Window Dressing

I've long suspected Ginger of being a closet Prima Donna - what with making up to the cameras, and bringing up the Little Ones to be stars of Radio, Print and Screen and all that.
But she's gone a bit over the top this time......seems she's finally decided to 'out' herself. Is this a sign of maturity in the sow? Something to do with the Autumn Equinox... or maybe Thanksgiving..... or just the continuing ruminations of an exquisite porcine mind?
Who knows?
But when we went out to do breakfast last Wednesday we were (dumb) struck by a modification to Madam's living quarters. It would seem that having a big South facing door at the front of the ark and a small North facing ventilation opening at the rear of the ark was inadequate.
We all know that a Room with a View is the ultimate must-have for a Home of Distinction. So, with the long nights having arrived and piglets not being exactly the most exciting of companions for an intelligent female, Ginger set about turning her snout to some minor modifications to the accommodation.
Actually - quite a major modification..... she decided to destruct (couldn't call it construction really) a window through which she could lie a-bed of a morning (or any time of day, come to that) and stare out at the view across the Wolds to the distant Cathedral and valley..... And which would afford her a good view of the dying embers of each day as she grunts bedtime (pig)tails to the Little Ones.
And, since it faces his direction also, she can gaze admiringly on Mangal as he goes about his daily business --- maybe she pines for him a little.... and she can keep an eye on him to make sure he's ok whilst she's bring up his latest offspring.........
I don't know what goes on in her mind but clearly she wanted a window just there.
Just as clearly (to us) the window needed glazing to keep the cold and the rain out. So that was Con's first job when he turned up on Friday.
Muttering something like "In all my life I've never been asked to put a window in a Pig Ark before!" he went about it in his usual conscientious fashion and in no time at all Ginger's Pad turned into a DesRes.
I will not be surprised if this is not the last window to be made in an Ark at Rectory Reserve......... and meanwhile the little piglets think it's just wonderful that Mum has provided a little more light for their indoor games........ Thoughtful to the last, that's Ginger....

Gifts from afar!

"We've just received a parcel from Hungary" said the Big Boss in bemusement this morning when he came out to the stables - where I was mucking out the horses prior to a day's Bush Beating with The Bestest Gundog in all The World - at 0815.

"Uh?" I said "Surely the post hasn't arrived already?"

"Nope" he replied "It was delivered by a nice young Hungarian man"

"That's a bit of a coincidence!" I retorted.

"A nice young man, in a van, direct from Hungary.." he spelt out.. (Well - how bright are you first thing in the morning???).

It seems the young man in question delivers all sorts of stuff from Hungary to Great Britain every fortnight. So Mangalitza products direct from a Hungarian Mangalitza producer door-to-door.... Would you believe it?!

He apologised to The Boss for the rather battered box but said it got buried under a lot of other

things in the van and he didn't realise it was Fragile.... Actually, if you look very closely at the writing on the box, I'm more inclined to believe that Somebody, Somewhere-along-the-line just wanted to check that The Nice Young Man wasn't exporting (or importing) illegal cigarettes.... But that's just my view.

Anyway, returning home at the end of an arduous day in the field, my nostrils were overwhelmed by the powerful aroma of Hungarian Smoked Sausages emanating from the house - even before I walked through the door.

What are we going to do with them all? Ahh, well, that's a tale for another day! It's certainly going to be fun tasting them!!!

Talking of moving...

The view from our bedroom window when we awoke and opened our eyes last Thursday morning was truly ethereal..... all the fields were bathed with an eerily golden-reddish glow: the stubble was as if on fire, the beech hedge as if back-lit by some wayward camera man..... the sort of truly amazing sunrise that just makes you glad to be alive. Leaping out of bed I grabbed my camera to record the moment.

The Big Boss, pragmatic as ever, commented that :

"If we're in for some decent days we should plan to wean Delila's piglets tomorrow when everyone's about....."

