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!

Following in the family traditions....

It's become our habit to give each new litter a generic name - Chefs,Tots, Nuts, Gems, Stars etc - then naming the individuals accordingly within the group. Hence, Ginger's latest litter are named The Spices - we have Cayenne and Paprika for the red pair and Cumin and Coriander for the blondes.

She's been keeping them fairly close to home most of the time, but piglets will be piglets and despite her best attempts the little Spices have been exploring the world outside their pen.... which is easy at their age - like their prececessors, they just walk through the fence! Despite our efforts to stop them --- note the roof tiles this side of the fence which we put there thinking that might deter them.... but despite their young age they just push them over and walk through.........

It's difficult to know from this picture whether Ginger is telling the last one to go or stay but clearly Gunner is in control of the situation on the other side of the fence. He just posts himself on guard and the little ones go no further! He does nothing but look and eventually they trot back home to mum.....

Excellent pig dog!

And then it all got busy.....

Just when a chap mentions peace and quiet, things get a little more hectic! Sunday saw us selling our wares at the Country Day at our local race course. Here's The Big Boss looking every inch the Pork Provisioner!

Which is clearly what a lot of the punters thought because they happily bought all our Spicey and Pork Pies and a fair proportion of Lincolnshire Pasties, Pork and Game Pasties and Boars in Blankets. Trade was a little slower on the bacon, hams and gammon but that's not really what people go to the races for so maybe it's not such a surprise.

We'll be taking part in a number of similar Country 'Adventures' over the coming weeks - each of them a bit of a leap in the dark as far as guessing what it is people will want to purchase so The Boss is now wandering around with the proverbial wet cloth over his head trying to work out the logistics...... Not a pretty sight.....

Meanwhile, Ginger was looking suspiciously like she would deliver her piglets whilst we were away on Sunday but she chose to hang on a little longer.... Linda had taken a bet at 7/1 that she'd deliver today but we half expected to find a note waiting for us telling us of the happy event.... She was out and about as normal for breakfast on Monday and, as is her wont, went back to her ark afterwards for a little snooze. She didn't appear for tea so I peered over the fence and saw a tiny ear twitching... when I went up to have a closer look I found her contentedly grunting whilst four little stripey things noisily suckled. They were quite lively already so I'd guess she delivered them soon after lunch! I was a little surprised to see only 4, but relieved that there were not 10 of them.......

Things were not so peaceful when I went out last thing in the evening to check everything and shut up the Poultry.....

"Funny?" I thought to myself .

"The weaners aren't usually out and about and making a noise so late in the evening." And Ginger was making a great deal more noise with her new family than I thought was absolutely normal. Then when I shut up the Poultry Palace I noticed that the Puddings and Delila were all a bit restless too. Most unusual.

It was as I was going along the yard checking the horses that I glimpsed a grey shadow trotting along the Church Field.

"Funny shaped deer!" I thought.

When I shut up the chickens in the Field pen I realised that the deer in the fast fading light was in fact a pig! Trotting merrily up and down.

Panic!

Rush up to house and fetch Boss who was on his way up to bed. And out we go. Transpires the wandering pig was Precious: would seem she and Samson had a major difference of opinion and she legged it over the fence (breaking down two fence posts en route- well, she's a large lady) and out on to the bridleway, eventually finding her way back through the hedge (we surmise)and down - via Mangal's food station - to the Church Field where, by the time we caught up with her, she was lingering by the gate to her old pen. Which we opened and in she trotted.

And stayed whilst we went in the now fast encroaching darkness to fix the broken fence before Samson, who actually wasn't showing the slightest inclination to do so, decided to wander off in search of his dearly departed. The repair job was hampered by the fact that the repairer had to crawl on belly and elbows under the dense hawthorn hedge in order to reach the broken fence posts.... Precious's route had clearly been through the thinnest part of the hedge... unfortunately the broken posts were the other side of the densest part.... That sod Murphy again......

Job done we then had to move Precious out of her old pen because it's next to Mangal and he was showing far more interest in her than either she or we wished...... that entailed moving a few other pigs around. Finally as darkness fell and the moon rose high in the sky we retired for the night... silently hoping that all our 4-legged family would still be in the correct places in the morning....... As can be seen from Precious's demeanour at breakfast this morning, she at least was contented and well rested!

