Suburban Homesteading – Frugal Living

Brianne has always been a little snippet of a girl. At 5’3” she barely tops the scale at 105 pounds. I tease her that if it weren’t for her hair (long and thick) she wouldn’t even weigh 100 pounds. But, her size has never stopped her.

In high school she played volleyball. And in 4-H she raised meat rabbits & meat chickens, show chickens and market lambs. The work that goes into all those animals is the same whether you are an adult or a child. Most people thought it was me who did all the work while Brianne waltzed into the show ring having done nothing. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. She was the one up at 6am feeding and watering before getting ready for school and she was the one who cleaned pens, hauled feed, packed the trailer and groomed animals for shows. And, she did it for 15 years.

Now in college, she has become one of the worker-bees of her college Ag Dept. From doing paperwork to mucking out barns she is becoming a solid farm girl. But, what she is really prized for, and we have to laugh, is her thin arms and tiny hands. Why you may ask? Well—when it’s time to pull babies, of any kind, it’s easier if you have small arms and hands.

Think about it…who do you think a sow or a ewe would rather have reaching inside them pulling their baby? A twenty something guy or a petit young lady with small arms.

That’s what she did this past weekend…pull baby pigs. The swine unit at her college is in full swing farrowing sows and Brianne was right in the thick of things as several first time gilts had difficulty delivering their piglets. She says it’s sometimes painful because baby pigs nibble on your fingers when you try to pull them where as baby lambs suck on your fingers…if they can get a hold of them.

So while most college students are partying till dawn on the weekends, my kid is successfully pulling babies. All I can say is “you go girl”. What a great way to learn and get experience in preparation for having her own farm one day.

The litter pictured above is one she helped deliver on Saturday night.