Moving Mrs Merkel

 It's summer and it's holiday time and, unusually for here, it's been the 'right weather'... so not a lot's been goin' on ....we've been relaxing and taking stock....and then out of the blue, we hear that Moses, whom we sold as a young stud a couple of years back (and a very handsome young chap he was too) needs a new wife and do we have a "suitable candidate". Well, I don't believe in arranged marriages but, on the other hand, we don't want to think of a young boar going without......
So Mrs Merkel is to be his new young wife. She's got a little bit of experience. She and Banana had a lovely litter of 6 earlier this year and now, with luck, she is in pig to him again.
Her new boss is a bit busy with harvest so will collect her when he has a gap in the combine calendar - depending on the weather that could be at very short notice.. We decided it would be easiest if she were in the barn then he could collect her any time of day.
We were going to pop her in the trailer to move her. "I think we could run her down" said Linda as I arrived at the pen with the trailer..... "She's so keen on her food I think she'd just follow the bowl down....."
"OK" I said "If you feel confident"... and I turned off  the car engine and waited for Linda to open the gate and let Mrs Merkel out.

It all went well to start with. Linda, with a bowl filled with food, tempted Mrs Merkel to follow. Which she did. But the sow was the quicker of the two...and soon overtook.
"Uh Oh - maybe this wasn't such a good idea" laughed Linda with a slight hint of panic in her voice.....
Mrs Merkel was clearly determined to make the most of her little run-around.... no point having freedom if you don't use it.. so she ran round the side of the house (with Linda and feedbowl following), along the front of the garages, over to Ginger's domain, down to the chickens and................ eventually into the barn... co-erced by the sight of The Big Boss blocking off the track down to the fields and maybe another hurdle or two placed at strategic points......  at least twice the distance she needed to have covered......
Banana in the meantime didn't even lift his head from his feedbowl to say 'goodbye'............ probably thinks "Oh - she's gone..... peace and quiet before the next one turns up......". Hard life being a boar......

The boys are out...

It was Heckington Show last weekend. We were there again (our 6th year) with Ginger & Mangal's last lot of weaners  === the three girls, together with Linda, entertained the enormous crowds throughout the two days. I am not sure who was the more tired by the end of Sunday - certainly Linda was a little bit hoarse and the girls loaded and unloaded without a moment's hesitation! I'd guess it was level pegging......  It was also our 2nd year in the food court; we elected to be outside as it was so very hot and stuffy in the deli marquee last year. It may not have been the best decision as we were surrounded by hot food vendors (we had originally planned to cook as well but things changed!) and come 11.00 am the queues for those were so long they totally obscured our stall........  As it turned out, we didn't do too badly but it'll be an interesting decision to make next year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the male weaners were left in the old stalls so they could get used to being without their litter sisters. This afternoon though we decided it was time to put them out (the girls have to stay inside for another two weeks of 'quarantine' time). It didn't take long to move them; they went straight on the trailer, straight off the trailer, straight down to their pen, tucked into some food (apart from one chap who went off to meet Samson & Delila next door) ..... and then straight into the muddy corner.
"Awwwwww" said Linda when she came in later "Big Red's not red anymore!". He'd gone and covered himself in glorious mud - shame. Good job we'd had a few minutes to appreciate the colour of his curls in the afternoon sunshine.......

What happened next...

And I thought the birds were all going to have a 'field' day. I should have known better. 48 hours later the machines were at work in the pea fields again.

The left-overs were trussed into rows and then quickly baled.

When the whole field was dotted with bales, these were wrapped in black plastic; the following day they were carted away..... doubtless to be used as silage for the cattle next winter.

Nothing wasted.

And the birds are all back scavenging for little bits might have been left behind.......

Vine anyone?

Pea viners at work.....