But we all know the old adage: "....Red sky in the morning shepherd's warning..." and the gale blew ever stronger and stronger during the day - cancelling all sorts of other activities -so we did wonder if the Friday plans would materialise......

Sure enough though, when The Bestest Gundog in all the World (who'd retrieved - on his own - 7 birds shot by a single gun on the first drive of the day) and I returned from our day's work we found The Team already in action......

.... Clyde had already been separated from Alfred and moved to the woods......

We were just in time to help separate the piglets from Delila.

Easy peasy. Gave her some food and she promptly forgot about them! Their curiosity (and maybe the smell of food) led them straight up to, and in to, the trailer and away they were before she even noticed. Back to collect her and she went straight into the trailer too..... and we dropped her off in the woods - just before dark - with young Clyde.

And nobody's had any peace and quiet since..... but more of that later!

Meanwhile the weanlings seem to be enjoying their (temporary)new, clean life in the stalls without mum..... they're such a healthy, roly poly bunch (even One Eyed Jack) that I'm thinking of naming them after puddings..... Hmmmmm .... will have to consult with Linda on that.....

On the news and on the move - again

"Oh my gawd - what's going on!?" exclaimed the Big Boss in dazed shock when he came round from his slumbers in the semi darkness early yesterday morning..... "What are those pigs doing in here?" .... And then he recognised the image of himself and slowly comprehension began to dawn..... the pigs weren't really in the bedroom....they were pressing their snouts up against the fence but they were just on TV ...Yes. They'd made the News again. What's more it was the local news. The piece was about small businesses weathering the recession and, as He said to that nice young man who came to interview him for the item last week, "Going from one breeding sow to four breeding sows in just two years", was certainly an indication of growth...... And the local News repeats at half hourly intervals for three hours during the morning with a longer slot at lunch time and an even longer slot during the evening! Delighted with the publicity... although He found it a bit disconcerting when he went shopping later in the day---- What was worse? Those that immediately recognised him or those who couldn't remember why they recognised him!!!?

So on to more down to earth matters today. Picking up Bonnie and Lotos from their summer home at The Butterfly Park and transporting them up to their new home and future husband -the handsome JD who left Rectory Reserve just three weeks ago.

Despite the raging gales we arrived at The BP in good time expecting to have to spend a little time coercing the two young ladies to leave their summer quarters and enter the trailer... But not a bit of it... "You want us to go in there? No Problem. Where to next?" they seemed to say and were loaded before Yours Truly could even get the camera out! We tidied the

(unnecessary) hurdles back into the trailer, had a long catch-up chat with the charming Mr Cross and departed in good time for the North of the County.

The weather blustered and poured but still we made good progress and arrived at The New Home just ahead of schedule.

Bonnie and Lotos had no hesitation in leaving the trailer for their new quarters and happily and inquisitively chuntered around their new (quarantine) pen that JD had not long before been moved from. Their new Boss, young Keith, has installed electric around the bottom of his

fences and this gave the girls some nasty shocks... time and again a nose or a bottom or a belly bumped into the Stingy Thing and time and again they squealed ---- and we all jumped even though we knew they would squeal.....

"In a day or so they'll have learned" said Keith "and we'll be able to turn the electric off....." I sighed in relief (for them of course!).

And then we went along to say "Hi" to JD. He did spare a few seconds to come over and give us a "I think I remember you" sniff but then he was quickly back to Serious Business. Keith suspects that Oscar, his Saddleback boar, has not mated with one of his sows and hoped that by putting JD in the pen alongside, Oscar would be spurred into renewing his acquaintance with said sow. He hadn't bargained on JD being quite so vigorous in his attempts to make Oscar jealous nor was he aware of his ability to mount a challenge!

The Big Boss completed the formalities and exchange of papers in double quick time saying that he thought "The sooner we leave, the sooner" Keith and his mate Dave could install some electric wire on JD's side of the fence before JD took it upon himself to climb over it and into Oscar's pen

with the ladies.......

