Long summer days

"Is this the longest summer you've ever known?" I asked one of the 'lads' at the Feed Merchant yesterday.

"No" I'm - just - old enough to remember 1976" he replied.

My memory may be playing tricks but it seems not quite as hot as it was then; even so the horses are nibbling parched pastures, the chickens and ducks are revelling in endless dust baths and, day after day, the pigs laze around in the sun, winter mudbaths long forgotten. Ginger's Little Spices spend ever less time with her, preferring the company - and sunshine - in the Maiden Aunts' pen next door. They still manage to wriggle between the slats of the gate but only just and will be weaned next week - in time for their appearance at the Heckington Agricultural Show the following weekend.

Despite the heat, Shows and markets also continue to beckon the Pork Provisioner. To the customer, sunshine and strong breezes are a welcome combination. To the market trader they can be a nightmare. Food for sale needs to be kept cool and I find myself wishing for heavy cloud cover every time we go to market! Not what we got last weekend.

The Future Vets and I attended Lincoln City market in glorious sunshine on Friday and did a steady trade despite Andy Murray playing at Wimbledon in the afternoon (one happy customer subsequently wrote to us commending our "Absolutely Delicious" pork pie and streaky bacon served by the "lovely people on the stall (who were) so enthusiastic and passionate about the pigs"!!!!).

Winterton Show followed over the weekend and the heat of Saturday was tempered by a terrifically gusty wind on Sunday which saw the Female Future Vet and I struggling like Mary Poppins to hang on to the tarpaulin over the market stall, despite the fact that we'd tied it to the roof rack on the car!

By mid-day, when it was threatening to lift the whole caboodle up into the air (complete with the 2 MPs), we decided to remove it. Problem solved.

Except then we had the almost worse problem of trying to keep food cool under the blazing heat of the sun. Not a happy experience. 'Specially as the majority of punters were, seemingly, content to feast on burgers and chips rather than Real Food Fresh from the Farm!!!

Oh well, can't win them all.

"But what's the Bestest Pigdog in all the world doing?" people keep asking me.

Well, having got all the little pigs under control for now he's been enjoying some R&R. Since we're into the thick of grass seed season - and particularly since dry grass seeds are The Worst - his hunting is confined to the cooler parts of the day and then its partridge and hares on the stubble or rabbits in the poppy fields ----- which he really loves.

But he will be far happier when the cool of Autumn returns and he can get back to the real business...........

Little Cherie Truffles....

Like I said - Cherie was engaged with far weightier matters than her neighbours' departure.

We had a little rain on Monday night which broke the muggy heat.

Cherie must have thought that was an auspicious sign.

She ate her breakfast as normal on Tuesday morning.

Then went back to bed.

Although Linda and I have been saying for days: "It'll be tomorrow" , Cherie's been holding on and, in fairness to The Big Boss he did say the earliest possible date was Tuesday!

We thought he was wrong.

Naturally!

I poked my head around late yesterday morning and she was - seemingly -fast asleep.

So I left her in peace.

It was nigh on 4pm when Linda chirpily announced:

"She's on her way: two piglets so far and one just on its way....."

And by the time Linda went home there were 5 little squiggly things happily nuzzling and suckling for all they were worth with Cherie making contented grunty mother sow noises........

AAAAhhhh!

And later on, as if to celebrate, there was the most glorious sunset................... isn't nature wonderful.

And since Cherie is from the Little Tots litter, we have named these (courtesy of our visiting 'going to be vets' work experience students) the Truffles.

Bye Bye Bernice

A couple of years back a breeding pair - subsequently to become known as Gavin and Stacey - left RectoryReserve for their new home over the other side of Boston.

Since when they have thrived and produced two litters.

We had a call a week or so back from the nice Mr Dennis, their Boss, asking if we could help him out with a little problem.

"I think Gavin needs another wife" he said "Seems to be getting just a little bored with just Stacey for company!" (Poor Stacey)

Well, she's a very nice sow but you can understand a boar getting 'just a little bored' and, as luck would have it we just happened to have two very nice young gilts of the right age and colour and within a few days Mr D was over here making Gavin's choice for him! (Don't suppose Gavin will mind one little bit....)

