Here Piggy Piggy

Spring means baby everything! It's really been neat to see small calves, baby pigs, and even lambs out in the fields. I actually saw the first perfect little rows of leaves in one farmers field yesterday- corn is on it's way!

We had the privilege of visiting one pig farm in Zearing - the woman who owns the farm goes to our church, and let us take a tour. They had probably five different areas where they held pigs- each for different purposes. The fields are for birthing and raising the pigs for the first few days. The pig shown here was three days old. You can see in the background all the tiny little "houses" on the field. Each one will hold a mamma and her litter until they are ready to go into the "finishing shed". Anyway, this family has three feilds of these little houses- must be 200 or so on each field. It looks like a million, though! They also grow beans and corn - a true Iowan family if I do say so myself!

These are what the piglets look like (these ones are about two days old) next to their moms. Those pigs get huge!





We decided we had better get started on our own garden, and well, the whole hand-spading thing just didn't cut it. One of the "guys" Phil works with, Rob, was extremely generous and brought over this plow as well as a disc that works on Phil's tractor. They are old, but they still work! He just had them in his side yard, and said we could keep them! So nice!

Let me tell you, after spading, Phil and I were both thrilled to see this thing move dirt! We had tried to rototill it up, and being such hard dirt back here, that was nearly impossible. The plow just cut through and turned it over right quick. It took Phil about a day to get his plot turned over, and then ran the disc over it a bunch of times. We ended up with dirt that has a bit of grass still in it (you just can't tear up that much sod and expect it to disappear, although one could wish!) but very workable. Our tilled up space equals 110X111 feet, or a little less than a third of an acre. Some would say we are a bit optimistic on our gardening expectations. =)





















The picture below is tough to see, but I wanted to give you an idea for the feel of the size. Phil is that tiny white speck in the middle of the picture - he is planting pea stakes in one corner of the garden. I am taking the picture from the other corner of the garden. Needless to say, we have peas, potatoes, asparagas, watermelon, and little else in the garden just yet. It's a bit overwhelming!
Also, it is important to note that Ryan has been a huge help with the garden. Being the best "resident weeder" and "wheelbarrow holder-downer", well, who could ask for better help?