Well... I said they were 'in the area' and sure enough when I returned home from 'market' on Sunday evening there they were - working through the fields almost adjacent to us. Like London buses pea viners come in threes! Like London buses they also move extremely slowly.... but the noise and the smell they make are unique.   A deep,round, rumbling like no other alerts you to the fact they are in the vicinity; when you look for 'where' you see the heat haze first and then the entourage - rest wagon, 'comfort' wagon, fuel tankers, tractors, trailers, lorries to whisk the freshly stripped peas to processing plant in the shortest possible time.............. an entire 'factory on wheels' that moves into the fields like a swarm of locusts, stripping them of tons of peas per hour. 

Peas don't come any fresher than this.....

And the smell? Close your eyes and conjure up the scent of the freshest, sweetest peas newly crushed in the palm of your hand........... then multiply it 1,000-fold. 10,000-fold even. It pervades the air and overwhelms the senses, cloying almost in its 'green'-ness. The viners, like monstrous predators, crawl across the fields gobbling the acres and stripping the vines; rumbling, turning this way and that; disgorging their load into vast trailers beckoned seemingly silently to their sides; those loads transferred to waiting lorries which whisk them away to be sorted, packed, frozen, transported to a supermarket shelf near you.....
When these fields are done the cavalcade moves on to the next 'plantation' ..... a regional rotation planned with precision prior to planting time to ensure optimum cropping................ a wonderful harmony of man and nature that plays out every year unbeknownst to almost everybody. A privilege, therefore, to witness,

Left-overs

The first morning after harvest the fields are silent; discarded vines lie in rows like straw after the wheat has 'gone' ---- most of the pods 'popped' open and clean of their fruits. But a closer look shows that many have missed that fate. By the second morning the gulls and crows have moved in and are noisily gorging themselves on left-overs; after them, as the remains start to turn brown, come the pigeons - singly at first, then in flocks - to clean up. The noise increases as myriads of other birds move in to feast on the flies made 'homeless' by the viners....

Green straw....

I don't know how long it takes till the fields are completely emptied of their crop and ready for the plough .... but I shall find out this time round as these fields are on our daily 'dog-walk'.... and they are just as interested (for different reasons) to visit each morning........

Lazy hazy days of summer.....

"Move over Samson - it's my turn" said Delila

Lazy summer afternoon....

Nothin like a wallow.....

Just like London buses, all our summers have come at once. Twelve months ago we were coping with flood and storm whilst this year we are 'enjoying' the hottest continual spell of sunshine since 2006 (which, oddly, none of us can recall being all that hot). With temperatures hitting a very un-British 30 degrees or more for day after day, the countryside (and perhaps the towns & cities too - but we don't know about them) is taking on a decidedly continental air. Sandals, shorts, skimpy tops are the order of dress - which is quite unusually shocking for this part of the world (and even quite scary when seen in some of its manifestations in the marketplace....). Much hay is already made & stacked away for winter.... combine harvesters can be heard thrumming away in the distance; pea viners have been seen (a month late this year apparently owing to the coldest March for 100 years) trundling along the roads at dawn & dusk.... grass is turning decidely brown and crops definitely (pale) gold..... 
Mad dogs and Englishmen are staying well out of the midday sun (as far as is possible) so any activity is compressed into  the first and last hours of daylight. This probably happens all over the hot world but here it is quite quite uncommon.
"And what of the curly coats?" you ask. Well; the pigs are happy.They have nearly finished their moult so are feeling relatively cool - regular readers will know that Delila was the only one of them to lose her coat last 'summer'. Being grey-skinned they don't worry about getting burned by the fierce heat of the sun - although they do seek shade where they can and spend an awful lot of time in squashing into, or taking turns in, their wallows.

..the broccoli wall

Ironic that we have spent the past eighteen or 20 months complaining about all the mud everywhere and now the ground is rock hard and we spend an hour or more each day just refilling the mud-pools which serve as wallows! We also spend much time refilling water containers because they either get tipped out into wallows, get paddled in to cool trotters or, if any water is left, it is too warm to enjoy drinking!

