The best Office Christmas Party ever!

Last sow loaded - almost done

 Everyone knows it's been pouring with rain since.. well, as long as anyone can remember. It doesn't really matter. Water drains away;goes down holes in the ground eventually 'cept if you're flooded, which is not nice for anyone.
Everyone knows pigs love mud ... well, mostly they love mud and eventually the mud dries  up a bit and is OK - 'cept this year. The rain's not stopped and the mud has gone from slarmy to gloopy to sloppy and our constant dilemma - well, one among many - is how to manage the pigs in the climactic conditions we are challenged with.   We have weanlings inside who

The Somme?

need to go out and pigs outside who need to go in and pigs elsewhere who need moving somewhere else again.... it goes on and on and gives some of us sleepless nights...
Anyway, today was Moving Friday - we had weanlings who needed to go out; we had a sow who is farrowing soon and - in view of Delila's last experience needed to come in - we had a sow who needed to move away from Samson and another who needed to move up to be with Samson.
We also had an extremely wet field. Up and down which we had to go a number of times with a heavy pig trailer. Undaunted, we made all the moves (thanks to Con who took over the driving - me, Coward?). The sows, bless them - Andromeda, Truffle and Delila - behaved like little lambs and moved without hesitation where we wanted them to. The little weanlings loaded on and off the trailer like angels - swam through the sloppy mud in their new outdoor pen as if it were not there.... even though they were transformed from little blonde things into mucky piggies in 0.1 seconds..... happy to be outside again (perhaps they don't think of weather like we do). It took a while and a lot of driving and slipping through the mud and by the time we were done darkness was falling and the once beautiful Church Field resembled the battlefield of the Somme..... Linda had to leap over a fence into almost bottomless gloop to persuade Andromeda to follow her feed bowl to the trailer; then she almost went head over heels leading Delila up to the trailer - in her eagerness to get to dry land(and maybe the feedbowl) poor sow almost trampled over her....... we laughed: "I've lost my gripper!" said Linda in explanation (they're things that help boots not slip in mud or snow....) - we never did find out where (yet!). By the end of it we were all exhausted but the piggies are all in the right place and no need to worry about any of them till..... well ... well into the New Year.
"That was the best Office Christmas Party ever" exclaimed Linda over a glass of Lindisfarne Mead a while later - which made me laugh out loud .......... and some of us will sleep more soundly over the festive season knowing our piggies are in the right places.
So --- Merry Christmas all and may Santa make your wishes come true....... and if you want to see the little piggies in their proper places drop in between mid-day and 3 pm on Sunday and drink to their health.... and to a dry and pleasant 2013!!!....