Change is in the air.....

Wurzel, Brother to Mangal, our Founding Boar

Pepper, brother to Ginger, our Founding Sow

      














   "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another."
                 Anatole France
                 The Crime of  Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)



 
  Since 13 June 2007 this blog has enabled us to share with readers our experiences with the animals who populate this wild  woolly corner of Lincolnshire which we affectionately call RectoryReserve. Many of the stories have concerned our curly coated Mangalitza pigs. Ever since they first arrived here in April of that year they have framed and directed much of our activity. When the first two, Mangal & Wurzel, arrived we had no idea what they would lead us into. Even when we decided to "breed a litter" and brought Ginger & Pepper here, we were not aware of how our lives would be altered by their presence.
But altered they have been. From Mangal & Ginger we bred not just one but some 13 or 14 litters. They were joined by Samson and his wives and, later, Black Banana and his wives.  Many curly coats came and went, some to breeding homes elsewhere, some to 'show' homes in and out of the county and some to their final destination. We retained a herd of 3 boars and 6 sows which produced 12 litters a year - some 70-90 piglets between them. That is not many compared with commercial herds of 100's, if not 1000's, but for us it was A LOT.

Ginger with her 2nd Litter in May 2008

 We had a lot of fun. We tried very hard at the beginning to keep the piglets in with their mothers but after 3 or 4 litters we learned that we were battling against a strong force of nature. Piglets will always find a way to wander ..... 
After that it was piglet pandemonium as they free-ranged everywhere much to the astonishment of visitors, who encountered them wandering up our drive, and complete strangers who were disconcerted to bump into, or be followed by, piglets tumbling along the bridleway which borders RectoryReserve!!! 

Samson Nov. 2010 preparing a snow wallow

It wasn't just piglets who wandered! Older herd members would occasionally take it into their heads to go trotabout.... some were easier than others to persuade back 'home'. One memorable occasion was when Precious, a favourite sow, decided late one evening that she had had enough of Samson, her boar, and left him; via the high fence & ancient hedge separating our property from the bridleway. She found her way via a long and circuitous route back to the Church Field: where I saw her happily mooching about when I did my late night check! I doubt I shall ever forget the sight of her trotting happily back to me through the almost-dark night and made it clear she just wanted to get back to her own pen and ark!

Our drive Dec 2010

 More fun was had during the winter of 2010/11. Three horses, circa 80 pigs and 50 or so assorted poultry depended on us for every drop or water through I cannot remember how many frozen days and nights. 
The countryside looked moody, romantic, christmas card pretty but with livestock it was a nightmare! Well, almost!

Just a little mud!

The only source of water was the house. Three times a day we carried containers of hot - because cold would freeze before we reached the animals - water, on foot, to our 'family'.  Definitely character-building!!! At least the snow was pretty.  If you have outdoor pigs the other 'thing' you are going to experience is Mud. Not just ordinary mud. But serious mud. Curly coated pigs are active creatures. They rootle and mooch all day long. And they wallow. They are also very friendly! Throughout the wet months - which we do seem to have a lot of - they are experts at making, gathering and flinging mud everywhere.  I hadn't realised how exceedingly muddy one could become when dealing with livestock!!! For so long....... Mud affects everything else of course: walking is twice as difficult, vehicles get stuck so every task becomes 'manual' , mud sticks so everything is twice as heavy to carry or move.... etc etc. There have been times in the past 8 years when I have gone to bed at night dreading going out in the mud again the next day!

Food.....

Then there is the Food.
From the beginning we were passionate about bringing the delicious products from our Mangalitzas to the great British public. To that end we have marketed a vast range of goodies from the not-so-humble pork pie to the deliciously sybaritic air-dried ham. We have supplied famous hotels, attended small and large farmers markets, food festivals, game and country fairs and even a special Jubilee party for the Queen. It has been entertaining, gruelling, eye-opening, challenging, fun and hard work.     Looking back to 'life before pigs' neither of us would have guessed at the experiences we would gather  throughout our 'life with pigs'. We wouldn't have missed it for the world. 

...glorious food

Given 20 years in our favour we would have moved into a serious growth spurt last year. Mortality is a wicked teacher though; we realised instead that we no longer have that time, or its accompanying energy, to 'grow'.  
Last year was a difficult year in many ways; not least because we said goodbye to our boars and sows (except for Delila and Andromeda who remain). This has been the first year since 2007 that we have not been surrounded by piglets. It has been strange - and sad. 
 This winter will be our last with the curly coats, going to 'market', dealing with the admin., mud and all the activities we have grown accustomed to. 
Our goal of building a future for the Curly Coated Mangalitzas and their delicious 'products' has, hopefully, been secured. With luck, the next generation - at least in these parts - will recognise and appreciate this rare and beautiful breed.

