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.....