Posts Tagged ‘tia’

Farewell to the pigs

Yesterday was not a Good Day.

I took two loads of pigs to the abattoir, Curly, Pinky and Perky in the first load, then Tia and Scrumpy.

I pick the meat up on Friday.

Brini and Fergie were saved, because Fergie is too small and Brini makes an ideal companion for her as she is (a) kind to the little pig and (b) is not a natural-born trouble-maker. They are now living in luxury in east Somerset.

I cried when I got home.

Not a Good Day.

Remember when …

… the sun was shining and the grass was green?

No, me neither.

Unbelievably, this was taken just three weeks ago:

The five adults and Snipe - 27 November 2009

The five adults and Snipe - 27 November 2009

All that green is now a sea of mud into which the pigs sink. On a dryish day it tickles their knees. When it’s raining, it laps at their bellies.

Apparently, we’re having a dry spell for the weekend. Here’s hoping…

A blustery November!

It’s a windy but sunny day today, what a change from all the rain we’ve been having. I’m seriously thinking about buying some lifejackets and arm bands for the pigs, just in case!

Mind you, the rain did hold off long enough earlier this week for me to move both the piglets and the adults onto dry, fresh and green ground, though how long it will stay like that is anyone’s guess (for what it’s worth, mine is ‘not long’).

The adults couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw where they were going and haven’t stopped grinning (or stuffing their faces) since then:

Tia, Brini, Perky, Fergie and Scrumpy - 3 November 2009

Tia, Brini, Perky, Fergie and Scrumpy - 3 November 2009

The break in the weather didn’t hold for long:

Dark clouds over the field - 4 November 2009

Dark clouds over the field - 4 November 2009

And here’s the cutest piglet photo ever:

The piglets - 5 November 2009

The piglets - 5 November 2009

But this is the funniest:

Pinky piglets - 4 November 2009

Don't ask. Just don't ask!

If they’re like this at 6 weeks, what will they be doing at 6 months?!!

All change!

Yesterday turned out to be a mammoth pig moving day, which just goes to show how much I have changed. Gone are the days when I couldn’t move one ark by myself … yesterday, I moved two!

Pinky, Curly and the piglets had run out of grass. It might have looked as though they still had grass, since the enclosure had a green floor, but I know that all the good stuff had gone because they did this:

Pinky, Curly and the piglets - 4 October 2009

Pinky, Curly and the piglets - 4 October 2009

However, there was one small hitch. The part of the field where I wanted to move them to was slap bang next door to where Tia, Brini, Perky, Scrumpy and Fergie were getting down and dirty in the mud (ie clearing the undergrowth) which meant that in order to move The Family, I needed to move the Quintuplets first! Why? There’s not an electric fence in the world that would keep a boar away from five females if they were so close! And considering that Scrumpy is Curly’s mother…

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for them to establish a hierarchy after I put them together for the first time on Thursday, once I’d got back from taking Bailey. Amazingly, Tia is the new matriarch! That’s quite something for a pig who, 18 months ago, I bought only because I felt sorry for her. It just goes to show that a leader lurks in all wallflowers… Anyway, the remarkably swift establishment of said hierarchy means that they are sharing one ark at night instead of using both, which actually made the move possible, since there was no way I was three pig arks in one day!

So, with much grumbling under my breath (the five pigs had at least another week’s grazing were they were, possibly more), I transported all their bedding to the new site, dragged their ark across the field, went back for the rubber mats that make up their floor, rolled up, moved and erected three 50m rolls of electric netting, then moved the five, who knew where they were going and only waited for me because I had some pears in a bucket!

Tia, Brini, Scrumpy, Fergie and Perky - 4 October 2009

Tia, Brini, Scrumpy, Fergie and Perky - 4 October 2009

After dragging myself back to the house for a most tasty lunch of boiled eggs on toast (thanks, girls!), I set about moving the piglets.

In theory, this move wasn’t as physically demanding, since the distance was (a) shorter and (b) on a slight downhill slope but mentally, it was exhausting. Have you ever tried to explain to six squealing and hyperactive piglets that they have moved house?!

Once everything was moved, I finally managed to catch all six and plopped them in the ark, persuading Pinky to go in to feed them to help them relax. This tactic vaguely worked, in that instead of rushing around the enclosure, panicking, they instead ran around after her as she rushed around sampling all the different grasses!

Eventually, once the sun had gone down, I saw the piglets take themselves off to bed in the ark’s new location, rather than the old location, which is where they had, naturally, been trying to get to all afternoon, blocked by the electric fence, which I switched on.

All in all, it was quite a day!

Here’s another piglet photo (sorry, can’t resist!)

Piglets! 4 October 2009

Piglets! 4 October 2009

I can’t believe how much they have grown in the past two weeks!

