Just when you think....

What they been sweeping under the carpet?

Hah! Now we can see what we're getting to....

So there we are.
Just when you think you know where everyone is and what's going on, something happens to overturn that complacency.
" Ginger's gone walkabout" said Linda, hastening up to the house whilst I was talking to Christine - the ironing guru - and exercising the pupski...
"Huh?" I said most eloquently
"Yeh - I've put her in the stalls with Victoria for now" she continued.
Ginger was not happy.
By the time I'd donned the wellies and sorted the pup Ginger was doing her best to batter down the door.
"Into Rocco's stable I think" I said to Linda - it being not too far away and on the same level.
Ginger duly obliged.
Then proceeded to rearrange the furnishings.
One snick of the snout and up went the rubber rug ("easy peasy" said Ginger - standing back to admire her handiwork.......)
'The sooner she's out of there the better' I thought to myself.
We made minor amendments to Ginger's pen then went back to fetch her.
Pig boards and feedbucket in hand we persuaded her out of Rocco's stable.  Then Linda walked backwards  - increasingly fast as Ginger picked up momentum - in the direction of   Ginger's pen - with the feedbowl..... the addition of a pigboard was merely to make us feel better,
Ginger went straight home "Thanks" she seemed to say "All I wanted was a little nuncheon" -- Huh!.Just when you think you know your pigs.......
And where were the little ones meanwhile?
Fast asleep in a row like sausages in a pack
just like Ginger told them....
They were going nowhere.
Maybe Ginger told them to stay in cos it was her turn to go out and about? Maybe they came back with such tall pigtails that she had to go out into the Reserve and see for herself.... whatever... once back in her pen she was more than contented - snout in bowl and  "What me? Out there? Never"  clearly her attitude.
Which goes to show   - with animals you never can tell......

 Move? Us? We have our orders.....

 

Chalk and cheese

Sleepy Sunday afternoon..........

I got my eye on you chaps so you'd better behave.....

Here's a sweet scene: big mama sow and tiny piglets all curled up together in the sunshine. Ginger looks as though she hasn't a care in the world. And why wouldn't she .... 6 bouncing little piglets all growing nicely and behaving like little piglets ought to.
 Most of the time!
Most of the time they're doing what young things should do - going off into the world and leaving the old lady in peace and quiet.

Out at last

From the age of just over 2 weeks they've been out exploring - bouncing around all over the place like young rabbits; visiting all the other herd members and generally making a nuisance of themselves everywhere but with Ginger. All she ever sees of them is sleepy piglets - and no wonder after all their exertions. The Bestest Gundog spends quite a bit of time explaining the rules to them. They don't listen, of course. Doesn't stop him though. He's nothing if not persistent. They just look at him and trot off on their merry way.
Meanwhile a little further down the path from the second picture, Delila is busy bringing up her little brood. In quite a different manner. Where Ginger is all relaxed, Delila is quite neurotic; where Ginger's piglets are everywhere, Delila's are nowhere. Whatever happened on that traumatic night when they were born has had a far-reaching effect. Delila guards them with her not-inconsiderable torso and when there's the merest hint of "something happening" she herds them to the back of their ark. They are 4 weeks old now though and it's high time they were out and running around all over the place. At least today she let them play outside their doorway but it's a far cry from the shenanigans that Ginger's piglets (just one day younger) are getting up to.  If they don't start leaving mum soon we are going to have an interesting time when it comes to weaning. Two litters could not be more different...... chalk and cheese.......

Moving day ....

BlackBananaBoy wooing his new Lady friend

Friday's is usually moving day... and we had serious moves to make last Friday. Victoria is due to farrow at the end of the year - she may or may not beat Truffle to it - so we wanted to move her away from BlackBananaBoy and the muddy woods to give her time to compose herself before THE  Day. Mrs Merkel, on the other hand, has been given a stay of execution (literally) -she was to have gone to the great sausagemachine in the sky tomorrow but, with The Big Boss having a bad arm and the Xmas markets being affected accordingly, we decided to put her up with BlackBananaBoy to breed instead: We are also thinking we may need a replacement for Ginger (!!!!).

"An armful of piggie is all I ever wanted"  said Con

Well - he was after her straightaway and there's been a hell of a noise ever since.....not sure that she's impressed with her new companion. Meanwhile, Victoria is indoors in the old stalls and wondering why ...but enjoying all the extra attention (and the dry accommodation no doubt).
And then there was little Snowdrop - the only girl amonst a litter of boys - who had to move from the barn with her brothers (of course) to the Playpen with the two Flowers - Rose and Begonia. Well, the only way to move her was to carry her - naturally!.  Linda did a skydive spectacular across the barn floor to catch her back leg - and missed which gaveYours Truly the chance to catch the piggie on the hop and grab the leg on the other side....

Between the pair of us we managed to pick her up and pass her across the hurdle to Con who carried her in his arms down to the field and her two cousins.

Snowdrop giving her cousins a wide berth!

The squealing had to be heard to be believed. The puppy ran to cover in a corner of the barn. Delila rounded up her piglets and stuffed them further to the back of their ark (not that they were exactly'out' of their little house.....).and all the other creatures looked about them in alarm. Snowdrop is so much smaller than her cousins and we were worried they'd not let her sleep with them but she managed to snuggle up at the back of the ark and the following morning snucked out last for her breakfast...... she'll be ok - pigs are so kind to each other  - usually.
Meanwhile, last night when the dogs went for their last walk, there was such a humdinger of a noise going on in the woods - Mrs Merkel and the BlackBananaBoy making whoopee in their ark again -well who's to guess what was going on.. but in the misty rainy night it was a pretty scary sound ---and they were not up for breakfast this morning....... time will tell.....

