The snow melted and Will has the brush piles about gone

Will burned the brush piles as the last heavy snow started melting. They burned very well and he used the tractor to shove the piles closer together as they burned. Now, nearly a week later, they are still smoldering and are less than a tenth the size they were to start with. Our new pasture looks SO big and nice now. I took the four wheeler down there yesterday to look it over and was amazed at how clean it looked! Will even tried our new trailer plow with the tractor and plowed several furrows. Now doesn’t THAT look great?

I’m excited about getting it planted into good pasture next spring. I’m even saving pumpkin seeds from the tons of pumpkins we got so I can try planting them around the field. I’ve found that neither deer nor horses will bother pumpkin vines when they get growing so we’ll see what turns up next fall. With homestead experiments, you never know for sure.

We turned our big Red Wattle boar, Richard, in with Blondie, our sow, so he can breed her. We hope to have piggies in March. It looks like livestock prices will be at an all-time high as breeders are folding and dumping their herds left and right because of the nationwide drought and climbing (horrible!) feed prices. We’re trying to hang on to our five gilts and will breed them in the spring for fall babies. Gotta see how that plays out.

It’s amazing how many pumpkins we’ve fed up already! Will’s been feeding them to our yearling steers and both pens of pigs, along with the goats and our butcher pigs up here. We’re down to about three more days’ worth and they’re gone! But boy, did it save buying feed and the animals enjoyed them. Our chickens love the pumpkins too. They eat every bit of the inside first, and then eat the thin shell last. Yum, yum. I’ve been saving seeds too — for planting and eating.

My oldest son, Bill, is bringing venison up so he can learn how to can it this weekend. He got a nice 8 point buck and got him dressed and quartered. So this weekend, we’re having a family marathon canning bee. David’s going hunting this week too, so maybe we’ll have two deer to put up. Wow! I just made a great venison/potato/mushroom pie for supper. Boy, was that good! Who wants a frozen Banquet pie when you can have that?