Barefoot Farm

Barefoot Farm Barefoot Farm is a small family farm. This page is our journey from neglected rental property to thriving farm and eventually a farm stand with lots of goodies.

Along the way we will bring you laughs, an occasional face palm, fun pictures and adventures!

We are officially on farrowing countdown! Poor Gabby is due today and that belly DROPPED this morning! We have been chec...
10/14/2026

We are officially on farrowing countdown! Poor Gabby is due today and that belly DROPPED this morning! We have been checking on her about every 2 hours all day and just as we got dressed to head to town for meeting this evening I had to double check because our LGD Sadie was giving me alerts. After missing the last delivery we are all on high alert and it was pretty obvious that Gabby girl had switched into the uncomfortable early stage of labor so the kids headed to town and I went & got in my warm farm clothes. We got her heatbox set up and all the equipment within reach and now we wait and check about every 15- 30 mins until active labor but thankfully it is a beautiful night but that 5:30am work shift is going to be brutal tomorrow!

TW: degloving injury discussion/images. Tiny’s story is a good one but a challenge. Her first day of life was normal but...
10/13/2026

TW: degloving injury discussion/images.

Tiny’s story is a good one but a challenge. Her first day of life was normal but somewhere in the chaos of Jolene learning to be careful with her big self Tiny and one other piglet ended up with lacerations- one was along the top of the spine and although a wound it was not life threatening and had already created a scab and did not require intervention.

Tiny was not as lucky. Her leg appeared to have been sliced open perhaps by a sharp edge of her mother’s declaw. She was still active and “unbothered” though 60% of her leg was degloved meaning the outer hide had been flayed open. She was and is an independent gal which played to my advantage as I had just gotten home for the evening & was alone when I discovered her injury. She happened to wonder just far enough outside of her mother’s watchful gaze and close enough to the fence that I was able to sn**ch her up and immediately clamp my hand around her mouth as she is 💯 the most vocal of the batch, and I did not need her momma coming for me! Thankfully we made a rapid exit with muted protest until we were in the house where she promptly bit me! After cleaning the wound and trying to remove the dirt,debris and straw my reinforcements arrived to help me contain all 2.5 angry pounds of screaming piglet so we could wrap her leg. We spent the next 2 weeks doing daily wound care and bandage changes. We were NOT Tiny’s favorites and she quickly figured out when we were picking her up for outdoor time and feeding or bandage changes and all three of us wound up being bit at least once.

Mighty annoyed her endlessly and was the classic annoying little brother following her everywhere and wanting to be by her side. Eventually she became his protector and when we tried reintroducing during the first failed weaning attempt she wouldn’t let any of the other piglets pick on him and due to his blindness in one eye she made a point to push him to the food and water locations with her. Sady when Jolene jumped back in during the first weaning attempt I could only grab one of them and Mighty was at greater risk. Thankfully Tiny was a smart little one and realized really quick that her mother no longer felt any biological connection & was NOT her friend. She quickly found the area in the fence designed for piglet only traffic and stayed out of Jolene’s grasp. Once things had calmed down some I was able to go to the piglet pen and with the bribe of food tiny was collected and reunited with Mighty. The two became more adventurous and quickly started becoming escape artists. Now tiny is the first to meet us at the gate and has come to adore her scratches! Her wound completely healed and unless you are looking for it you would never know it happened!

10/09/2026

So the saga of Jolene continues…. She has a process date but she appears to be determined to create as much destruction and havoc as she can in her remaining two weeks!
After reinforcing and double fencing her pen she’s still found a way to force her way out. So after the 2nd escape yesterday we decided we would load her into our horse trailer while we relocate the piglets to the other side of the property so that that could be done safely without injury to us from her and hopeful that out of sight out of mind will help her calm down….the piglet relocation was a success. Our horse trailer has taken an absolute beating as she attempted to recreate the creepy scene from The Shining and tried to force her way through the tack/front access door. It took 2 guys to hold it closed while we figured out how to distract her enough we could safely engineer& re-enforce the door. Then our retiring boar decided to go for a walk about and refused to go back to his new pen. So he final was put in Jolene’s pen. In the meantime Jolene spent the night in the trailer for the safety of everyone. She may stay there another night or two depending on her settling down as part of the weaning process. This has been a very hard learned lesson and really puts the emphasis on temperament being a vital part of choosing an animal staying long term on the property.

Mighty Mouse was the runt piglet in our August litter but a fighter! At birth he weighed less than a pound and we held o...
10/07/2026

Mighty Mouse was the runt piglet in our August litter but a fighter! At birth he weighed less than a pound and we held our breath the first few hours watching to be sure he made it to a teat and got that critical colostrum. It was soon determined that the size difference was just too much and he needed to be pulled to have a fighting chance. The first 24hrs were touch and go as we struggled to get milk in him every few hours as he had quickly become weak because basic movements wore him out and chilled him. We were so grateful for dear friends who graciously offered us goats milk to supplement the milk replacer and Mighty was a BIG fan! At the 24 hour mark we had to add an injured piglet (tiny) to his house pen which was beneficial for both as pigs are social creatures. It took us nearly 4 days of every 2hr feedings around the clock for Mighty to finally pass the one pound mark and we all breathed a sigh of relief! Soon we were adding ounces daily! At approximately4wks old it became apparent that he was blind in one eye but his bossy big sister and housemate became his best buddy! At 3wks they were relocated to an outdoor pen and unwillingly moved onto a wet mash diet. The space and outdoors were good for them and soon they became curious demanding “roaming gnomes” as we called the little escape artists. The first attempt at weaning & reintroducing the “house” piglets back to their litter mates was a fail and Mighty’s retrieval was the preemptive event of me learning I could clear a hog panel at a run with a squealing piglet in arms!
The piglets have all been officially weaned and reintroduced. So far 48 hrs in they are beginning to settle in and find their way with their litter mates. Although he is still half the size of the others he holds his own and his buddy Tiny has his back!