Me go out in the Mid-day sun? I should coco

Farmers are faced with interesting challenges this year too, the current one being the 'broccoli wall'. Owing to the cold spring, this vegetable was late to get going but conditions have been ideal for the past fortnight and all the plants have come on at once. Pickers have been working round the clock to get the crop in - the mobile vegetable factories which can be seen around the fields are capable of processing a head of broccoli from field to 'packed' in 60 seconds! Apparently, the wall has been scaled and the situation is now manageable. Our pigs have been enjoying the excess - it is probably their most favourite vegetable - they get really blissed out when tea-time comes around and heaps of the best fresh greens land on their plates! Even the dogs (not sure if it's good for 11 wk old pups but we'll soon find out!), horses and chickens enjoy crunching on the stuff - so everyone's pretty pleased.........
The prognosis is the "heatwave" will continue yet a while.... most of us here are not complaining and making the most of the lazy, hazy days..... who knows when they'll come round again????

Natural drive

Right my dear -- I think over here will do...

Running a pork provisioning business is a complex challenge. There's a lot of planning involved, a great deal of discussion - about the animals themselves, the markets, the range of products, combining tradition with innovation, keeping the mind on future strategy without taking the eye off present facts etc etc etc ....... we spend hours talking about it.... every aspect almost ad nauseum it sometimes seems.  One of our most recent topics of concern has been Ginger and Mangal. More specifically, how  long we should continue to breed them. They are our Founders so that makes them very senior..... Should we let Ginger have another litter? Is she capable? Is Mangal still fertile?  Do they even want to get back together? Should we just retire them gracefully?

How about a spot of tea now dear?

Well, it doesn't really matter how long we debated and how often we threw the questions back and forth. Yesterday afternoon Ginger took command of the situation. Up she got, some time during the intense heat of one of the warmest days of the year so far, and decided to break down the fence to get to her mate. When I went out to feed tea there she was lying outside his gate waiting to be let in. And he was standing on the other side equally patiently waiting for someone to slide the bolt and let her through. I'm sure he could easily have opened it himself but perhaps it's part of the ritual of letting the humans think they're in control?
Suffice to say I opened the gate and she lumbered down to his quarters and, after he'd finished his tea, they spent a very pleasant (and noisy!) afternoon making whoopee. By dusk she was back in her own boudoir fast asleep. Where she stayed till this afternoon when off she ambled once more to repeat the previous day's  episode! Then it was back to her territory to sleep it off again.
Nature's way. We'll let her, and them, tell us what to do for the best.

Peace & quiet - for a while

Ginger's young brood, born on May 8th, were the last of the spring litters to be weaned. At 8 weeks old they were spending very little time with Ginger and free-ranging far and wide.We realised they

Can we come in please Mr Jaunty?

were becoming a little too bold when they started coming to the back door and asking for their food - or maybe just to be let in. It was very disconcerting to be greeted by gruntlets first thing each morning. Jaunty proved a very effective door-keeper and took his new job very seriously! They did manage to get in once: we were totally unprepared. Returned from market one afternoon I was unloading from the chiller van, having left the house doors open; I was surprised to find 7 piglets merrily trotting into the scullery ahead of me! Fortunately they did not make it as far as the pantry - my astonished yell scared them enough to  make them run out! After that we made sure to always leave the door shut!

How long have we got to stay in here?

The 4 boys in the litter will be going to Heckington Show later in the month. This will be our 6th year of taking youngsters - they always prove a great attraction especially since they are not just the only curly coats at the show but the only pigs! They share a marquee with the other rare breeds - including the Lincoln red cattle, the Lincolnshire Buff hens and the Lincolnshire Longwool Sheep - sheep being by far the majority. It always makes me smile when people, attuned to looking at all the sheep, do a double-take when they get to our pen - "Funny sheep... ooooorrr pigs?"

Victoria's piglets still sticking close to mum !

Meanwhile, we shall enjoy a bit of peace and quiet without piglets running everywhere - till Victoria's lot realise they have the place to themselves and start their explorations. They're three weeks old now so should be on their way.... that'll be my new flowerbed destroyed then, as The Big Boss gleefully pointed out this afternoon! And Con, the gardener, has only just planted it. Maybe the piglets won't find it!
Maybe pigs will fly.......