Little Chefs and Chocolate Puddings!

The naming of piglets is a most serious business. Sometimes names leap out from their characters - like Little Polly Piglet or Butch from Ginger's first litter, and Lily and Samson who came 'from outside'. Some names are chosen by the adoring public - like Delila or Gavin & Stacey from Ginger's second litter.

What to do with naming the third?

"No problem" said the Big Boss.

"We'll give Linda the pleasure".

And what a good idea that was.

Though he did have to reject her original thought: being a Big Football Fan she thought to name them after (ex) members of her favourite team.

Any girls there? No - not the best idea.

Then - being Fond of Food - she hit on the notion of naming them after well-known Chefs.

Sheer Brilliance!

Thus we have: Nigella (Lawson), Delia (Smith), Hugh (Fearnley Whittingstall), Jamie (Oliver), Gordon (Ramsay), Raymond (Blanc) and Ainsley.

And tomorrow the Little Chefs leave the warm, dry security of the Stalls and go out into the Paddock. That'll be fun. Plenty of opportunity to cook up a little adventure en route! As ever the plans are laid. Recipe for disaster.... all the ingredients for another romp around the Reserve.....

Meanwhile, 'Outside' is providing a totally different feast of challenges for the Grown-ups - both human and porcine. The rain, frost, fog and cold have been relentless. We slip and slide all over the place . But our curly coats really don't seem to share our concern.

They wallow and rootle all day long in the glorious mud turning it slowly and methodically into the most gloopy of chocolate puddings.... in which they rootle and wallow some more....... producing ever more pudding. We despair. They smile. Lily - our next (we think) Mother-to-be even prefers to sleep outside. We simply give her wadges of clean, dry hay when we check the horses at night: and she uses it to line her favourite hole next to the pudding and happily curls up and dozes off till breakfast time.

Mangal and Ginger continue to delight in each other's company -- at least we think that is what all the noise is about! He's such a gent: as soon as the dry hay is put down, he collects up as much as his huge jaws can manage and carries it into the ark where he proceeds to make the bed. Woe betide Ginger when she tries to help!

The rest of the time though she is clearly in charge. She is very quick to shout if she doesn't want his advances. He is undaunted... nuzzling her face and butting her tummy and, for all his hundreds of kilos, behaving like the most lovelorn romeo. Endearing really. But for those enormous tusks you could just snuggle up to him...... And speaking of tusks.... he's developing a habit of grabbing hold of the fence with them - only to get 'stuck' --- at which point he screams like some Demon of the Deep.

The Boss says he's merely trying to clean his teeth.

You can tell from Ginger's face that she knows it's just attention-seeking....... and she aint listening......

The Chase

Leaving the bestest gundog in all the world at home for the day (fast asleep, if truth be told, after his labours of the previous day), Rocco and I departed on Saturday to do one of the things he likes best: hunting with hounds! The Meet was at a farm in the village so not far to travel and plenty of time to scrape off the mud of weeks and plait and prim the pony for a day with the public. He did look smart! The wind blew but the sun shone and the assembled company of some 25 keen chasers were amply stirrup-cupped and fed prior to departing for the first cover.

At which we drew a blank. And on to the second cover: at which we drew a blank. And on to the third.. at which we drew a blank.. and on.... and on... and on.... Lots of hithering and thithering but no chasing for the Boy or his Boss. A few jumps en route but mostly it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends and have a good hack round before turning for home in the early afternoon. At which point we were assured we were bound to miss the best part; the next cover never failed to provide a chance for a chase and a good gallop. "Perhaps another day" we said as we bade "Good Night".

For we had 'other things to do' later....

The previous day there was hithering and thithering and chasing of a totally different kind.

The time had come to wean Ginger's latest brood. The scene was set, hurdles fixed, plans laid, shared and confirmed. All would be a doddle.

Naturally.

Separating piglets from Mum?

Not a problem.

Persuading piglets out of pen?

Not a problem.

Leading piglets towards trailer?

No problem...........

for some of them... and then they realised they were only 4.... Ooops. That won't do. Mum said to stick together. So the 4 ran out of the trailer to find the 3, and the 3 went in search of..... well, we don't know actually but let's assume it was the 4 and they didn't see where they went so they looked up in the copse, and down the lane (where the big nasty Giant lives) and in the big field beyond even that Huge Boar.

"Hello" said one adventurous little chap "Are you my Daddy?" And that was a nasty moment 'cos boars are not necessarily very fond of little challengers.....

And still the little ones scampered excitedly - maybe mischievously - about the estate..... giving the attendant humans no small cause for concern.

But then the Mother muttered, gruntled, snorted and snuffled in her gentle, caring but nonetheless domineering way.

Instantly, order was resumed. Innocent little piglets appeared from all corners as if by magic.

Into the trailer? No problem.