Mind your manners!

Classy, guys, classy:

Bailey and Tia enjoy an apple - 21 September 2009

Bailey and Tia enjoy an apple - 21 September 2009

Let sleeping pigs lie

Bailey - 6 September 2009

Bailey - 6 September 2009

Tia - 6 September 2009

Tia - 6 September 2009

Bless!

What a day!

As days go, yesterday was one of those…

It started well enough, a bit chilly, but not enough to make me want to put a jumper on. Why would you, when the sun was shining bright in the sky for the first time in, well, ages?!

View of the field - 5 September 2009

View of the field - 5 September 2009

I started feeding the pigs, but only made it as far as Perky, Fergie, Scrumpy and Brini when I discovered that Brini was lame. Her appetite wasn’t diminished: in fact, I spotted her limping when she had finished her food and was making her way over to steal Perky’s!

Using the offer of a belly rub as bribery, I persuaded her to lie down and examined her off fore leg (front right), suspecting a thorn. The thick mud obscured things somewhat, so I tentatively cleaned it off, all the while keeping up the belly rubs with my other hand, wishing (not for the first time) that I had an extra set of hands. However, it came as a shock to discover the true cause of her lameness. Not a thorn, but a deep cut where she (or one of the others) had obviously trod on her foot in the night.

At this point, Brini decided that enough was enough and scrambled to her feet, snorting in disgust at my probing. Watching her limp off through the mud, I realised what my first course of action must be: get them off that patch, onto somewhere drier. Cleaning it would be a waste of time if she had no means of keeping it clean afterwards…

Unfortunately, the only mud-free (ish) patch of land was Tia and Bailey’s enclosure, to the east of the field, where they were helpfully grazing down the long grass before winter. What’s more, there was a large area to the west of their enclosure, which could be incorporated into the pen by adjusting the electric netting. This would be perfect for Brini, as the long grass was still wet with the morning dew, which would do a great job of cleaning the cut out naturally, making my job that much easier.

It took of a bit of skilful manoeuvring, but I eventually swapped the two groups over, despite Fergie’s insistence on leading the way, despite not actually knowing the way…

The four pigs were thrilled with their unexpected move:

Perky, Fergie, Scrumpy and Brini - 5 September 2009

Perky, Fergie, Scrumpy and Brini - 5 September 2009

Tia and Bailey were not as happy. In fact, they were downright miserable and Tia spent the rest of the day giving me *that* look. The look that says she’s going to cause trouble. And judging from her previous behaviour, I believe her… I just wish I had somewhere for them to go! Even though the pair had the largest run with the best grass, leaving the four pigs a much smaller ratio of space and grass per pig, the “unfairness” of this was overwhelmingly compensated by removing Tia’s urge to roam whenever she had less than perfect grazing…

Oh well, the electric fence is on, the battery has been recently charged, and they’ll just have to put up with the mud for another week. *Gulp*!

Moving the six pigs and adjusting two hundred metres of electric netting took me over two hours so it was late in the morning by the time I had the opportunity to re-examine Brini’s foot. As I’d hoped, the long wet grass did a wonderful job of cleaning the cut and it was virtually mud free, and that meant I was able to see that there was no blood and that the cut was the porcine equivalent of cutting the skin around your nail. Painful, but not as bad as cutting anywhere else on the finger.

Even better, the heat and swelling had both gone down considerably (so much so that I had to double check I had the right foot) and watching her walk, it was evident that the she was feeling much better, as she wasn’t limping nearly as much as she had been.

I (finally) headed back to the feed shed, checked the chickens, who were most indignant at being ignored for so long, popped to the loo (note to self: always, always go before feeding the pigs!), grabbed my wonderful Purple Spray, and walked back to the pigs, intending to settle Brini down and spray her foot to (hopefully) kill off any infection that may be lurking.

As plans go, that one sucked. Scrumpy wanted belly rubs, Fergie wanted belly rubs, Perky wanted belly rubs … Brini told me to go to hell. And continued to do so for the rest of the day. I know because I went back every hour or so and the pattern was the same. Every other pig was thrilled with the idea of belly rubs in the afternoon sun. Not Brini. In fact, she was so determined that she never did get her belly rub and I never did get to inspect and spray her foot!

Having said that, not only did she make a break for Perky’s food again that evening, but she actually ran after me when she got a whiff of the contents of the their veggie bucket and realised that bananas were on the menu.

I’m hoping that yesterday’s recovery continues and that her foot heals itself without any further problems – or infection. I’ll obviously try again today, hoping that it’s not a case of bolting the stable door after the fact, and will keep all fingers crossed for a speedy and trouble-free recovery.