As I said, we left quickly with The Big Boss muttering something along the lines of "I think they underestimate the determination of the Mangalitza male....". Let's hope they were just as speedy in their remedial work........

In the News again!

No sooner had Ginger delivered her latest brood than the previous litter were in the news again. The three film stars made their debut on National TV the week before last and the local press were keen to run the story......naturally.

The programme runs for 10 weeks. In the first two parts our little stars made quality (rather than quantity) cameo appearances. We are hopeful that by the end of the series the great British public will be treated to sufficient glimpses of their antics and experiences with Janet Street-Porter that they will be left in no doubt as to their superiority above all other rare breeds (... I know.... but I am allowed to be slightly biased!). If you want to learn more go to the F-Word site and look for Series 5 which includes J S-P's blog of her F-Word role and a short video of her with the Curly Coats...... If you Can't find it that way, key in http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/f-word/series-5/janet-s-blog-week-2_p_1.html

Ginger's Armistice Tribute

Tuesday evening, as we were settling down for dinner, the Big Boss mentioned that Ginger was 'nesting' at tea time.

"So? Did you give her some clean straw?" I enquired

"No - it's early days yet" he replied "We'll give her some in the morning"

Well... "in the morning" was just a little too late. It was suspiciously quiet when I took the new straw at breakfast time.....

"Not surprising" I thought when I peered inside the ark.... piglets already arrived!

In typical Ginger fashion, she'd just got on with it when nobody was looking.

And here they are at just one day old - already out and about and inquisitive about what Mum's up to and what's in her bowl. No fuss, no nonsense, no bother.

Just six little wriggly piglets bouncing around in the weak November sunshine.

AAAhhhh. What a star she is.

And even at such an early stage, still shivery and wobbly, the little ones are already shovelling up dirt and straw and anything else which gets under their little snouts.....

Think we'll have to name them after war heroes or famous battles........

Last call.....

The Indian Summer has been responsible for a number of unusual phenomena this autumn - amazingly red apples in the orchard, the best harvest of damsons in years, beautiful leaf shades in the woods and hedgerows, grass still growing in October, the driest September/October combined...... Here at RectoryReserve we have had a few strange occurrences of our own - extremely late hatching swallows and a litter of 10 Mangalitza piglets (unheard of) to name but two.
But to cap it all, one of the call ducks decided she had enough time to hatch another brood and duly 'popped' this little group of 7 on Sunday 25th October! Had she done that last year at the same time they would surely have frozen to death. She must have known well in advance that it would be OK (laying an egg a day for at least 14 days and then 28 more to sit on them!) - clever thing. Having had only two ducklings survive from the earlier broods in the year I was determined to try and save more of this hatching. Luckily, it being Pigs-to-the-Big-Butcher day that Sunday, I was up and out early and so spotted them first thing before mum could march them all out to the pond behind my back! (Which is what they usually do and then half of them fall over on their backs and get squashed en route).
I quickly scooped the little ones up and put them in a box and then waited for the mother to make a lot of noise so that I could identify which one was the mother.... which she certainly did. So I managed to scoop her up and put her in a box too. Then moved them all to the broody coop.
At which point the mother duck decided "enough" and waddled at a rate of knots into the nest box end, totally disowning her brood. Ducks really can be such bad mothers! So I shooed her out. She waddled back. I shooed her out again. She waddled back again. So I shooed her out and blocked the hatchway. That got her. She spent about another half hour pretending the little ones were nothing to do with her. But then she did a complete volte face ...... next thing I knew she was huddling them all under her and covering them with her wings. Where they stayed for the rest of the day. By the time it got to evening and I opened up the hatch to the nest box, she was in there with them in no time and for the next week disappeared back in there with them everytime I appeared on the horizon!
But now, 10 days later, they are well grown and strong enough to be out and about in the nursery pen.... she still hides them as soon as she sees me but it takes her a little longer each time so I hope to have a photo of the 'growing up' ducklings in a day or two.
Meanwhile I am just relieved that there are still 7 of them........