Tomorrow we will tell you more about Tiny!

We don’t sugar coat things around here so I will just say, this round of farrowing has reminded me to go with my instinc...
10/05/2026

We don’t sugar coat things around here so I will just say, this round of farrowing has reminded me to go with my instincts. Jolene our Duroc cross sow has been a wildcard and although I wanted some of the fast growing hardy genetics I wasn’t 💯 sure on her disposition. Our original sow Dottie is a York and she has been a gentle giant and even with babies she was protective but not aggressive which is exactly what we are looking for. The same cannot be said for her redheaded counterpart! Last week while trying to separate her for weaning she blew through 3 fences including a Hotwire - then jumped over a hog panel and charged me as i removed the runt piglet that would have been killed if still in the pen when she made it back in. Thankfully I too can clear a 3’ hog panel at a dead run on the opposite side of the pen with a wriggling squealing piglet in my hands when given the proper incentive of a 600lb angry sow!

We finally have made it 24hours without piglets finding a hole in the fence or Jolene trying to eat any of us! She will be going to freezer camp in a few weeks as she is too much of a liability.

In the meantime on a positive note our two “house” piglets who were moved to up in the house and then the greenhouse for the last month have successfully been reintroduced to their litter who are being weaned. Mighty Mouse the runt of the litter is still significantly smaller than the others but holding his own! His bunk mate Tiny had a degloving injury at 24hrs old and had to be brought in for treatment. She is comparable size to her sow raised littermates and unless you are looking her leg injury is not even noticeable. We will tell you more about these two over the next few days.

These babies are growing like weeds! It’s weaning week just in time for our Dottie girl to deliver her litter! Our two “...
09/23/2026

These babies are growing like weeds! It’s weaning week just in time for our Dottie girl to deliver her litter! Our two “house” piglets moved into a temporary pen Mighty Mouse as we dubbed the runt has doubled in size just like everyone else but is still about half the size of the litter. “Tiny” had a degloving injury to her leg that required a more controlled environment and bandaging. They will get to return to the litter this weekend. We do have a few still available. you can either take them home and raise them yourself or we can grow them out for you. Message today to learn more

08/22/2026

Momma is doing great with her 5 little ones and hopefully we will be able to transition 1 of the 2 house piglets back out with her by Monday. They are all in the 3-4lb range now with approximately 0.5-1lb of gain in the first 5 days a

As seems to always be the way today was filled with some beautiful highs and some deep lows. Our gilt, Jolene(female pig...
08/18/2026

As seems to always be the way today was filled with some beautiful highs and some deep lows. Our gilt, Jolene(female pig who hasn’t had babies yet) decided that without the telltale signs of labor she would deliver a dozen babies on her own while we were all at work. Eli was the first to discover the delivery when he got home and called me in the middle of a work meeting that I could thankfully excuse myself from and dash home. The count on the ground started at 6 and increased to 7 after a recount. After I got home I discovered we had lost one shortly after birth and another was incompatible with life and likely only drew a few breaths if any. Then we discovered 3 more deep in the straw but alive and vigorous. To give prospective momma is well over 600lbs and these squealing squirming babies are all in the 1-2lb range. As careful as Jolene is trying to be in the getting up and down process we lost a 3rd piglet that was stepped on and fatally injured even though we tried to provide care. Tonight we have the runt in the house under a heat lamp and trying to coax him to eat and we’re hopefully for a positive outcome. Tonight everyone feels the losses and our hearts are heavy and as painful as that is I feel like it is also a blessing to know that our hearts have not been hardened against the loss of life. So as I set my piglet feeding alarm for every 2hrs throughout the night on one of my busiest work weeks I remind myself that the lesson I want my kids to learn by experience is appreciation and respect for all life and being willing to do the hard things to back up that belief. Our free range hens also hatched 🐣 out 19 chicks in the last week 😳.

Spring is just around the corner! I couldn’t help myself when a local beautiful dark dozen of hatching eggs came availab...
01/24/2026

Spring is just around the corner! I couldn’t help myself when a local beautiful dark dozen of hatching eggs came available a few weeks ago. The picture doesn’t do them justice as they are mostly a deep (think hot cocoa) brown and many were speckled! The lady was kind enough to give us an additional 7 green/blue eggs. We are hopeful this beautiful little lavender (gray) chick is a hen! So far out of the 19 we started with- 3 stopped developing before lockdown 14 are moved into the brooder- one chick had to have a little help getting out and is currently chirping its little heart out in the incubator demanding to go with the others (it’s a little too weak still will reevaluate in a few hours) and one egg hasn’t pipped yet.

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Sagle, ID

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