2014 Calendar Front Cover – Pregnant Sows
All the Seasons at Sugar Mountain Farm
It’s a new year and calendar time! The image above is the front cover of our new calendar. Also check out the calendar from past years.

The cover photo above shows sows grazing in the north home field with a back drop of our butcher shop under construction. As I write this we’re working on plastering the walls of the inspector’s bathroom. The pregnant sows who farrowed in that field are farrowing again but this time in the cold of winter. Snows are deep and the fields are under a blanket of white.

January
The Jeffries & Tigers
We’re the faces of the farmers at Sugar Mountain Farm. All of us do many things. Some of us have special things we tend. Together we make it all happen.

February
Walking Breeder in North Field
In the winter the pigs tend to spend most of their time in the winter paddocks but on nice days they may go for walks out in the further fields, especially if someone breaks trail.

March
Hope Taming Grower PIgs
One of Hope’s jobs on the farm is taming weaner pigs so they are used to human contact and manageable. This makes it easier to handle, herd, sort and work with the pigs as they grow to 250 lb finishers and ultimately some as large as 1,000 lb or bigger breeders.

April
Killdeer Eggs
After we recleared the fields around our farm center there was a burgeoning of wild life. We began seeing birds that we had never seen before in our valley. Killdeer are one example. Another is grackles. Forests do not support a wide diversity of life and have a relatively low food density. Fields offer more opportunity. The greatest biodiversity is found in the patch work of fields, forest and marshes like you’ll now find on Sugar Mountain and the valley below.

May
Quartermane Sow Sunning
Life on Sugar Mountain is a different, slower pace with time to enjoy the warming sun as we approach the summer Solstice. This is the start of the golden months on the farm when food is plentiful and the cold of winter worn off.

June
Lillies by the Mailbox
I like flowers. There is no particular functionality to the lillies, the hollyhocks, the jewelweed, no profit center, not money making, just beauty. That is enough.

July
Boar on Pasture
The pigs, ducks, geese and chickens are thriving on the rich summer pastures. It has been a good year. Not overly wet and not too dry. Just right in the Goldielocks zone.

August
Sunflowers
In our winter paddocks we grow a lot of pumpkins, beets, turnips, kale, sunflowers and other goodies for the animals to eat come fall when the pastures wane. This is the sunflower forest.

September
Peanut Butter and Piglets
Peanut Butter is one of the descendants of our sow Blackie. PB, as she is called for short, is an excellent mother and keeps her condition on pasture even when nursing.

October
Pumpkins Sunning
A few of the many pumpkins we grew this year. Pumpkins are a great food for both the livestock and us, keeping into the cold weather.

November
Ducks on Lower Pond
Ducks are a part of the ecosystem at Sugar Mountain Farm. They keep the wallows and ponds stirred up, eat insects and graze out in the fields.

December
Pigs on the South Field Plateau in Winter
In the winter the livestock pull in closer to our center fields which become winter paddocks. Next year they’ll be gardens again for sunflowers, pumpkins and such.

Happy New Year!

Outdoors: 3°F/-17°F 1″ Snow
Tiny Cottage: 64°F/54°F

Daily Spark:

I have a few extra calendars available. If you would like one, send $10.50 to cover the cost of printing the calendar and shipping within the United States or $15.50 outside the United States. If you would like to use paypal to my email address (walterj@sugarmtnfarm.com) then include 50¢ extra for them.