RectoryReserve, and this blog, will continue without them. People ask us "what" we will "do" without pigs. How can we know? When the space is there, something will move in to fill it.....
Watch this space...................

 

Welcome Skipper

 Meet Skipper .....
He is beautifully bred: he is.....
 - Gunner's Grandson
 - Gunner's daughter Nell is his mother
 - Nell is Bugler'ssister
 - So Bugler is his Uncle
 - and Jaunty is his dad
 ...................................

 Needless to say we greeted him with mixed emotions.
But I believe he knows that.
He is more his grandad than he realises....
Already he chews the furniture his grandad chewed.....
and chews rug corners like his grandad did.
But: weight of expectations or no - he is definitely his own person......

That said, having had a role in his selection, I think Gunner approves.
This was the sunset on Monday night after we brought Skipper home.
Fanciful or not..... the spirits speak on......
Let's all watch how he grows ......

Four Feet

I have done mostly what most men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can't forget, if I wanted to,
Four feet trotting behind.

Day after day, the whole day through -

Wherever my road inclined -
Four Feet said, "I am coming with you"
and trotted along behind.

Now I must go by some other round -
Which I shall never find -
Somewhere that does not carry the sound
Of Four Feet trotting behind.

                                            Rudyard Kipling

Medical Update

 Late on Wednesday afternoon David, our vet, rang with results from Gunner's blood tests.

Unfortunately the red cell count is down still further - from 4.0 to 2.7. The numbers don't say much to me but David (our vet) says that's a big drop in just a month. No wonder Gunner is feeling so weak.

He asked the lab to do some extra work to confirm whether or not his red cells are regenerating. If they were we could give him a course of B12 injections, which would help fight the anaemia.
Unfortunately the lab confirmed to the contrary so there's no point giving B12. However, the low count could, apparently, indicate that he's picked up a viral infection. He's now on a 10 day course of antibiotics so hopefully they will help him.
Meanwhile, tho' he looks pale and moves at a steady trot rather than his old running around and bounding self, he still wants to join in whatever is going on.... like this afternoon with #TeamGunner group training. He looks at me most accusingly if I don't include him so I have to give him 'tasks' to do too..... making them close ones so he doesn't have to run too far without giving away that I am deliberately giving him the 'easier' options........
I don't think he's fooled...... he's just humouring me.....

Merry meanderings # 19 The Understudy

Jaunty & brother Sept.2012

 One of Gunner's twitterpals @Sjnwoh asked if maybe I could tell a few stories to illustrate how norty Jaunty is. Or maybe why I call him the Norty... or, latterly, the Not-so-Norty.

It's only fair to start with a bit of context.

Gunner & Jaunty Oct 12

As soon as Gunner started working as a bushbeating dog he was 'marked' by a number of colleagues as a potential mate for their bitches. At 18 months he was too young but when he got to three years old, 4 serious proposals came forward. Since they were all working girls the timing was critical. Their 'dads' obviously didn't want the girls to miss the working end of the year so we were dependent on them coming into 'season' out of 'season'! In his 4th year those two circumstances did not occur! In his 5th year one of the possible mates sadly suffered a heart attack on the very last day of the shooting season. That year also our local shoot - the first we worked on - closed down; one of the bitches' dads worked on this shoot and he decided the future was too uncertain for him to breed another pup. Exit wife number 2.  Wife number 3 was the wonderful Meg - Bugler's mother - but that year she failed to 'take' on mating and had a phantom pregnancy.
Omens were not good.
Gunner was already 5. I was keen to have a pup who would understudy, and eventually take over from, him when got to an age where beating wasn't going to be the best option.

Gunner and Jaunty Oct 12

Clearly this mating business was too uncertain and time was passing.....  Gunner and I were not getting any younger!!!

