Hi.   It's been a long time since I posted anything.   Lets see; 2020 was probably the best, most profitable farm year I've ever had.  Which is odd to say because of a global pandemic, but it was true.   So I paid off debts and invested in some new equipment, and put myself into CDL school so I could get licensed to drive a semi truck, and i purchased a semi truck, mostly to haul huge quantities of stuff for my farm.   I've been pretty conservative in 2021 - I don't know what is going on with our economy - I confess, I just don't understand it ..read more

I've gotten 6.75" of rain in the last 10 days; the amount of rain on this property is taking some getting used to.  The weatherman says that the next 5 days are going from our usual refrigerator-temperature 40 degrees to fairly cold in our region.  In fact, the forecasted cold temperatures a 10 year cold - you have to go back close to 10 years before you find another set of days.  So cold weather is mostly about making sure that everyone has somewhere out of the wind and dry to sleep.   The pigs and cows will usually group up and sleep, but I provide fresh straw when it gets cold.  after I pu ..read more

I purchased my first farmland in 2006; 12 acres on the flood plain of a local river, with about 4 usable acres, the rest was very wet ground.  I purchased that land because it was cheap; roughly $6k/acre, which i considered cheap at the time.  The area was going through a housing boom at the time, and good farmland was selling for $30k/acre to folks who wanted to build houses on it.  That patch of ground was a good starting point for me; I learned a lot about dealing with wet ground, getting tractors stuck and unstuck, local regulations and I got a good introduction to the local regulatory ag ..read more

Picture courtesy of WCAX, Vermont.  https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vermont-farmer-recaptures-almost-all-runaway-pigs-558851501.html Walter Jefferies has been having a pretty hard time over in Vermont.  You know it's bad when the local television station puts out a story with this headline: Pigs on the loose plague Vermont town Apparently Walter has had problems with pigs getting off his property repeatedly, last year and this year, and the local township is getting complaints - and issuing fines.    Full disclosure:  I've been issued fines by the local animal control for pigs off my proper ..read more

The pig business is pretty good these days; it's to the point that I don't advertise anymore; all of my production is sold to people who come to me from word of mouth, and I'm able to sell everything that I produce at my farm gate, or pretty close to it, which is nice.  the 1910 wooden barn on the new farm I purchased my current farm in 2013, as an upgrade from some land i was farming in the flood plain, and it's been a good 6 years here.  This property came with big barns and a 4 bedroom house, and while I do like having half an acre under roof I'm not in love with the county government taxin ..read more