Into that nice clean stall? Absolutely.....

Mission accomplished.

So following our morning of not-chasing, Rocco and I returned after an hour's ride home to move Lily away from Mangal.. and Ginger back to Mangal....and that really was simple...

Food to Mangal.. open gate, Lily straight out and along the path to new pen. Relieved to be alone. Open Ginger's gate, guide her along to Mangal's pen. Open gate; Ginger straight in.

And what scenes and sounds of delight. Like long lost lovers they greeted each other with boisterous head butts and gentle rubs.... clearly glad to be back together again. Though it didn't take long before Mangal got down to sorting out the business side of things. And Ginger's been putting him in his place ever since.... And considering the size of him, he is amazingly docile to her commands.......

Biding his time, no doubt!

It has been cold.....

..But not as cold as in the Little Ice Age when the sea froze over and helped to change the course of history..... In the mid 1600s Sweden was a great military power at war against several European countries - not least Denmark. When the Baltic Sea froze over in December 1657 the Danish fleet became trapped in the ice; Sweden's King Charles X Gustav daringly marched his army across the frozen straits, catching the Danes by surprise. Within 2 weeks Copenhagen was under siege and by February Denmark sued for peace, losing a third of its territory whilst Sweden gained its present lands in the Peninsula.

We've come off pretty lightly by comparison: last week England shivered at -12C, Berlin froze in - 21C and Kiev recorded - 23C. Ice skaters were out on the frozen canals of the Netherlands, 29cm of snow fell in Marseilles, Milan staggered under 30cm and the ski industry laughed all the way to the bank!

Closer to home, troughs and taps froze, automatic drinkers (indoors as well as out) siezed up and the landscape became a winter wonderland as hoar frost and freezing mists shrouded everything with an eerie greyness..

... Into which last Thursday 'Babe' delivered possibly the strangest phenomena of the cold snap: 15 delightful 'allsorts'. Babe is the delightful Mr Barclay's (he of Abbey Farm - Polly et al) prize Gloucester Old Spot x Large White Sow. She was brought up 'with the family'; as a youngster, used to roam the gardens and come to call. A few months back she came into season and only Tang - Polly's Blonde Mangalitza husband - was available to mate with her. Well, he didn't mind that one bit. Did the deed - (he being small and she being tall, this required Babe to be stood in a kind of deep ditch) - and off he went.

3 months, 3 weeks and 4 (! not the normal 3) days later she delivered her singular brood. As far as we are aware they are the only ones of their kind in the whole wide world: half of them are mainly pink but the other half are hairy, stripey and spotty! What will they grow up to be? Nobody knows for sure: perhaps the pink ones will grow up with curly coats? And the stripey ones will keep their spots? What will they be called? Watch this space......

Meanwhile, oblivious of such strange happenings, Polly's piglets are growing up and thriving in their secure, warm quarters. The future looks bright for the Abbey Farm Curly Coat herd.....

And today it is raining for the first time in a month. So life returns to normal....

Out with the Old......

In the days before mechanisation, it would take one man with two horses, pulling a single furrow plough, all day to plough one acre. In so doing, he would walk about 14 miles and turn over 20,000 tonnes of soil!

Those were the days................

Now a man driving a modern tractor fitted with a 7 or 9 furrow plough can cover around 34 acres in a day*. 68,000,000 tonnes of soil per day -- hardly bears thinking about.

(*Where do we learn such things? Round the 'camp fire' during a cold day's bush-beating - naturally )

Our Rectoryreserve patent ploughs are amazing diggers but will (luckily) never reach those dizzy heights. It's no good telling the little ones that though ---they believe they really are JCBs in the making!

Speaking of which, we dropped in on 'Little Polly Pig' on New Year's eve. Her first litter - of 7 (clearly the Mangalitza magic number) - were born just two weeks earlier and are growing very nicely. Unlike ours, they are in a purpose built farrowing unit and have the benefit of a heat lamp. So they are lovely and clean and snug.

Polly, like her mum, is an excellent mother: so much so that she can be a bit nasty to any humans who encroach on her space. Maybe it's because she is indoors - therefore doesn't have the safety of the 'wild' to protect her little ones in. It will be interesting to learn if any other differences develop as the indoor piglets grow.

Meanwhile, a friend drops in with an old photo of Lincoln Curly Coat 'Charity Rita' - winner of the 2nd prize at the County Show in 1949 for local breeder J J Middleton.

We are pleased to note that Rita is far from the immense size which was prized in the earlier part of the last century. Much more like our own pigs in fact. Clearly the post-war Curly Coat was a far more sensible size and shape than her predecessors who were bred to be large and lardy!

What other news, surprises, challenges, excitement and delight will this New Year bring............

(The current very cold spell is certainly presenting a few challenges.... but more of those another day)

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