Sausages, storms & squigglers

Lunch time & not a sausage left!

It's been a busy weekend. The Bestest Gundog and I were hard at work on Friday bushbeating and picking up birds whilst the Big Boss dealt with packing up pork for our most recent Pig Partners and for Lincoln's famous Sausage Festival at the Castle on Saturday. All against the backdrop of the 'biggest storm since 1987' anticipated to be coming our way "sometime over the weekend......".  It's not easy forecasting demand at the best of times; the vagaries of the weather only add complications. Complexity was multiplied by the fact that, whilst The Big Boss was selling 'prepared' products, Yours Truly was cooking hot dogs with wedgie 'tatoes and onions.
Last year's Sausage Festival attracted a crowd of 10,000 or so on a very cold day.
This year numbers were up by at least 10% - in no small part due to the day turning out to be rather mild with only occasional gusts of wind - which strengthened as time progressed but by then people had already turned out. Not just locals either - many had come from far afield to sample and/or buy some of the best sausages in the country. There was one memorable gust which threatened to blow the whole gazebo away but luckily the combined weight of the Big Boss & I held it more or less in place. After that we fixed it to gas bottles and similar heavy accoutrements and had only minor disturbances! Demand steadily increased from 1000hrs (opening time) onwards. Fortunately I had someone helping with serving because the trickle turned to a torrent. We quickly sold out of every last scrap of food. I looked at my watch and was amazed to discover it wasn't even 1 o'clock. Sadly we turned the remainder of the queue away and posted up a notice advising that we had 'Sold Out' except for Pure Apple Juice and Sparkling Mineral Water. At that time of day it was good in a bad way, or vice versa! By 4pm - the  end of the event - we'd not only sold all the drinks but The Big Boss had done likewise on prepared food too! (Most of the traders reported similar stories) A very successful day - and not a drop of rain from beginning to end. The Gods were certainly smiling on Lincoln Castle and Cathedral.

Delila & Samson's latest offspring

Sunday was quite different. Strong winds from the outset seemed to bear out the forecast. Delila was imminently due to farrow; Monday was 'the day' in the diary. Linda's day off. Well, fed up with frequently being absent on 'the big occasion' Linda had decided to swap her day off to later in the week. Delila must have known.
She was out for her breakfast as usual. Afterwards she started tidying her ark. "Hmm" I thought, giving her a few extra sticks and branches. Then thought no more of it.
A couple of hours later, after exercising The Bestest Gundog's Understudy, I thought I'd just go check she was OK....... and noticed a strange object outside her ark. It quickly registered as a tiny piglet. Quickly I leapt over the fence and went to check on the little thing. It was still warm and half covered in blood; it squealed when I picked it up so I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly tucked it back in the ark between its brothers and sisters, keeping my fingers crossed it would get to a teat in time.
We all had a bit of a laugh about Delila making all that effort to have the piglets a day early just so Linda could be there to see them from the start!!! Sense of humour in a sow? Why not?
Two days later all 9 are alive and squiggling happily. I think the tiniest one on the outside of the others in the photo must have been the one that went outside.... he (or she) is probably going to be trouble.
As for the predicted storms. We had rather too much rain over Sunday night/Monday morning but luckily not the high winds endured by the more southerly counties. The Gods smiling again perhaps.....

Woolly Jumper

Meet Big Red. He's one of Ginger & Mangal's 12th litter born on 8 May this year. He's always been a favourite - something to do with his colouring I expect but he's also a bit of a character and very fond of people.

