..With Pigs. Yes you read right. Queenie Wineti my sweet little Hereford heifer was caught picking a fight with a small PIG. It started out as such a soft and gentle misty day.
The animals all slept in. The peacock added his new found calls to the usual barnyard noises. I went to bed with a band and woke up with an orchestra I thought. He is like an entire horn section with a few rogue string instruments chiming in.
John turned the compost, steaming in the cool morning haze. Honestly I love compost. It smells so good when it is this hot. 
I shifted the electric fence so that Hairy MacLairy could clean up a patch of land that will be sown in buckwheat. The ideal would be to put the pigs in there to root it up but we will wait for Sheila, I need a pig who will follow me and behave herself as we shall soon see. For the moment we will let Hairy (well HairLess actually) eat it up. 
Then I made a small pen with a creep door so that the lambs could eat their extra feed in peace without their mother stealing it all. Lovely as she is, Mama is a sheep after all. 
John picked the rest of the radishes.
Which I pickled to have on hamburgers for dinner. (very tasty) … It is just a regular fridge pickle made with coriander seeds and leaves and a little fresh ginger, onions and garlic. We will eat it in a week. 
I was at the kitchen sink with all the windows open when I heard a deep woofing sound, in fact it sounded a lot like a cow barking, then a shrieky piggy sound. I watched TonTon bolt for the pigsty followed closely by the guineas. Fight I thought, capping the jars and drying my hands. The guineas always make a bee line for any fight. I am not sure if they are policemen or hecklers. Usually it is a rooster fight but this one sounded different.
As I was putting on my gumboots I heard a loud wack, then cackling guineas, crowing roosters, more strange grunting sounds and then the absolutely incongruous sound of Kupa slowly calling out. Shut uuup! Shut uuup!.
I rounded the corner of the barn and there was Queenie backing up and ramming the pig sty fence with considered and considerable force. And from the other side of the pigsty fence the black and white piggie was doing EXACTLY the Same Thing, screeching and wiggling practically bouncing up and down on the spot with piggie fury. leaping back at the cow. I am not even going to begin to speculate what they were saying to each other. Do you see Daisy out the back of that shot clearly saying. “Ooo Hoo Hoo I am NOT the one in trouble this time!” 
Very Bad behaviour. Not cricket At All to pick on a piggie 600 pounds smaller than you are Queenie! Though I think this pig was giving as good as she was getting. Anyway, I went through the barn and out the other side and Queenie was called out of the field, that adjoins the pigsty, and she was sent to the Black Hole of Calcutta (the darkest pen in the barn) so she could have a Think about her Behaviour. Now she is in the Rat House Paddock. Most inconveniently I might add, as all the good grass is out the other side and I shall have to take her hay, which is now in short supply, until this rather surprising problem is solved.
No fence will take that kind of pounding. She is a heavy little pitbull of a cow. I shall have to rethink the sty. I have asked John if he has any corrugated iron at the workshop. Maybe if Queenie cannot see the pigs she will not be so intent on battering down their walls and ripping them apart. Trouble in paradise!
Good morning. It is early early. Most of you are still asleep. We are off to the Bantam Swap to look for a hen for Kupa. Don’t say anything though. I don’t want him to be disappointed. She has to be a well bred, bright eyed, articulate peahen with a reasonable vocabulary for Our Kupa. I think they should at least be able to talk to each other. So I am going to be picky. Of course it is probably all about the feathers if I were to ask Kupa. But I do not want some simpering piece of disapproving fluff tottering about. We want a good hard working friendly country pea hen.
You all have a marvelous day. I shall take my camera. So you can see what I see, but tomorrow.
celi
PS. I am not sure if WP is still having the comment problem but if you do get time to comment, don’t forget to uncheck the little ’email me comments’ tick below the comment box, so you are not sent unnecessary messages.
That was a confusing sentence even to me, but I am sure you know what I mean. Good morning.
The Kitchen's Garden 
70 responses to “Queenie is sent to Coventry for Picking Fights…”
How funny. I wonder if putting them in the same space with supervision for 5 minutes might allow them to sniff each other and maybe make friends 😉 Good luck with the peahen.
