The other side of the coin....

Ginger January 2014

So, the good news is that the little piglets have been weaned. All is now peaceful and quiet and, amazingly, they have adapted instantly to life indoors, happily eating their way through however much feed and veg. we care to put their way.
The sad news is that, after 7 years and 13 litters, we have had to say 'good bye' to Ginger, their mum. It was not an easy decision. She was our first sow.... regular readers will recall the day she had her first litter.... totally unplanned and unbeknownst to us.
"What do you mean 'She's got piglets'!" the Big Boss exclaimed.
"She's got piglets" I repeated. "What do we do now?"
"Don't ask me" he replied "I haven't read that chapter yet!".

Ginger and first litter 18/12/07

Born on 26/11/07, this first litter was followed as regular as clockwork by 2 more each following year.
She and Mangal were devoted to each other. We thought after her litter in May this year that 12 was enough and we would stop subjecting her to the rigours of bringing up yet more little ones. In the commercial world, a sow would only have maybe 4 or 5 litters in total.
Ginger, however, had other ideas and broke through the fence from her pen to get back to Mangal. She couldn't break through his gate so I found her the next morning lying outside it, waiting patiently for it to be opened. It's still a mystery why, having broken out of her pen, she didn't feel inclined to break into his. Etiquette?  Whatever! The fact was that when the hormones got to work, she was driven to return to Mangal.
Similarly, he has always been a one-sow-boar. There was never a successful outcome when we tried to mate him with another female; after 2 or 3 'experiments' we gave up. He seemed content to while away the weeks and months whilst Ginger was bringing up their offspring, knowing that she would inevitably return again one day and the fun would start all over again!  Like elephants, who can hear each others rumblings from great distances, the pair of them would gruntle to each other whatever space divided them so were never really alone.... they rhythm of their lives as regular as the seasons and not nearly as complicated!

Ginger & Pepper May 2007

Ginger's last day with us was gloriously sunny: she had no reason to suspect a dark cloud hung over us.
Gone, maybe.
Forgotten? Never