He learns quickly too. At least, I think he does. After watching the spaniels leaping and bounding he got the idea that he could do that too. Especially at feeding time. A little leap and he could bound over the fence into the next-door pen where the pigs were being fed earlier than him. Handy.
 But Why stop there? If he could bound over a fence or hurdle into the next door pen, he could leap over any fence whether there was food on offer or not.  It was amusing - at first. But being greeted first thing in the morning by an energetic young boar running riot - and causing the whole herd to grow restless - is not amusing...................
These curly coats mature at a young age. There was a very real possibility that one of the young gilts would come into season and Big Red would be over the fence and into her pen quicker than a rat up the proverbial drainpipe!!!
Reluctantly, on Monday morning when he was gallivanting around the place, I dangled a feed bucket in front of his snout and led him to the barn for breakfast. He was happy enough - he was ready for food after running around for however long!
After breakfast he decided to jump over the barrier between him and his fellow hogs next door. They didn't appreciate his company and set about telling him so in no uncertain manner. Did I mention that young boars are also quite territorial?
It was 5 against one and Big Red didn't stand a chance. But he was too worn out to leap back - at least without a considerable incentive.
After he'd been bullied by the 5 for a couple of hours I fetched some more feed for him. That renewed his spring and he leapt up over the barrier - and got his back trotter stuck as he tried the spaniel kick-back method of gaining extra impetus...... A few nasty squealing moments followed. Lucky that he's a good natured chap because he let me heave him up off the ground to get the weight off, and thereby release, his back trotter.
He hasn't tried it again since. We've kept the barn doors to the outside world shut though just in case he gets the notion to try another leap.

I suspect he won't try: he's happy to have lots of human attention - loves having the top of his head or the back of his ears scratched and he doesn't have to squabble with anyone for his food. He's also well out of the mud now that the rains have returned....... A nice clean woolly jumper... just right for this time of year!

Training & surprises.....

"I'd not been lookin' forward to it. A Training Day? "Wash your mouth out" I felt like sayin' to Her. Am I not The Bestest Gundog, 5 full seasons under my Equafleece? Training's for youngsters - The Understudy & His Understudy - not for me? I was mortified. I did not wag my tail when She put me in the car. I did not wag my tail when I got out of the car - after a lot of faffin about I'll have you all know. What is it with Humans that they have to fiddle n faddle and gossip and chunter and then they expect us to get out the car and be "Seek on" and "Get out" and "pip pip" and "sit/stay/seek/fetch" all in an instant. Good job we spaniels are switched on ..... But that doesn't alter the fact. I was not lookin' forward to a Training Day.

It was a cold and windy morning and She forgot her jacket. I'd have laughed if I'd thought about it. But then I met the other chaps - all Pint sized spaniels - Cockers I think She called them. Things started to look up. We went out to a wild and wasted field with huge ditches - Oh my almost favourite...... and I could smell all sorts of good smells. This was no ordinary training. And then He-the-Trainer was carrying a gun... I've always been a bit wary of the chap - but a gun? Well that made him almost my best mate --- I Love people who have guns...... Guns with people are what makes my switch really turn on..... And then I could smell some wonderful strange bird smells..... the wind was wafting them right up my nostrils.... Ohhhhh bliss ... almost better than my favoritest dinner.......

Well, let me tell you  the morning got better and better and it was nothin' like training. Well, actually, now I think of it, She was a bit naggy at the start & He-the-Trainer did yell at me when I was off and away. Then it occurred to me that She really wanted me to listen, so I listened, (I'm not insensitive to her wishes) and from then on it all just got wonderful and whizzy and I Oh so loved it. Up and down the dyke sides, up & down the bankflanks, to and fro, wonderful smells and birds everywhere - and then gunshot and retrievin'.... only I was stopped from goin' out instantly - and then another bonio dropped - She don't always want me to dash out straightaway ---- Well, why the Dog didn't She say so before..... I very amenable you know....

 There were four of us dogs and we all got to work in turn and inbetween She and Me had a few earnest words and she gave me good vibes and then on one of my turns, He-the-Trainer said something that made her jump up and down - I stopped dead in my tracks, I thought She was going to do somethin' embarrassing...... she went quite silly.... I've never seen anything like it.  Seems he admired my energy and style and the way I was workin'. He never seen me at full tilt and on song before: "I've never seen him work so stylishly" he said "if he could keep this up He could be a Field Trial dog" .................... This from the man who said I was too steady to catch a cold...... who always said I'd never amount to much.....
Well, as I said, She very nearly flipped. The biggest compliment anyone, 'specially He-the-Trainer, ever paid me.............. well, I was already enjoyin' myself but now She was over the moon. I've always been the twinkle in her eye but for He-the-Trainer to say I could be good enough to do Field Trials...... well, that makes her not so crazy after all................. Me? I've always known I was better than he thought!     I actually think I almost enjoyed this training day more than some of my workdays - it was so much more focused & I could really concentrate on what I was doing. In fact, now I think of it, the training was actually for Her not for me - to teach her how to help me do my job better............. Do you know what? I think I'm all for training days. The more she can do to help me the better I can get on and do my job and the more fun we both have.
Now, that's what I call a good lesson.  Training and surprises don't often happen together....... We're off to work tomorrow.... let's hope She can keep it up....... *goes off humming 'me a field trial dog, me a field trial dog.......*

New pens and running sows!

