It's been such lovely weather.....

Must have been the hottest weekend of the year so far, so, being the caring sort of bloke that I am, I planted a parasol out in the field to create a bit of shade for my rapidly growing herd. I suppose it was ambitious, and shouldn't be surprised that they didn't bother with the shade, but chose to use the post as somewhere new to rub their backs!! Well it served a purpose if nothing else. Plan B was far more successful, I put the hose into a hole they had dug for themselves and created a pond of mud! This was more like it for m'pigs! They loved it and spent much of the day wallowing in it. The bizarre thing is, it's suggested they like a wallow because it cools them off, which I can understand...... why then, do they still snuggle up to one another like there's no room anywhere else? Stoopid Pigs!

Reflections so far......

Things they don't tell you in the Pig Keeping Books......
1. While trimming the grass under your electric wire (so the fence doesn't arc to earth), try to resist the temptation of putting your scythe straight through the wire thereby releasing curious pigs.... Yes folks, it was me. Bloody idiot, I felt like a complete clot chasing round trying to keep them in while also gathering up enough slack on the wire so I could tie the two ends together while praying that the Pigs hadn't realized I'd turned the juice off!!!

There's bound to be more where that one came from.... in time.

"If there was one thing you could change?".........................

I know EXACTLY what that would be. I vividly remember my friend Chris Jopling telling me, "Mitch, when you build a pig house, make it so you can lift the top off to clean them out" Did I? Did I heck. Which is why sunday mornings are spent kneeling in pee soaked straw shovelling pig turds out into the barrow.

Well, enough of my ramblings, it's dinner time and then I'm going out into the garden with a cup of tea, lean on the fence, listen to the birds and the occasional grunt from the snorkers and just marvel at how lucky I am.

A myth about keeping pigs.......

I read a lot of stuff on pig keeping, a lot....... I thought I was totally prepared and never considered that MY pigs wouldn't conform. They all tell you that pigs are clean animals, and frankly, if you met them, you'd have to concur, however! They also tell you that they don't soil their own bedding/accommodation.........WRONG!!!

I have just spent the whole of my sunday afternoon on all fours, inside a pig ark, disinfecting the floor of a pig ark. I won't trouble you with any more gory details than are absolutely necessary, but I will add that two showers later, I think I can still detect the subtle combination of Jeyes Fluid and stale pig pee on my hands and knees.

I realise now, that I made their ark a little on the large side (I so wanted to make them feel at home....) and I think this has backfired on me because the lazy little sods can't be bothered to walk outside so they go crap in the corner!!!

So, by way of revenge, I have cut down on their straw which they use as bedding. The thinking behind this being that they'll have less straw to soil and are therefore less likely to shit on it.......

I've just been out to see how they've responded to this and to my dismay, one of them has had a dump right in the middle of the "nest" and they're sleeping on the solid floor with just their heads on the straw!! Stoopid bloody pigs. Well they're not getting any more bedding out of me tonight, they have to learn not to poop on their own doorstep (so to speak).

I also spotted a bloody great rat scurrying under the ark this afternoon. If Sal knew this she'd freak, but as she's unlikely to read this, I ought to get away with it. I'll try and lay my hands on a bit of drainpipe this week and put some poison in it, under the ark, that ought to get rid of the bugger.

Well, I guess that's enough for tonight's entry, I'm off to scrub my hands again.......

Couldn't resist posting this.......

April 1st (no coincidence I guess!!) they're here....

The adventure has begun, I have joined the brotherhood, there's no turning back, they're here. Three little 8 week old weaners, 2 male, 1 female (I know, they have "proper" names...gilts, hogs, boars whatever) and they're cute (damn them) as hell! Katie has already spent a day playing with them and has given them names, which is something I forbade but how am I going to stop her? They sleep a lot, eat the rest of the time, and frankly, poo a lot. Collectively they are a huge bunch of time wasters as I sit at the window for ages just watching them. I know the novelty will wear off after a while (once they've escaped or I've had a nip off one of them I guess), but they are fascinating to watch. Noodles hasn't taken too kindly to them, in fact she took a shock off the electric fence yesterday and won't even go out the back door any more. I'm sure in time she'll get used to them.
I've been trying to stick to the advice I received or read about regarding how much to feed them, however, I think that because they're eating a lot of grass and vegetation, they're not eating as much of the pellet stuff I've been giving them as I'd expected. This is great news because it's bloody expensive, but that little bit of grass will soon become a quagmire so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. I've taken loads of pictures and movies of them, but haven't got round to uploading them onto the PC yet so you'll have to make do with this one....it'll be the first of many I'm sure........

Finally got a bit of decent weather.......

So I managed to build m'pigs a new home. Gotta say, it's pretty cosey in there, hope the three little pigs are going to be very happy in their new home. It'll be about 6 weeks before they arrive, plenty of time for Sal to run up some chintz curtains and some scatter cushions!!!

Steph & Adrian's Silver Wedding Anniversary

My very dearest friends, Stephanie & Adrian in Peebles, who I don't see nearly enough of got married 25 years ago and are having a party this weekend to celebrate. Sadly we are unable to go and I just wanted to tell them how much I love them and miss them. I hope you two have a lovely weekend, and it goes without saying how much I wish we could be with you. All my love to you both and Bill, Alice, Julie, Sally, Emma, Victoria, Pam & Geoffrey and all the rest of the family. Hope very much to see you soon.

They're on their way!!

The piglets were born last week, on the 31st Jan, so we popped along to Jacobstowe to have a peek this afternoon.
Got to say, they're very cute, very, very cute. I couldn't get in to the pen with them, Mum (Plum) is a bit grumpy, so the pictures aren't that great, but you can see what I mean. She had 12 piglets in total, but for one reason or another, saw her way to laying on 4 of them and killing them, which, I believe isn't that uncommon, but a shame nevertheless. I got a bit of video too, with Chris Jopling, the breeder, not sure how it will work on here. Must say thanks to him & Jan for an endless supply of advice and in Jan's case, mockery (if I want my pigs to have chintz curtains, they will have them) and for a very nice cuppa today.
Next weekend is the half term holiday when I hope to finish my pig house off, then it's another 6 weeks before they arrive..............and the adventure really begins. Can't wait.

P.S it's only fair I give the Joplings a plug after all the help they've given me (and they do make awfully nice sausages), so if it's rare breed pork or weaners you're after go to www.snoutandtrotter.co.uk and if you fancy a week in Devon in a cottage by a pig farm, you could do a lot worse than having a look at www.trotterscottage.co.uk (which, for some reason, I couldn't get to work as a link, so you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser, sorry)