Kerry and hit the road last weekend for a wedding down in Durham, North Carolina. We decided to spend the day at her cousin Elizabeth's farm, Cane Creek, on Monday.
We got a chance to eat some great food from the farm, and had a fantastic morning catching pigs and turkeys to send to market. It is an incredible feeling to wake up, walk outside, and go to work knowing you will be able to spend the entire day out in the fresh air. The first chore of the morning was to hitch the chicken mobiles to the tractor and move them about ten yards to a new spot in the pasture. This helps spread the chicken manure around the field. They came running by the hundreds as we filled the trough with their morning feed.
When we were finished we ventured off to pick up the trailer used for picking up the pigs on market day. We found an entire herd of Red Devon cattle in our way and had to wait for them to move along to the next field before we could get to the barn.
Catching pigs was new experience. Pigs are amazing creatures. One of the most remarkable attributes of pigs is their personality. Each pig is slightly different than the next, and we were introduced to the crew of 'all-stars'. Donovan is the friendliest. While pigs are normally quite skittish, Donovan saunters over and stick his snout right into your legs to say hello. In complete contrast is Wayward Pig. He should have been sent to market more than a year ago, but he is on to the farmer's game, and when they come rolling in to catch his buddies, he is sure to stay hundreds of yards away.
We tied off the feeders the night before so the pigs would be hungry in the morning when we opened the one with the corral. We backed up the trailer and began to usher the biggest pigs aboard. After several tries, and a lot of running and chasing we had the pigs we needed.
We took them back to the barn, and it was off to try our hand and catching turkeys. The goal was forty, but it turned out they were mostly underweight and needed another two weeks of fattening before sending them to market. We caught twenty-five. It was my first time catching turkeys. It is a little like taking a 'shot' in wrestling to grab their feet. Once their feet are secured, you come over top and smother their wings so they cannot beat you, and carry them like a football to the trailer.
The visit to the farm was great, and left Kerry and I with a lot to think about as we move forward.
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