Papa’s Pig Barn

The girls’ excitement for “Papa’s Pig Barn” has been building for more than six months! Yes, that’s a really long time for little girls to wait! Brett’s dad did nearly all of the preparation work for the new hog building his parents built behind our home. He spent much of last summer building a new driveway adjacent to our yard and preparing the terrain for construction.

Enthusiasm is peaking now; today is the day the pigs will arrive! The pigs we are getting will be approximately fifty pounds and coming from a piglet nursery. They were raised in a nursery by a farmer who specializes in caring for piglets. This is what Abby’s family does, as she explained in her Piglet Parade post from last fall.

We spent some time exploring the barn Sunday afternoon, before it was fully cleaned and sanitized to ensure a safe and healthy environment for the pigs. The hats were part of the girls’ “three little pigs” costumes for Halloween 2016. They are coming in pretty handy now that the girls are pig farmers, too. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces later today, when they visit the pig barn and it’s full of pigs!

While I know about farm business, agriculture economics, and grain farming, my knowledge of farm animals is very limited. I’m happy our girls will grow up with the responsibility and rewards that come along with raising animals and I’m planning to learn as much as I can, right alongside them.

You may have questions about the barn or pig farming in general. If you’re looking for answers, I’m not the gal (see above). But I do know people who do know the answers! In addition to Abby’s posts on RHORI, here are a few others to start with:

• Take a virtual photo tour of Cristen’s pig farm, visiting Food & Swine. Bonus, you can browse her showcase of award winning recipes.
• Wanda at Minnesota Farm Living breaks down a number of reasons why pigs are safe and healthy in a barn.
• Thomas shares what his family does to care for pigs on their farm. Follow him on various social media outlets to learn more about modern pig farming.

Originally posted on The Real Housewives of Rural Illinois.