It seems like WP might have reverted to the tick box unchecked. I complained to them by email yesterday about the issue which was a real PITA.
I take the WP thing back – it would seem that one has to untick the box once and then WP remembers for the setting for a specific blog…
I urge anyone irritated by this new development to email support@wordpress.com – they are actually quite friendly 😉
I can imagine but with enough of you complaining i hope it goes away soon, i am still unchecking boxes this morning.. morning mad.. c
I’m not at all certain cows are Very Good at having a Think. I suspect they mostly end up thinking about chewing. Of course, the little pig probably shouldn’t have called her a fat cow in the first place. A “stupid sow” retort always ends in a fight, especially if one doesn’t bother to do a gender check first.
I’m thinking you should have named the peacock Coltrane. If you’re going to have a horn section, you might as well have the best.
(laughter) Fat cow! Stupid sow!! perfect! and yes to Kupa being a Coltrane, if only i had heard his voice before his naming! maybe there will be a Coltrane somewhere in his future! c
Celi, what drama at the farmy! Cattle ramming pigs? What is the world coming to!
Thank you for another compelling episode of TheKitchensGarden….
Apparently name calling has dramatic results! c
You gave me such a nice chuckle…finding the ‘right girl’ for the already perfect boy, made me think I was reading an Victorian Novel.
Also, you do your OWN fencing? You are one of a small breed of women that does, as I well know.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Those radishes will be delicious, C! Good morning!
morning ksenia, have a lovely sunday! c
How strange, that your little cow should take such a dislike to the pigs! Your compost is gorgeous, it brings back memories of chilly early mornings on the farm in Zimbabwe when I was a child. We kids used to stand on top of the heap, digging our cold bare feet into the steaming, warm compost. as you say, compost smells wonderful. Hope you had a great day, C!!
That would probably appall modern kids!! but it is a lovely fragrant steaming heap! c
Well, looks like there’s a snaffu in the ‘all’s peaceful on the farmy’ picture. Hope those two work it out, or that Our John can find some corrugated iron to separate their sights of each other.
The element here that breaks the “peace on our farmy” is Goliath the Goose. He has become a bit of a problem, as he attacks anyone, including me!!!, who comes close to Jack. He adores Jack and is insanely jealous of him!!! We are trying to work it out, but it is a problem! Suggestions welcome!!!
Oh mercy, that does not sound good. We had a duck once that took a liking to ANY hen.. we took him out to a big pond that had other ducks and released him.. there were no chickens out there and mine were safe once more .. but I have no idea what you can do with your goose.. c
Christmas dinner in May?
interesting thought! c
Oh my – children will be children I suppose! Am so glad we can all comment again safely now we know what to do….
Yes we just have to remember to do it! hopefully they will switch the lever back! c
That wee WP problem is doing my swede! Well, there’s always one and Queenie seems to be your one. Hehe. I loved your description of the kind of girl that Kupa should be looking for. As for the guineas, I’d go with hecklers. 🙂
Yes i think you are probably right, their voices are definitely heckly! c
Oh Queenie why would you do this? Are you jealous of the attention given to the new members – even as I say this I have to smile since she is too cute!
And those pickles have me mesmerized and waiting for a burger 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh Nooooooo, how naughty!!
I love the pickled radishes… reminds me of my Father!!
Pickles and peacocks and pigs, oh my!! Sometimes I think you are living in a children’s book (I mean that in the best way). Love your stories and the photos…. I must find different ways of saying that! 🙂
Glad to know I’m not alone in the avalanche of “notify me comments” and thank you for the reminder to un-check.
Enchanting post. An “Oh Dear” tattered nerves day for Stubborn Piggy and his agressor, Jealous Jr. Cow, and then not only enchanted, love the idea of shopping for the hen, good that it doesn;t have to be educated in England or something like that, and then, then, then, be still my heart, the radishes, and i wanted to get my computer ax whIch I wear on a leather belt around my waste, to chop into the food. But alas, alack, reality held me back!