Glorious Mud

 Darbie and Joan were 8 weeks old last Friday. It was high time therefore that they were weaned. Latterly Aster had become very protective of them, even going so far as to nip Linda when she entered her pen. It could have been difficult to take her piglets away.
As it turned out though it was the easiest weaning ever.
Having been born inside and, therefore, used from the outset to people going in and out, Darbie and Joan have grown to have no fear of us. Like all piglets they are more than happy to run around away from their mother and visit with all their extended family. Contrary to the other piglets though, whenever they see Linda, The Big Boss or me, they run straight towards, rather than away from, us! In order to wean them we simply opened up one of the outside pens and made it a nice place to go - food, clean straw, lots of tummy tickles whenever they went in. They were free to come and go. We shut the gate a couple of times but opened it again after a little while so as not to fret them. On the second day we shut the barn door up so they couldn't run straight back to Ma.  They didn't worry. She did a bit. But not for long. So in the evening we simply shut their gate and that was it. Easy weaning.

 The following day we separated the most handsome one of the Clarences from his brothers - actually he was chosen for the size of his ears so let's hope he turns out to be a good boar as well! We put Aster next door to him thinking that she would probably bully him mercilessly if we put them together straightaway. Her mind was totally elsewhere. She totally ignored him.
Instread she trotted around and sussed out her surroundings. Then ploughed into the dirtiest muddy patch for all she was worth! No hesitation. No apology. No doubt that she had really missed being able to do that.  If she had been pining for her piglets before then, it was clear that the glorious mud drove everything else from her mind.
The next day when we allowed her and Clarence to get together she was even nice to him (which may or may not prove to be a good thing?). She's been a sweety with us too.
That's how much pigs love the glorious mud.
What of Darbie and Joan? Well Linda and I spend quite a bit of time rubbing their backs and their ears, which makes them roll over so that we can then tickle their tummies! They even seem to prefer attention to food - I don't suppose that'll last! I suspect if we opened their gate they'd happily follow us around and then go back home for tea; maybe we'll try that later in the week..... maybe....