 Had we known when we first moved here many moons ago that we would one day keep a herd of pigs we would probably have moved to a farm instead of an Old Rectory! In the past 6 years (coinciding almost with the arrival of the curly coats) I have found myself almost lusting after other people's farm buildings or vast fenced acreages.... Silly really, but there we are.
Last year we converted the area formerly known as 'The Playpen' (so named for putting ponies in when the weather was too dire to put them out in the field) into three 'new' pig pens. We thought they would keep us going for a while.
Wrong. It didn't take long till they were fully occupied!

Last winter when some of the gilts were almost swimming in gloopy mud (in mitigation - it was the wettest one for decades) we realised we needed to make some more new pens and give some of the old ones a really long rest.  'Men' finally came last week and constructed two in a section of the Church Field opposite the existing ones.

And on Friday our amazingly versatile 'gardener/ handyman ' made a most salubrious ark. So, without wasting a moment - Victoria's weanlings (the Famous Five) were moved across the way (via a temporary hurdle-channel) to their new home. It's all shiny & new & wonderful and they love it - so much so that they promptly chased out Andromeda's piglets when they went to visit! The latter now think the new pen next door is theirs!  They'll find out differently when they are weaned in a couple of weeks - although the 3 girls might well end up there......!

The Famous 5 had actually been temporarily living in one of the sow pens. It needed to be vacated because Delila is in her third trimester and had to be moved away from Samson.

As you can see, she was happy to go! We simply gave Samson a bowl of feed, opened the gate and watched Delila run down the field behind Linda.

Regular readers will recall that not all sows are as well-trained - Mrs Merkel (now known as Ruth) gave Linda a fine old run-around when she was moved away from Black Banana a few weeks ago, ahead of going to her new home to join Moses! I seem to recall the words "never again" being spoken but there we are - Delila is Linda's special sow and accordingly beautifully behaved!

Arriving at her destination, she could be forgiven for behaving as though she'd not been fed in weeks - Samson has probably been helping himself to the Boar's share. Which is another good reason for moving the sow - she'll need feeding up for the next few weeks to give her piglets the best start in life..... I don't suppose Delila will object to that!

Flashback

On 12 September 2007 Gunner, at the age of 6 months, went for his first assessment with Rory-the-trainer. It was noted in the blog at the time that he could walk to heel, on and off the lead, sit, stay, wait, go find (chew sticks) and come to voice or whistle.
(Smarty pants)
Rory-the-trainer noted that he was almost too steady for a young dog! Visions of winning Gundog trials across the country wafted cross my subconscious. (Ignorance was such bliss!)

Last Thursday, 3rd October, at the age of almost 6 months, his son Bugler followed in his footsteps and went for his first assessment with Rory-the-trainer. It was noted (by me) that he was fond of water, could retrieve a ball, enjoyed hunting and would come to call - and that he was very much his own 'person'.
It was noted by Rory-the-trainer that he was a good deal sharper than his father - and already far too independent!
It's all a matter of perspective!
Gunner's first lesson was over an hour of varied activities to test his aptitude. I thought he passed with flying colours but we came away with
(now familiar) instructions to sharpen him up in all respects and return in a month or so.

In contrast, Bugler's first lesson was just short of half an hour. He demonstrated his independence by happily hunting further and further away from me and choosing when he wished to obey the return whistle or call. His retrieving was keen enough but he does have the habit of dropping the ball either at, or just short of, my feet. Rory frowned! And demonstrated both how to get a sharper response from the pup and how to encourage him to hold the ball till asked to 'give'. It looked soooo easy when he did it; proved so very difficult when I had to do the same! There is a reason why he is the trainer.
For the next few weeks my task is to continue playing with the pup to keep him happy but only to give him the ball to retrieve as a reward - either for coming straight back to the whistle or giving it back to my hand instead of my feet.
Easy then.
We shall see.
"Come back for another half hour in a month or so" said the trainer as we were leaving. What he meant was clear: 'come back when you've got these two things sorted'........