Wallowing and weaning

The original Plan consisted of many interlinked and related moves:- piglets away from Ginger, Delila away from Clyde, Precious away from Samson, Whiskey to Samson, Brandy to Clyde, Delila's weanlings to the field, Alfred from the field to the pen they vacated, Precious' 10 weanlings to a different pen and Mangal to Ginger. There might even have been a couple more which I can't remember!

And the Whole Plan was to be executed in a series of co-dependent moves in one continuous session...................

"What fun!" I exclaimed when it was revealed by The Big Boss over tea one morning last week.

Possibly the most important component of The Plan was the use of the trailer to transport the residents from one place to another around Rectory Reserve!

Just one small problem. At first it was the snow which hindered execution. Then it was the snow melting. Then it was the pouring rain. Then it was the sheer volume of mud created by the combination of those factors.

Nature was clearly not going to play ball. Even with 4-wheel drive, there was no way we could drive in and out of gateways and up and down the field the number of times The Plan required.

"Why not just wean Ginger's piglets since that's obviously the most critical thing" said Con when the dilemma was explained to him on Friday morning! That's what a different perspective can do.... We were just hung up on The WHOLE PLAN!

Arriving with her whole paraphenalia of 'wallowing in the mud gear', Linda's face fell a little bit when she heard that only Step 1 was going to be attempted but she soon perked up when she realised that even that would require some pretty deft hand and foot co-ordination which would all have to be carried out in Ginger's pen. (See first photo of Ginger up to her hams in gloop!)

Tony arrived to lend a hand after lunch and so the 5 of us set about preparing for the weaning.... basically making a 'run' of hurdles from Ginger's pen to what was to become the weanlings pen in the field - a distance, fortunately, of only about 30 yards......

And then "The Plan -Step 1" clicked into action - just like clockwork really. Tempt Ginger away from her piglets with some delectably tasty bits of fruit (the little ones are slower to move through the gloop): shut gate between her and the piglets: open gate to the run: tempt piglets (more food) into the run and down to the field: shut gate in field when piglets inside.

That all worked almost like clockwork - with four of the piglets. Excellent. Then we had to try and get the other two. Which involved quite a lot of wallowing and wading through the mud. After several minutes number 5 was caught (by the back leg - by Linda, up to the top of her wellies in mud) and, making a hell of a racket whilst being transported to the run, eventually went the right way. Ginger went bonkers, snorting and dashing up and down the fence and trying to get to the remaining piglet - who eventually squiggled through the gate to Mum!

"Oh damn" said everyone except Tony who couldn't see what was going on from where he was standing...

No way Ginger was going to let anyone near her piglet. So we had to tempt Ginger away; luckily she was hell bent on getting to the safety of the ark which was in the other pen so she ran that way no doubt thinking piglet was right behind her - which he was, but his speed was somewhat hampered by the gloop (or his short legs, depending on how you look at it) and I managed to shut the gate so he was trapped on the other side again. And then it was just a matter of catching the little chap. Con really enjoyed wallowing and diving for the elusive back leg! After several attempts, probably in sheer frustration, he lunged, grabbed and - hey presto - swung the very surprised piglet up in the air, just managed to hold on to the by now squealing and squiggling muddy mass and passed it over the other fence into Linda's waiting arms..... where it continued squiggling and wriggling and quickly fell to the ground - speedily followed by Linda who, showing amazing dexterity and grit (not to mention an extremely mucky face!), grabbed and held on to a back leg while Con leapt (proving it is possible to leap out of gloop) over the fence from the pen and scooped the piglet up from the ground, quickly passing it over the hurdle into the run, then leapt over the hurdle into the run himself and helped The Boss herd the now-thoroughly-disoriented piglet down to join his siblings!

"Right" said Con "Who did you say we were moving next?" and we just fell about laughing..... The Boss had forgotten to mention to him that we were only weaning Ginger's piglets.....

"I assumed, since it was his idea, that he knew" said Brian later!

And, much later, we all agreed that it was a good job that the rain had eased by the time we started......

And, just for the record - Ginger stopped calling out to the piglets within 15 minutes (you can see her looking through the far fence in the background of the last photo - Delila's weanlings in the foreground; the other one looking on is Nigella, soon due to farrow) and they seemed to forget all about her the moment their snouts hit the feed bowl - ie. as soon as they entered the new pen........ and later on they were gambolling around like spring lambs, really delighted to have solid ground under their little trotters ......................