Just another day...

It was just like any other morning really...cold, slippery underfoot, piggies hollering for their breakfast... the phone rang somewhere about my person... fumbling around trying to find the right pocket whilst taking off the mucky gloves... more haste less speed. Finally. "You wouldn't like to come in would you? I've had a fall".

"Been practising his jujitsu moves again" I thought, walking slowly towards the house --- speed would have induced panic. All sorts of demons ran across my mind. Relief to see him sitting on the kitchen chair - a little ashen-faced whilst clutching his arm. It wasn't Jujitsu training at all. Walking in anger from the study after an early morning aggravation with our landline provider The Big Boss was rudely accosted by the hall carpet - which clutched at his feet and flung his torso in the direction of the hall table.... a missing chunk of which bears testimony to the event...and his right shoulder bore the brunt of the collision...... We spent the next 12 hours at A&E in two of our local NHS providers... a very long 12 hours (Did I mention the incident occurred before we humans had breakfasted???No? I thought I'd forgotten that small point......). It's difficult to say who enjoyed the day least; The BB because he was sedated for a large part of it or Yours Truly who doesn't have the dislocated shoulder.... And we'll not be doing any ballroom dancing in the foreseeable future, that's for certain. It's off to the fracture clinic in the morning to, hopefully, get a clear analysis of the actual damage done and what happens next.  Meanwhile, the patient is under strict instructions not to move the arm AT ALL (it re-dislocated at least half a dozen times whilst being 'fixed' --- "very unstable" opined the extremely competent, charming and effective Dr 'Raj') and has spent the weekend heavily painkilled and sleepy.
The fact that we are about to enter the busy pre-Christmas Markets period, not to mention being well into the shooting season, does little to ensure sound sleep. The Big Boss is doubtless in pain though he won't admit it and I am doubtless in denial - which, if challenged, I will of course strongly deny..... "We'll see what tomorrow brings" I keep saying to myself.... and anyone else who asks.

Filling in the gaps - part one

.... So let's just wind the clock back a bit.... to October 28th... remember all that noise around Delila's pen when we got back from the Sausage Festival?  I was right to be alarmed. The noise level was not normal. Usually when a sow has had a litter of piglets she spends as much time the first few days just caring for them and suckling them. Well, the next morning Delila was out and about before breakfast. I thought she was just hungry and whilst she was eating I went to see what there was to see in her ark. It was not pretty. There was a bunch of little squigglies huddled in one corner. But elsewhere... too many poor little bodies not squiggling. I removed them one by one. At least one of them had a hole the size of a 50p piece right through the skin on its rump. It was too distressing to look too closely at the others. No wonder Delila didn't want to be in there. I fetched her a bale of fresh straw and she spent ages stuffing it all round the edges of  the ark. I can only imagine a stoat or similar got in through a hole at ground level and attacked the little ones.... horrific. And quite explains the awful squealing I heard. For the next 3 days or so Delila spent far too little time in the ark; we were concerned for the survival of the remaining 5 piglets. However, mum was still doing her job and by the end of the first week life was back to normal. Poor Delila. I don't know if sows suffer post natal depression but if they do that's what she clearly had those first few days.

Just keep your distance......

No such problem with Ginger. Her 6 piglets are bonny little creatures and, only a little over two weeks old,  are already out of the pen and exploring what else is in the world. Mum sleeps a lot - but who can blame her!! I don't think she's in the least concerned with the amount of time they are spending away from home. They are still quite small - whenever I catch sight of them trotting around my first thought is always of rabbits. I'm sure that'll soon change......

The Understudy - update

It looks much more interesting from up here

Jaunty (aka The Understudy) has been here nearly 3 weeks now.
I wouldn't say that life revolves around him but it is difficult to recall what it was like before he came! The ever Alpha Pilot has already 'beaten' him up twice so we've all learned to be hyper careful when going about what would otherwise be routine activities! On the first occasion Pupski decided to cosey up to Pilot on the Aga mat and was firmly ragged for that - much squealing but  no damage. There were mitigating circumstances - tired 'marketed-out' humans and overexcited canines. On the second occasion little pup, as is his wont, rushed home to the back door having done his p's and poops and crashed unsuspectingly  into Pilot who, having been on a long journey round the estate,

He thinks if he pretends to sleep I'll go away - but I won't

was also eagerly awaiting entry. Another ragging. Even louder screaming ensued and when I dragged Pilot off him, Jaunty rushed off squirming and crying as if he'd been torn limb from limb. Much cuddling and cooing on the garden seat eventually calmed the poor thing down; the blood, it transpired, was coming from nothing worse than a sorely bitten tongue. Pup now checks exactly where Pilot is before making decisions about where to dash! A hard lesson firmly learned!

What d'ya mean it's too high?!

He has no such problems with Gunner who, not surprisingly, is an excellent Nanny/mentor and has shown him all the 'interesting' places (including where rabbits hide under the Summer house - naughty Gunner). So much so that Jaunty is as relaxed sleeping in his crate of straw in the barn as in his comfy bed in the house! The horses and pigs are less frightening than Pilot whilst chickens & ducks are just curiosities and if there is a platform to climb onto and leap off  then the day is complete.
"He'll scream the house down when you leave him for the night" said Annie when we went to fetch him. He did make a bit of a noise when he woke up the first two nights but since then not a peep out of him till morning tea. So much so that for the first two weeks he had to be dragged out... "Go out in the dark?Me? You must be kidding!"
The outside world is becoming increasingly exciting though and the mad dash back to the house is becoming more and more delayed. Overall, he's proving quick to learn and shows excellent potential as an Understudy - who knows, he may even turn into a star  in his own right!