Never a dull moment......

Peace and too much quiet

It's been a quiet weekend. Of a Kind.

Friday, as ever, was Moving Day. Sunday was Open day. Friday first.

Ever since they'd been unable to roam at will, Delila's Delinquents had been giving her a hard time and she was looking really lean. So it was decided to wean them a week or so earlier than we would otherwise have done.

Bouyed by our success when weaning Precious from her Little Gems, we approached Delila's Little Stars with the same plan: using tasty morsels, separate mum from piglets and when she's pre-occupied, pick up piglets one by one and place them in the trailer.

It worked wonderfully - for the first two Little Stars.

The third one squealed and squealed and squealed.

The plan fell apart.

Then the rain poured down.

Delila became preoccupied in a different way --- with keeping us all away from her babes. It became pretty chaotic after that. Piglets scooting every way but the one we wanted. Delila being as obtrusive as possible. Con tripped over backwards, fortunately clutching a hurdle which scotched Delila's desire to push him into her extremely muddy wallow. Linda found herself esconced for a while in the ark clutching a piglet while Delila ranted outside. It took us a goodly while to collect up each and every lively piglet, whilst avoiding her wrath. Eventually though they were all in the trailer and we were all very hot and bothered.

The rain stopped. The sun came out. Delila tucked into her food bowl, seemingly forgetting all about her piglets. They had a short trailer ride to the Stalls. Ran out into their new 'home' and eagerly - like the Delinquents they are - started running around examining and inspecting everything and playing tag and chucking straw around -- and tucking into their tea without The Big Snout shoving them out of the way....... and then, realising they were not really all that hungry they started running around the place, chewing and tasting and sniffing everything and everywhere all over again ...... And then collapsed into a big Piglet Pile and fell asleep. Miss their Mum? Didn't seem to. Not a bit.

She on the other hand - after she'd finished her tea - did the obligatory '20 minute missing-my-piglets' bit, for the next 48 hours. In no uncertain way she let us know that whilst peace and quiet was quite nice, she really didn't want it. Not yet.

"Nothing for it but to give her back a piglet" I said to the Big Boss.

"Wait a bit longer" he said.

Of course, Delila woke up the next morning and was fine and started enjoying being spoiled with extra titbits and as much food as she wants. Meanwhile, the Little Stars have been happily dividing their time between playing piglet games and dreaming piglet dreams.

Which they did almost undisturbed throughout the whole of Sunday. On any other Open Day they'd have been subjected to a constant stream of "Ooohs" and "Aaaaahs" but this one was like no other in that we had only the smallest handful of visitors and it was all just a tad quieter than we are used to on such occasions. In the end, we put it down to the current political and economic climate. The pervading national mood is enough to put the dampers on anything.

Fortunately animals are oblivious to such things. When the rest of the world is going crazy and life seems just a little too serious animals provide the very best pick-me-up of all. Absolute Peace and Quiet.

Chuck's family

I kept referring to my 'duck-chick' so we decided to call him Chuck.

But on Wednesday I had to be away for much of the day so I didn't see him at all and the next day I didn't see him either.

Sadly I resigned myself to the idea that he'd "gone" and that was it.

What a surprise to open up the Poultry Palace on Friday morning and see Chuck happily running around amidst all the other birds.

Briefly.

Quick as a flash he disappeared back behind the straw bale to the nest where he'd hatched.

On Saturday morning when I opened up there he was again - but he wasn't alone this time.....trotting along with him were two ducklings and then a loudly-quacking duck gave the order and off they all went with their 'mummy' to the water tray outside!

Amazing! The ducklings and Chuck waddled out and about together - although Chuck couldn't get the point about wet feet and paddling so he gave that a miss!

And then it was back with Mum to the Poultry Palace for some food before all of them retreated to the nest again. I don't know which is more incredible. That the duck hatched a chick, or that she 'kept' him in the nest or that the ducklings and the chick are obviously of the opinion that they are family!

Needless to say, I can't help checking on them at frequent intervals; it's just as likely that Chuck is wandering around the Pountry Palace on his own as with his family but he's not running around after all the other ducks anymore. Now he's got his family his confusion has disappeared.

Isn't nature wonderful!!!