A GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED HUMBLING.

When we came back to the house from doing chores yesterday morning, the pigs were out. All of them. Again. Feel like you've read this post before? Same here.Honestly, it's becoming a joke––a really mean one. But it's also entirely our fault. They're getting out because we recently let the solar-electrified fence wires get cold––low voltage––and the pigs learned to slip underneath. We've tried to retrain them to the fence but obviously that hasn't taken. (That being said: Trousers probably wouldn't care if the fence swung at him with hammers. He'd still get out and come to the house to see what we were up to. It would be endearing if he weren't an unpredictable, two hundred pound digging machine.).And every time it happens, although I know it's the worst state to be in to deal with animals, I can feel my frustration rise, I can't help it. Between the pigs getting out, the goats killing our blueberries this Spring and the turkeys eating our garden, I'm just kind of over animals this year, and tell Hannah often––"Only chickens next year."But truthfully (and begrudgingly), we need them. We love them. And we love what they do to the property, how our farm is slowly transforming because of these derelicts. It's really our management, with our inadequate equipment, that has failed. Farm animals have no sense of obedience. They just have needs and those needs have to be met. So that's what I try to think of when I'm chasing Trousers and the others through the woods, or dealing with the turkeys getting out and eating the pig food––they're not failing us, we're failing them. Needless to say, it's been a humbling year, but the farm is really coming along and we've learned a lot about husbandry. We need these weirdos, we just need to manage them better. So next year, when we get more pigs and keep rotating the goats, we'll be raising them on a farm thriving from a year's worth of humility. But we'll be doing a much better job of it, by God.- Jesse.

THIS & THAT.

Some random photos from the past week.Setting up for some trick-or-treaters....even in Bugtussle!Arrowhead hunting with Ira. Sweet potatoes.....all day, every day.This one got ENORMOUS while we were gone! A blurry shot as we chased the escaped turkeys through the yard. This is basically what our life looks like these days. 

HOME AGAIN.

It's been quiet on the blog for the past week, mostly because we are home and no longer have the internet everyday! It was straight back to work - baling hay, popping and planting garlic, hauling the remainder of the squash indoors before the cold snap, midwife appointments and CSA deliveries - all over the past few days. And still, we are oh-so-content to be home. With all the stresses of the past month - the turkeys and pigs and goats escaping CONSTANTLY and destroying gardens and pooping all over our storage crops and causing us to question what we are doing wrong - I had this fear that we would never want leave Cape Cod. So it was nice to feel that pull for home as our vacation came to an end.We will try to have the blog back up with regularly scheduled posts soon. But today, we are enjoying this frosty weather, loading up the woodstove, and pretending that we don't hear the pig who is rooting around in the front yard.- Hannah.

WENDELL WEDNESDAY.

Missed this guy last week. If only the Wendell Bear fit in a suitcase. Or a car.