"She's already got a name" he said after selecting the larger of the two ('Better size for Gavin' he said) "Bernice..... don't know why that's been chosen but it seems a perfectly good name.... will have to Google it to be sure though!".

And so today he sent his chaps over to fetch her. She wasn't in the least bit bothered about leaving her pal and Cherie in the woods (Cherie's due to farrow any minute now so understandably her mind's on other more weighty matters). Bernice took her time and pecked at a bit of grass on the way into the trailer but once there she seemed to say "OK, so what now?".

She'll have to be quarantined for three weeks, but what a - hopefully pleasant - surprise she'll have when she meets her beau.....And what a lovely surprise Gavin will have.

Some Boss's are just too, too kind to their creatures.......

It's summer time....

The swallows were early arriving here this year but they're a fair bit later in producing their families. At present we have just two nests in the stable eaves with fledgelings in them.

This compares with last year when on 7 June I reported that the first batch were already out of their nest. No doubt it has something to do with the cold winter.

The curly coats are a little behind shedule too having only in the past week started to shed their woolly winter coats.

Linda's been busy brushing though and already we are up to 20 oz with quite a few piggies yet to experience what is undoubtedly a pleasure.

There are one or two exceptions but on the whole they all love their daily grooming and melt contentedly to the ground! The picture shows clearly which coats have and which have not been groomed. The two at the back are yet to be started. As the coat comes out the curls disappear and, initially, leave a hazy fluff - that's the stage the two in the foreground have got to -that gradually disappears too leaving just the long hairs on the neck. The rest of the coat just looks grey which is really just the colour of the skin as there's not much hair left - as can be seen on the underbelly and back ham of the nearest pig.

Meanwhile, at four weeks of age, Ginger's Spices are spending an increasing amount of time with their Aunts next door - who seem to quite enjoy their company. Ginger doesn't seem fussed: just has a snooze till they return.

The little ones charge happily to and fro through the bars of the wooden gate between the two pens.

Another week or so and they will have grown too big. Then, like Pooh and his Honey, if they eat too much, they will get stuck in the hole!

That'll cause some consternation....... Ginger's already removed one gate which she considered superfluous - her story was that she needed more space for the little ones - so no doubt she could do the same again if necessary. Whether that would be possible with a piglet stuck in the middle though is debateable!

Off to school

It's all just a tad quieter out in the Church Field pens - two of Delila's Delinquents - aka the Little Stars - have gone to school! Lyra and Hydra left here for St Lawrence's, Horncastle, last Friday and it's surprising what a difference in herd dynamics and noise the absence of two from the 10 makes!

The school has an excellent reputation locally for its work with 'special needs' children and Lyra and Hydra join a large menagerie of diverse small animals - from tortoises and hamsters to pigs and ponies. From now on they'll be hard at work, helping to teach the children about the fundamentals of life - caring, sharing, nurturing, feeding, playing and so forth. Never a dull (or quiet)moment!

In return they are housed in accommodation which is nothing if not salubrious - brick sleeping and abluting facilities and a pen full of The Important Things. That nice lady in the background will be responsible for their overall care and welfare but I suspect these are going to be two very cossetted little porkers!

Precious Moments

It's my habit to go out last thing in the evening, just before dark, to put the poultry to bed, check the piggies are ok, that the horses have their night-time ration of hay and the dogs their constitutional up the lane to the pine trees.

A quiet interlude between day and night that helps destress and detox from run-of-the-mill concerns. The dogs and I chunter round whilst owls hoot and pigeons flutter from one roost to the next.

So it was a few weeks back that I went out on the usual nightly round: couldn't help noticing some pigs were a little restless but put that down to the warmth of the evening and the phase of the moon - as one does. Having shut up the Poultry Palace I wandered nonchalantly along the yard, wondering as I did "What on earth is that funny shape in the Church Field?"

