On the move again

Sometimes we wake up in the morning and have nothing to do.

But that's when we're away on holiday!

Ahh, happy days..................

Otherwise, it just doesn't happen.... when things are getting a little bit quiet and humdrum a "MOVE" can be guaranteed to be on the cards!

Like last Friday.......

Precious is due to have her piglets any day now so had to leave Samson - that was the previous Friday's fun. It went quite smoothly apart from the distinct similarity to the slalom at Whistler when The Boss was trying to maneouvre the trailer in the Church Field to line the ramp up with the entrance/exit to the pens! Heavy trailer on slippery ground is one thing, but factor a very heavily pregnant sow into the equation and things become a whole lot more interesting...... But he managed it - just.

This week's portion of fun featured: Mavis and Maud, shortly due to depart this earth, need to be moved from the field to the stalls: Delila is imminently due to have piglets so must leave Clyde and go to her farrowing pen in the field: Brandy has spent far too long in the stalls (mainly thanks to the weather) and needs to replace Delila as Clyde's consort in the woods: Whiskey's not 'good enough' to join the breeding programme so her fate has been sealed: Nigella has gone way past her 'due' date and is being a real 'pig' to the little weaners whom she's been sharing her quarters with since breaking through the intervening fence. So her fate's been decided too.

Which all added up to a lot of MOVES!

And they were all supposed to happen on Friday. But with ground conditions worse than the previous week, The Boss decided one attempt at the Whistler experience was enough and stuck to those maneouvres which didn't involve the field. So, Delila to temporary quarters (second photo): Brandy to Clyde: Nigella to the stalls. All achieved according to plan in just 15 minutes longer than the allotted time, which was thanks to Nigella deciding to choose her own path to the trailer rather than the one we'd mapped out...... There were one or two expletives (particularly at the point when she eventually was almost on the trailer but then decided to hang about and test the ground and the ramp and the hurdles and anything else she could put her snout on) but - as Con said - "With pigs you just have to stay calm and relaxed and eventually they do what you want them to do!"

Mavis and Maud may think mud's not much fun anymore but if they knew that it had granted them a stay of execution for at least one week I'm sure they'd be bouncing around with more than their usual glee................