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!!!

Meanwhile in the Poultry Palace

Sometimes it seems that pigs are all there is around here.

Every now and then though something happens to restore the balance.

Thus it was on Sunday: after we'd finished running around, moving pigs and watching pigs - in particular Precious reunited with Samson (and weren't they pleased to see each other again.....) I happened to glance inside the Poultry Palace to check all was well there when, much to my surprise, I saw a solitary little chick running around.

"It couldn't have been hatched by any of the hens" I thought.

I watched it cheeping and chirruping all over the place. Eventually it disappeared.

When I looked for it some while later I found it back with its mum - not with a hen but with one of the Ducks in her nest.

Is this a first? A chick hatching from a duck's nest??? Anyway, clearly the little chick knew its mum was a duck because the following day it spent much of its time running around after any and every duck (its 'mum' still being on the nest waiting to hatch her real chicks) asking "Are you my mummy?".

The drakes got most impatient: every time they stopped moving around the little chick would try to snuggle underneath them and as soon as that happened, off waddled the drake in disgust..... and then the chick would pursue some other hapless drake--- to the same ill effect.

Eventually it found its way back to the nest......

The other ducks were amazed and completely confused.... there was such a commotion in the Poultry Palace as they all waddled around quacking like crazy and peering round the corner at their mate in her nest with this curious chick! Whenever it ventured out they'd look at it in total bemusement, poking at it with their beaks as if trying to work out what it was!

I was amazed that it survived even the first night! Yet by Tuesday there it was still cheeping all over the place, inside and out, following each and every duck asking the same "Are you my mummy?" question before settling down at dusk with its 'mother' in the nest again...... most unusual......

A game too far

"Ratatatat! Ratatatat! Ratatatat!" The insistent hammering of the back door knocker crashed through the peace of a sunny Saturday afternoon.

"Your piglets are running all over the track"! said our very unamused not-very-neighbour when I went to investigate.

Such is the way all true adventures begin.

Over the past few days Delila's Delinquents have been, increasingly boldly, going where no piglets have gone before. The rum-pum-pum-pum of ten sets of little trotters has become a familiar sound in the stable yard as has the sight of ten 'can't-stop-now-very-busy' little bodies streaming up and down and through and around everywhere.

As Linda remarked "Wherever you turn, there they are"!

On Friday afternoon Mangal, now separated from Ginger, was back in his old pen and by Saturday morning Delila's Delinquents had found their way to Grandpapa Boar. And he, being The Grand Patriarch and very aware of his duties in passing on The Lore had been entertaining them with Tales of The Past and other such things. Obviously included in his Tales was the one about 'The Search (by his and Ginger's first litter) for The Big Nasty Giant who Lives Down The Track'.

Big Mistake.

What are 10 little piglets to do on a quiet, sunny afternoon?

So there they were, having a gay old time, running up and down and round and about looking for The Giant and going ever further down the track when - shock, horror - a scary blue motor screeched to a halt and The Giant himself exploded out of it and in the direction of the House.

"Eek, eek, eek" they panicked and darted off into the hedgerow in search for a quick way back home.

By the time The Big Boss and The (now) Bestest Pigdog in all the World and I arrived on the scene there was Chaos. The Blue Car complete with angry Giant; a bunch of innocent walkers and their dog watching with amusement; and piglets everywhere.

Luckily 3 of the little black ones quickly found the conventional way home and - none of the others being in sight at that point - it was assumed they were the last to return so off went the walkers and The Giant (muttering something about a shotgun being a good way to keep a piglet quiet!).

But that was when the fun really began: we rapidly discovered the other 7 were not at home. On the contrary. They were still scampering hither and thither in the bridleway hedgerow looking for a way home and becoming more and more confused and scared as time went on.

Gunner found them and did an excellent job of herding them back in the right direction. Slowly but surely and a little way at a time he got them back on familiar ground and round the right fences and through the best gaps until they were back in the yard and then it was just a case of reminding them where Their Place was. And down the field they charged and scrambled back under the fence and through the other pigs' pens and back to Mum.

The Dog was exhausted. The Piglets were exhausted. We were exhausted. And then we had to fix the fences to stop them repeating the Adventure all over again - which they were bound to think of once they'd recovered! And maybe the Nasty Giant would invoke the Terror of the Shotgun. So we barricaded the piglets in, which all the other pigs thought was a Good Game and made lots of encouraging noise whilst the little adventurers were collapsed in heaps in the shade, doubtless thinking what a Jolly Good Game they'd had and What Fun they could get up to when they got their breath back.

Meanwhile, the sun shone on and we laboured on and, finally finished to the best of our ability, gave the herd their tea and got the horses (who'd been watching all this amusing to-do over the Rectory Field gate) up and fed them and collected the eggs and checked all the poultry and eventually found our way back to the sunny and peaceful quiet of the Snug where we sighed and sank into a dishevelled heap over a bottle of cool white wine and slowly recovered.

"We'd never have got those piglets back without Gunner's help" said the Big Boss.

Looking at the Dog flat out and fast asleep under the table I couldn't help but think that even for him it was almost a game too far......

(By the way, the photos were taken on an altogether different and less stressful morning!)

Delila's Delinquents

"If you think this is anything to do with me, you'd be wrong. I'm just sitting here minding my own business. Well - not entirely. I sit here quite often - usually when She's doing something else, like feeding or mucking out, or gardening - just to make sure these chaps don't go too far astray. When they do, I trot along - a little ahead of them - and try and turn them back. Doesn't always work. Sometimes I just have to run and tell her they're where they shouldn't be but if She doesn't do anything about it, then it's down to me. The black jobs are The Worst. She might call them Little Stars. They've a mind of their own. Well, five minds of their own actually. And they're always up to mischief. No self-respecting Gundog would ever behave like them.

"Take yesterday, for instance. There I was, minding my own business, as always. Sitting outside the pen here. And what do you know. Before I could think "Pheasant" off they went - all five little black jobs - quick as a flash up to the place where Rocco and his mates live. And would you believe, just at that moment She looked out over the stable door ...... She didn't look best pleased. So I gave one of them an ever so gentle little poke up his tail end and luckily he got the message and shot off back down the field..... bit of a relief that cos I wouldn't want Her to think I wasn't doing my job. But just as I relaxed the littlest one shot through the hedge and bumped his nose on the chicken pen and made a terrible noise. So they all got excited and started running around all over the place again and it was an awful job to get them back in order and going in the right direction back to their pen...... And then they ran around as if they owned the place and wouldn't go back to their Mum but went back in with some of the other chaps and then this one - who's a real show off - starts running around with a bit of green stuff in his jaws (Well, truth be known I've been telling them a few little hunting stories - just to keep them quiet - when they hang around my paws.... anything to stop them nibbling my knees.... and this one's just a bit too cocksure......) making out he's some sort of retriever, I suppose. No more stories for him.

She keeps saying we've never had any piglets as bold and adventurous as these black chaps... Real Little Delinquents, She says. I think she must be right.

They think they own the place. Wearing me out they are. Still --- it's something to do ....... for now......"