The question was soon answered; as I went to shut up the chickens in the Field pen the hazy shape came towards me through the mist and identified itself as - of course - a pig. Quickly rush back indoors to rustle up The Boss - who had by this late hour retired for the night - to help guide the wanderer back to a safe place.

Returning to the Church Field together we quickly identified the mist-shrouded ghost as Precious who, by now, was clearly intent on returning to her pen - the one she'd occupied before her sojourn with Samson...... "How the hell did she get there?" I asked incredulously.... and He went to investigate.

It soon became apparent that Precious and Samson had fallen out in A Big Way. She had legged it over the stock fence, through the dense hawthorn hedge, on to the bridleway, along said path towards home, through the dense hawthorn hedge again lower down, via the Piggies on the Mount and their Feeding Station and on down to the Church Field. Where she'd clearly gone for a bit of an exploratory trot when I first spotted her.

By now it was virtually dark and The Boss and I spent a very not-so-pleasant increasingly dark half hour or more reconstructing (which required much crawling and groping on bellies surrounded by decidedly testing thorns) the fence Precious had deconstructed. Interestingly, after an initial investigation, Samson showed no interest whatsoever in the damage to his premises!!!!! ("Glad to be rid of the old Sow" he doubtless thought).

And just when we thought we'd finished we found Precious in yet more distress: her 'old' pen abuts Mangals quarters (he'd been 'away from home' visiting Ginger during Precious's previous sojourn) and he was showing all too much interest in her.

So - much to her relief - we moved her once more - this time to The Ladies Quarters. Where she happily sighed, tucked into a light supper and then settled into the ark for the night. And there she has stayed. Contentedly wallowing, sleeping, chuntering around and generally having a quiet time whilst incubating her next little brood.

Pigs are generally easy going, laid back creatures. It must have taken a great deal of thinking and effort for her to leave Samson: to go the difficult route: to find her way back to where she wanted to be; to do that under cover of almost-dark.

What she didn't know was that we would have moved her a few days later anyway since it was Delila's turn to visit Samson.

Lesson learned?

However peaceful the moment - Never underestimate the Power of The Pig.....

Pork Provisions

It's just three years since Mangal and Wurzel, closely followed by Pepper and Ginger, arrived at The Old Rectory and inspired the creation and development of RectoryReserve. Since the first litter, born on 26 November 2007, a further eleven have entered the world - 82 sets of trotters in all.

But you can't just have piglets! Lives, movements, futures, matings etc all have to be planned and managed, strategies developed and RectoryReserve kept moving forward.

All these challenges fall in the hands of The Big Boss. Whilst some of us have fun playing with our four legged friends outside, he spends much of his life poring over ledgers, charts and documents of every description - all the stuff that enables what started as a little acorn to grow into a strong sapling...... and perhaps even a sturdy tree.

Pork provisioning was always on the agenda: at each successive Open Day an increasing number of products has become available and the range currently encompasses over 20 different items - such as sausages and bacons, joints, chops, steaks, ribs, various eat-now pasties and pies, charcuterie such as air-dried ham and Warst (a traditional Terrine-type delicacy) and, of course, our unique Gourmet chocolate.

Until recently,the main way of delivering these goodies to our customers was via the Open Days but The Boss's strategy for this year is taking us out and about to Local Farmer's Markets and various Foodie events around the county. The Country Adventures mentioned in an earlier blog!

Thus it is that almost every week RectoryReserve's stall is set up at some venue or other - most recently the local racecourse, a Walking Festival and a Country Estate feature weekend - enabling an increasing number of people to join the curly coat pigs' fan club!

But you can't just "turn up" to market! We're on a very steep learning curve. Which items will sell and in what quantities is one mystery, how many people with how different expectations will turn up is another. No two occasions are the same. In England the weather naturally plays a big part. The Boss, wet cloth ever present over his head, tries to take into account all the possible vagaries and options when provisioning but it's an uncertain science nonetheless! Records are being kept though and hopefully over the next few months a pattern will develop which will inform next year's strategy. Meanwhile, the Adventure continues..................

No grass growing under little trotters here: 'Onwards and upwards' as they say!