Sorry, I have a busy life, please forgive me......

    Well as most of you have seen that I have not done a post in a while, I apologize but life has been hectic. First, I have transferred to a new location and getting my feet on the ground an running. Everything is good with the new job, I am really like it there. Baseball has been in full spring mode and now that we are done with out exhibition games, the season starts in 2 weeks. Both boys are doing very well on a team of mis-fits. This will be the last season we will play in the county recreation league as numerous parents from last years championship are wanting to put the old team back together and play travel ball. It should be fun.

     While I have been gone I have done a few things. As most of you know we no have pigs. We bought 3 gilts almost a month ago and they have been growing pretty fast, matter of fact I had to build a new hog pen as they started to out grow the first one. I also constructed the new one farther away from the house.

 

Went and got 5 more panels from Tractor Supply to start our breading expansion.

            Along with building the new pen for the pigs, I have also been getting the garden in the ground. We have been pretty lucky with getting the garden in without rain hampering our plans and holding off until it's all in. 

First 3 rows of sweet yellow corn

remaining 2 rows of sweet corn

5 rows of corn, 1 row of yellow onions, 1 row of green beans, 20 tomato, 15 various pepper plant, and row of red potatoes

row of red potatoes

      Now for some other news. I haven't even had a chance to do any upgrades on the "Fouled XJ" but here is a pic of it in the last snow fall when we went to a neighbors property to do some sledding.

And a small video of driving to town 

 

      Let me make this statement. I am so blessed to have a family that is so on-board with the lifestyle of being self-sustaining. Yes, there is more to do and we have come along way and we plan on doing more but the WHOLE FAMILY is involved. I mean, really how can you call yourself a big time prepper/survivalist when you live in a HOA mandated community, create multiple websites that all have failed, and do Internet postings of raised bed gardens when you have the fencing and area to actually plant a real garden? Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people wanting to plant a few crops in planters in their back yard and enjoy the success of eating something you grew, but don't tout yourself as some expert when you can't even feed one person in your family with your bounty. As far as I am concerned, you have earned Amateur status in my book. You know who your are and your buddy lives in a freaking apartment and eats Wendy's on group camping trips. Enough said on this.......

     Well I hope everyone has a great week and I would like some input on this. JUGM and I have been thinking about combining out sites into one blog. The reasoning behind it is sometimes we may step on each other toes when doing blog posts of the things we are doing. It will also increase the postings that we will be doing as a family so I would like to hear every-ones input. So fire away.

Senior

 

A lot going on, promotion, transfer, trip to Agri Supply, spring garden and pigs.

    I know it been a while since I did a post, sorry about that, just a lot going on. First off, I got a promotion and then 2 weeks later, I accepted the same job at a location closer to the house. I am excited about it as I got two things I was looking for. It took some time but persistence and patience pays off.
     Made a trip one Saturday to our closest Agri-Supply to purchase a device that would make it much easier to make beds in the garden.

The track too tough to tame, Darlington Speedway

Agri-Supply had Rain barrels for $109.00 each, they had spigot and filling fittings on them. I can make them much cheaper.

   What I went there for was the Keulavator 3 point frame. This device can be used for many things but what I wanted it for was to make perfect beds for my crops. Here are couple pics with bedding disc's on it.

    Since last planting season, I have been turning the soil over roughly every two weeks to rid the garden of weeds. The last 4-5 years of my dad's life, he didn't plant a garden and as you can expect, nature will try to reclaim the fruits of a man's labor. I also made track in the garden for the kid's RC offroad cars, so I had to bust it down and make it level again. Once all level, I hooked the 5 foot 3 point tiller up and mad a few passes on where I wanted to plant the Red potatoes.

JUGM and ND planting the potatoes, they look like rocks in the small trench

Row made with  Keulavator 3 point frame, notice the trough where drip irrigation will lay in center.

 

Bed depth is anywhere between 7.5 to 8 inches deep

Drip irrigation hooked up with line running 100 feet, cant do that with raised beds

    Like I said, I have never done red potatoes before, so this should be an interesting experiment. Worse case, I am only out $6.00 in seed potatoes from out local farm and feed store. Hell, some preppers spend that on cheap ass Chinese flashlights and do reviews on them.

    So moving right along, since we have had tremendous success with our chickens and had anywhere from 20-30 dozen eggs in our secondary fridge at one time, we said why not, lets get some pigs. Muslims would hate me if they knew the amount of pork I eat a year, whether grilled, smoked on a smoker, or fried up as bacon or sausage. Maybe I can raise attack pigs in case Muslims come around and want to start a fight. I'm sorry, am I being insensitive? I don't care, it's my property, my blog and my god given right if I want to raise pigs for my families consumption and if you don't like it, stay in the middle east, PERIOD!!!! I was born in the USA, defended the our nations constitution for 20 years so I have that right. Take it up with PETA.
    After reviewing our first year in the new house, I did notice that we did have some issues with our trash and how it accumulated a large number of maggots for excess food in the bags with the heat of the summer. We aren't lucky enough to have trash collection like some so-called Internet preppers have in their HOA controlled community. Also, stuff we grew in the garden that didn't make it we just fed to the chickens.So why not turn that into something more useful in the form of Bacon, Boston Butt, Ham's, Ribs, Pork Picnic Shoulder, and other fine pork products. The past week, we started the construction, yes it was a family affair.

 ND driving construction screw into frame

 NW and ND working together without yelling at each other

 Three sides done. Hog wire was recycled from an old dog pen on the property

 Completed. Will it win an award? Hell no, it's a damn pig pen, who cares!!!

Notice the bolts?

     When building this pen, I wanted to make it so it can be broken down in sections and moved to various locations around the property if needed. JUGM will do a post of our trip this past Saturday to the livestock auction in a neighboring town. She took some pictures that the ladies will go ahhhh!, they are so cute.

     Well that's about it from my world. Boys had their first baseball practice and I am pleased to announce that my commissioner, JUGM has lifted my suspension and has allowed me to coach again, WoooHooo!!!! As most of you that have followed me know that Baseball and my kids take precedence so I will try to blog when I get moments. So much for winter here in SC, warmer than normal temperatures have caused pollen to start floating in the air equaling to me being stopped up all weekend. I hate it. Stay safe out there.

Senior