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)

Not much happenning yet......

So I gave the grass a bit of a trim.................
I reckon, that in the history of the whole wide world, this particular bit of turf has never, ever seen a lawn mower!!! So, this was a first and almost certainly the last time it was ever going to happen! I had to swerve to avoid the odd cow pat that had survived from a few weeks previous, but all in all, it looks pretty good. I expect this time next year it will look like a first world war battle zone, so I took a picture of it, just so I could remember what it used to look like...... Don't know who that fat bloke is though....

Finally got it finished today....

So I started round about 10.00am this morning, got all my tools together, lugged them all out into the field only to find that some ******* had nicked my wire!!!!! Now, on the basis that a herd of cattle arrived earlier this week, and there are tyre marks (tractor tyres) leading to and away from my posts (at the precise spot I left the wire....40quids worth), it's my guess that we know who the culprit is!!!!

I imagine I could get myself in some deep water by naming him here, but we know who you are........

Anyway, thanks to some sterling help from Geoff (Father in law) and an amazing bit of ingenuity from the good folk down at Hallwood Farm, who invented and made a very simple but invaluable tool for stretching bits of wire, I got the field fenced off and hopefully cow proof, by about 4.00pm.

Shan't bore you with pictures of my piece of grass, but I will enclose a picture of Noodles, who has been out with us all day, and found that rolling in cow pats really can be quite good fun!....This is her shortly after her shower.

Despite the rain.......

Katie had a lovely day, coming third in her show jumping competition.