The tale of six big pigs

We had some visitors while working on the combine today.  I thought you might get a chuckle out of them too.

 

Mark & Brett are busy working when the pigs show up.  I was helping too but just had to get the camera out and take some photos!  Christopher has six pigs who live on this old farmstead that we own.  They got tired of their barn and broke out a few weeks ago.  Christopher knew they would not go too far as they liked the feed and water in their barn.  So, they are "free range pigs"!!  One afternoon Christopher received a phone call from a neighbor who had to come through the yard to get to his hay field.  The pigs decided to follow him around while he cut his hay so C. had to go get them (and they don't chase that well)!! 

At least we learned that they are people friendly.

 

They are also curious.  Here one is tasting the scoop shovel.

 

 

 

But the guys needed as little break so had to give Wilbur some attention.

 

 

 

They are eating the canola off of the combine header.

 

Just hanging out with us.

Wilbur really loves attention!!

 

Linking to Farm Photo Friday

 

 



Our Labor Day

Labor Day for many means going to the lake and relaxing.  For many North Dakota farmer/ranchers that is not the case as we are harvesting.  However, Mark & I got the chance to go to the lake ... well, ummm, a few sloughs, but it was water - no relaxing however!!  Sunday evening a neighbor called to tell us our cows were out.  Mark & I got there and found it was cattle from two of our pastures.  I don't understand why they think they have to get out as they are belly deep in grass.  Anway, we each took one batch of the herd and returned them to their respective pastures.  We got back in the house about 10 PM  (yes, it was dark and there are no working headlights on the 4 wheeler providing a bit of a challenge for hubby).

Monday AM, after getting the combine serviced, the trucks emptied AND the auger moved to the next bin, Mark & I finally were able to go fix fence while Brett combined canola.   It was quite easy on one pasture - just close the gate!!  Hmmmm, wonder who left that open?  Anyway, the other needed fence built around the slough.  Luckily, the posts had already been installed so we just had to roll out the wire and get it stapled to the post.  We are using plastic posts (made from recycled items) so we could just staple the electric wire right to the post instead of using plastic offsets.    Before we got this project done, some of the cows got out again - this time into our corn.  The corn is about 10 foot tall so it is difficult to find them AND chase them, but Mark and Rufus got the cows out of the corn and back into the pasture.  We finished building the fence and hooked up the power for the fence (solar charger with battery).  Hopefully they will stay in now.  Lucky for us, most the crops around our pastures have been harvested, but it is still not good for them to be out.

Mark "at the beach".  Three years ago we were pumping water out of a dugout just to Mark's right.  Last year there was so much water here that we couldn't use our cross fences. 

This year the water is going down.

Mark hanging the electric wire.  You can see how high the water was last year by looking at the posts here.

This girl knew to find some shade to cool off. 

Grape Jelly

Christopher & Paige were oh so kind to give us some grapes.  (If I ever see another laundry basket full of grapes it will be too soon!)  So, I made grape jelly.  I have a niece & nephew who have won great ribbons making grape jelly for 4-H so I thought I must have some of the same genetic talent! 

I decided to photograph and blog about the good, the bad and the broken rules...  

Wash grapes and remove them from the clusters.

Ready to cook before juicing.

I boiled them in a little bit of water until the skins broke open.

I then put them in cheese cloth and squeezed out the juice.  I dislike this step as I usually end up burning my hands.  I juiced another day and used a Sauce Master as shown here:   

I did not cook the grapes first with this.  The only trouble I found with this method was that I got pulp.  So I just ran the "juice" from this through the cheesecloth (over a large bowl) to strain out the pulp.  I used a product SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin to gel it up. 

Cook the juice and SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin on the stove top.  Later adding sugar and cooking some more.  I just follow the recipe in the SURE-JELL package.  Then pour the hot liquid into jars and seal with canning lids and rings.

Here is the breaking rules part....  I cheated and just turned the jars upside down.  It is now 12 hours later and they all sealed.  However, USDA states they should have had a boiling water bath as that is a more safe perservation method.

We have sampled some and it is quite tasty.  We will likely share some as Christmas gifts and much of it we will enjoy ourselves!

Linked to:  Farm Photo Friday,  Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Rural Thursday Blog Hop

Yellow wild flowers

One benefit of traveling around for harvest is that I get out on some prairie trails and find new photography subjects.  This week it happens to be flowers.  Our Fotos by Friends group this week is looking for photos with sun or moon light.  I tried to snap a few photos of flowers with the sun shining through them.  I took a few others too as the sun (and the flexibility of my body) don't always cooperate!!

Sunlit Wild Sunflower

Butter-and-eggs  or  Yellow Toadflax

 Prairie Tickseed  or  Stiff Tickseed

Linking to:  Fresh from the Farm Linky Party

Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

Sunday Stills

Harvest has begun

Harvest has finally begun for us.  Our barley is all in the bin as of today.  It looks like it will be another 5 days or so before anything else is ready to combine.  In the meantime, the guys are still trying to get that straw baled (from my last post!) and cut and bale some CRP for hay.  There are bales to haul home, corrals to repair, and so much more to get done. 

I thought I'd share a few photos from the week's activity.

Combining barley

Combine needed repair so as I helped I had to snap a few pictures! 

This one is my favorite from that little session.

Hubby waiting for the truck to get full.

This could be the next field harvested.  It is Hard Red Spring Wheat, but if the Canola gets ready first that is what we will do.  It is a waiting game and can be difficult to be patient sometimes.

 

Linked to:  Rural Thursday

Golden Circles

Christopher & Brett have been busy taking turns in the tractor baling straw.  I don't know if they will ever finish!  Our neighbor offered us the opportunity to bale some of his Winter Wheat straw.  We knew it looked like there would be a lot of straw there, but never would have guessed this much!!  It seems like the "boys" need to stop about every 150 feet to tie another bale.  I think they might be wishing they would not have taken quite so many acres of straw!  Oh well, we will have plenty of bedding for the cattle this winter.

Some more of the Golden Circles (straw bales):

Nature Walk

My little photo group on Facebook , Fotos by Friends, had a theme of spiderwebs this week so it was time to go for a walk. (Heaven forbid I take photos of the webs in the house!!)

I found a couple of spiderwebs:

This is in the corner of a grain bin that two of my guys were emptying out,

so it had a bit of grain dust on it to help it show up nicely.

But while looking for other things to "shoot", I noticed some wild sunflowers.  As I got closer I noticed a honey bee on it.  The bonus:  a lacewing!

The bee about has it's Pollen Buckets full.

There are so many titles one could use for this one, but I will let you use your imagination! 

(Perhaps in the Comment section)

Linking to:  Farm Photo Friday