats  planted for us.  Of course they get to eat these too.

Today was also the last day of the garden, we have had a couple of light frosts, but enough to finish off the tomatoes.  The Turkeys are quite happy to spend the next month cleaning up the garden. 

Lots and lots of tomatoes to eat.

Not quite sure the hot peppers are quite what they want to eat.

The goats are thinking of love right now, and no fence will hold Esau.  (our fence isn't the hottest to begin with.)  Luckily none of the girls are really interested, though I am keeping a close eye out.

Everyone together in the far field. (probably eating pumpkins)  The sheep are in a separate field next to the goats.

I love the vibrant mums.

I bought this bush last year and have no idea what it is, but it is very beautiful.

The last of the swiss chard.

Our mountains are just starting to turn, I love to watch as the colors creep upward.