And the rest of the day? Well, having lost the whole morning, in the afternoon I culled and plucked the three bantam cockerels, checked Brini, cleaned out the chicken houses, moved the Pekins and Silkies out of the horrible old wooden ark and back into the Eglu, which had been acting as a temporary broiler ark for the boys, collected the eggs (four today, bringing the total for 2009 to an astonishing 1003!), checked Brini, cut the grass around the chickens’ electric netting, had a very late lunch, checked Brini, walked the dogs, dug up a row of potatoes, checked Brini, cut up the pigs’ fruit and veg, fed the chickens, fed the pigs, checking Brini one last time as a I did so, then headed for home, knowing that I still had the three chickens to draw and one to cook, putting the other two in the freezer.

The Trio - 16 August 2009

The Trio - 16 August 2009

I hate drawing (aka gutting) chickens, and never seem to do a neat job. Still, practice makes perfect, and I’ve now done the grand total of five cockerels and therefore know one thing to be true: big chickens are much easier than small ones…

I decided to try poached chicken, intending to make a chicken and vegetable broth. B’s away at her parents, so although I know the broth was missing something, I don’t know what that something was (B’s a skilled cook, I just cook…). It was still tasty though, and there’s plenty in the freezer, not to mention some extra stock!

I eventually fell into bed with a well-deserved bowl of chicken broth at about ten o’clock.

Phew!

Dusk falls over the field - 5 September 2009

Dusk falls over the field - 5 September 2009

Happy birthday to Pinky, Perky and Fergie!

Today is Pinky, Perky and Fergie’s first birthday.

It seems like a long time ago that I was sitting in the stable with Tia as she farrowed. All in all, I saw all but two of her piglets being born. Looking at the remaining three today, I struggle to believe that they were ever this small:

Tia and her one day old piglets - 20 August 2008

Tia and her one day old piglets - 20 August 2008

Tia's piglets meet Teal - 21 August 2008

Pinky, Perky and Fergie introduce themselves to Teal - 21 August 2008

Pinky and Perky - 28 August 2008

Pinky and Perky - 28 August 2008

Jennie and (a grinning) Fergie - 24 September 2008

Jennie and (a grinning) Fergie - 24 September 2008

Bad, bad, BAD pigs!

Tia may well be one of my favourite pigs, but she’s currently very close to booking herself a one-way ticket to the abattoir.

Well, that’s what I was muttering to myself last night, anyway.

Why?

Because the little madam (accompanied by Bailey but I know who the ring leader was) decided to break out of her pen while I was at work yesterday and get into the shipping container I use as a feed shed, and to store the straw and gardening equipment.

Between them, they ate their way through the three buckets of the fruit and veg I’d cut up that morning for their “pudding”, plus an additional six boxes of fruit and veg that I didn’t have the time to sort through.

Which explains the rather large (think elephantine) piles of pig poo that I spotted nearby!

But they didn’t just politely eat and then leave.

No…….

They trashed the place!

I spent an hour last night tidying up after them – a wonderful combination of squashed fruit and veg, the juices from the fruit mud and rain water.

And all that to clean up at eight o’clock on a miserable, wet and gloomy Monday evening, after a day at work, running on empty after a very bad night’s sleep.

When I arrived the pair were sound asleep in the empty pig ark near the shipping container and I confess I bit my tongue, waded through the carnage to get their pig nuts, walked them back to their pen (serenaded by six other pigs who didn’t understand why the order I feed them in had been changed), fed them, put the fence back up, got an energiser and battery (my bad, I should have switched the fence on that morning!), cut back the undergrowth by the fence (that was meant to be today’s job, hence the switched off fence), checked to make sure they had water and were ok, switched the fence on and then abandoned them. Did they get pudding? Hell, no!

The only good thing is that they failed to get into the pig nuts or the chicken feed.

Pigs! Sausages, the lot of them!!!!!!!

Looking back at (a sunny) July 2008

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo so I thought I’d post some photos from last year, back when the sun was something warm, comforting and familiar, not a distant memory like it has been this July!

Midge - 1 July 2008

Midge - 1 July 2008

Bailey and Queenie - 4 July 2008

Bailey and Queenie - 4 July 2008

Brini - 20 July 2008

Brini - 20 July 2008

Captain Flint and pals - 20 July 2008

Captain Flint and pals - 20 July 2008

Harold and family - 21 July 2008

Harold and family - 21 July 2008

Scrumpy, Tia, Stella and Brusco - 22 July 2008

Scrumpy, Tia, Stella and Brusco - 22 July 2008

Snipe, Midge and Teal - 29 July 2008

Snipe, Midge and Teal - 29 July 2008

The view from Mum's front gate - 29 July 2008

The view from Mum's front gate - 29 July 2008

Maybe August will see the sun return – and with it, my blogging inspiration!