Laundry maid Nov 2012

Taking the bull by the horns I decided to buy a pup. For the first time ever I looked into breeding 'lines' and pedigrees - and googled what litters were available. It had to be in 2012 - I wasn't prepared to wait another year! There were only 2 possibilities. One was in Cumbria; pups sounded good but a long way off from us. The other was in Norfolk - not far from my mother. Useful. I went to visit; they were just 2 weeks old. I went back 3 more times before finally deciding which of the two black & white brothers (in the first photo) to have. Jaunty just had a little extra something about him!!!! On October 21st 2012 we fetched him home. He was the perfect puppy. As soon as we arrived home I put the blanket he'd travelled in on my lap into his crate... he followed and immediately it was "his place". (Contrast with Bugler who had to be cajoled and persuaded into his - or Gunner even, who never ever settled in his). Jaunty would happily stay in there, eat his dinner in there, sleep in there all night long... he still happily spends a lot of time and takes his 'treasures' or dinner in there.... He wasn't particularly difficult to housetrain - although sometimes he simply 'couldn't be bothered' to do the right thing. I went

Ahhhh - so innocent & helpless Nov 2012

through a lot of newspaper and he didn't get beyond the kitchen until he was about 9 months old. He learned quickly though and was lovable to have around - everything was worthy of closer examination!!!! He got on well with Gunner and would follow him around everywhere, snuggling down when the opportunity arose. I don't remember him ever being an 'ear' nuisance. He was such a character that I started a file: "Things about Jaunty" -
- He chases leaves
- He tries to catch snowflakes
- He looks for the snowflakes when they fall on the snow

 "What's going on over there?"

 

- He stopped at the first sniff of new mown grass....
etc etc

I was confident that He would be the perfect Understudy; his pedigree was almost entirely red for all 5 generations; he was energetic, intelligent, lovable and keen.  He and Gunner got on really well with each other....
The future looked rosey.  They're both good looking dogs and would make a handsome pair .....
My expectations were high......

Me and my pal Gunner 11.12

 When Jaunty was 6 months old, Wife Number 4 came back to visit Gunner.
This time Meg has a faultless pregnancy and delivered 6 bouncing pups. That's timing for you. There was never any doubt that we would have one of the pups. The long awaited son of Gunner,
Bugler was born April 23 2013 (the same day that wife no 5 came to mate with Gunner. Molly delivered 9 pups but since she was not a working girl I never considered having one of them).  He came to live with us at the end of June. Jaunty took to him straight away and they soon became a team - known as "the pups" ever since.

A few months later I started referring to them as #TeamGunner.... and making all sorts of plans..............................

"How is Gunner?"

 We've had so much support from all Gunner's pals around the world on Twitter.
One of his followers suggests that there is a power in the combined spirit which supports us through hard times and I am beginning to believe that.
He's certainly amazed me.
It's almost a month since the Big C diagnosis. That day in Grimsby I really thought that, with so much rubbish going on inside him, he wouldn't be with us for more than a few days - a week at most.

 Yet here he is- pulling at my heartstrings more as each day goes by.
Anyway.... we went back to our vet this morning. I'm very lucky in not having had anything to do with cancer before now. I needed some reassurance about how to best look after my old pal.
As we walked through the door into his consulting room the vet said:
"I was only thinking about Gunner yesterday: to be honest I'm surprised to see him at all, never mind looking so 'well'"
It seemed that the report from the Grimsby specialist had made him believe (as it did me) that Gunner was not long for this world!

 David (our very sympatico vet) checked him all over: I mentioned a 'gunky ear' which had suddenly developed but which I'd cleaned up - much to Gunner's annoyance - on Sunday. He has a bit of infection - the steroids weaken the immune system so anything nasty that's going will take hold quicker. Note to myself to keep a closer eye on him - which will annoy him too cos he's not a dog that likes any sort of fuss!
Too bad Hey? He'll really love the Eardrops twice a day!!
The other thing I was not liking is the 'dandruff'

which he has developed. This too is down to the steroids.
I asked about bathing with baby shampoo. Gunner's face fell.
Luckily David also poo-pooed that idea.
"Give him fish oil and Evening Prrimrose oil; they have a dynamic interaction which will help  his immune system and his skin..."
The things we learn from our dogs.......
On the plus side, despite his bony appearance, Gunner's weight has remained much the same and 2 or 3 meals a day will 'do no harm'. He liked that bit!
His heart is beating strongly and his lungs are working better than expected. Having always been a fit and healthy dog is definitely working in his favour.......
David has taken some blood; "It's thin but still has a good colour" - we should get results back later tomorrow or Thursday morning....
We'll have a better idea then how he is getting on.....

Meanwhile, we carry on as 'normal' as we can. Gunner still enjoys his Struns (think strollxrun), his hunting instinct is not diminished if his energy and speed are! Main change is that, now if he finds some manky bit of rabbit or bird in the undergrowth, he is inclined to eat it rather than bring it straight to me as he's always done in the past.
That's the steroids again though - making him constantly hungry.
Ah well, we can't have everything......