Ruby Mae!

Our beautiful new duroc gilt is all settled in and doing wonderfully! I was trying to get a nice profile of her to show off her amazing muscling and solid bone structure, but she was sure I had food and wouldn't stop chasing me! She tried nibbling my boot and tugging on my pants, but I was dispointingly inedible. Yesterday was the first time she didn't run off when I scratched her back. It was an exciting moment :) She had a good childhood compared to most pigs, but her 2 acre pasture with shade and mud and lots of human attention is a huge upgrade from the little, crowded dirt pens at Jones Farm. She's still getting used to all the ammenities, but I've seen her doing a good bit of grazing and even some romping on sunny afternoons! Now that I've been visiting a lot more than usual to heat check them, the large black gals have gotten pretty excited about their regular back scratches, and Sammie's started squealing and leaning into me as soon as I touch her! They're such delightful creatures! Pepe will be coming down this next week from his nearby home in Javier the chef's yard. Javier's gilt is Peggy's sister Ramona, and will probably be pretty excited to have her food bowl to herself for a few weeks. Hopefully we'll have two litters of LBH piglets in four months, and a litter of duroc crosses once Ruby Mae gets a little older! That with four litters of goat kids will make for an exciting spring! I'm also hoping my turkeys start laying and hopefully brooding/hatching/rearing soon, and we'll be getting a new batch of laying hen chicks in January. I never did hear how that Aspen lady liked her 8lb, very scrawny looking turkey, but maybe that's for the best lol