Good morning. There is always a day once in a while when I struggle for words. Today is such a day. I sit in my study, listening to the three dogs and four cats stir as they shuffle about exchanging places on the verandah, waiting for the day to start with my appearance.
The chorus of birds high up in the big trees is still at its homogeneous height, no individual calls, except for Kupa and a rooster. All the other bird sounds whirl like a blowing multi coloured curtain through the air.
I dreamed last night that John had cut down the big trees. I could see their broken crowns where they had fallen onto the ground. Like when one of Henry the Eighth’s little Queens was murdered by her husband and her staff cut the ancient trees down at her ancestral home. Just cut them down one after the other in their grief.
But to my relief all the trees are still here this morning, standing strong in the dawn. And though my arms are tired from hand raking the last of the hay once again, lifting it off the new forage growing beneath it, I still have my head. I am hand raking (just lifting really) as the mechanical rake will knock it about too much. Thursday and Friday may be dry so I am aiming at Friday as our next big raking and baling day.
In the storm the other night Charlotte got very agitated and stood on another of her piglets. He had burrowed into her hay and was behind her. I thought he was OK but discovered yesterday morning that his skin is coming off one side. I think it was her but when he feeds the little hooves of the others standing on him cause the major damage. Yesterday I poured iodine onto the wound a few times and it is dry, the skin hanging in folds free of it, the little one is still moving about and drinking but how he has survived I do not know. But I cannot get too close. Charlotte will trample over all the other piglets to get to the one who is squealing. I have to say piglets are more nerve wracking than any other baby animals. I can see why they have such big litters.
I hope I am not being to graphic for you but as you know I have three promises for this blog. 1. All the images are from yesterday. 2. I will not hide the tougher stuff. 3. I will share with you every day the joys of farming, growing my own food the old fashioned way and the wonderful learning that this life brings.
I have decided that from now on I will not close Charlotte’s big doors when it rains (This makes her very upset), only feed her little bits of hay at a time so the piglets cannot hide in it, and only go to her pen at feeding times. She is highly strung. Both times she has stepped on a piglet I have seen it happen, so if I am not there she will be calmer. The feed bins are very close to her pen so I am quietly shifting these today.
Yesterday, after I had put on my clean clothes to go out to the supermarket with the Old Codger, I discovered that Sheila had once again got out of her pen down the back. She very happily will NOT stay in the back pen and will find a way to get out, and after she has hoovered up all the mulberries she will go and find Queenie.
Queenie, the Hereford heifer, does not like her one little bit but Sheila the maiden aunt, Hereford pig, loves Queenie. It was too late to go and change into farm clothes to return Sheila to her pen and do the necessary repairs so I made her promise to be good. And she was. When I came home she and Queenie and Daisy were all asleep in their field. Laid in a row in the shade like old friends. The pig covered completely in cow muck smelling like Queenie. Such a happy filthy pig. Sheila always comes when she is called so I am not really that worried about where she is.
On Sunday I shall get a man to help me with the pig panels, and repair the fences so while I am away she does not get into the corn. You and I are only in Canada for a few days and I will leave Queenie in the field beside her.
I shall go out now and see how everyone fared in the night. It is cloudy and rainy again. But the hay fields are growing as fast as the corn so that is good. There is just those last few hay rows to get off and eventually they will be dry enough to get into the barn.
Have a lovely day.
your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
54 responses to “A highly strung Sow”
Natalia was right C. kind of like those first few months with a new baby….wonderful but terrifying at the same time…can you imagine having triplets or something like that?? I would have gone over the edge….and just like babies growing up…everything will be ok with the lil piglets…you are doing everything possible to help their mama raise them right….she just happens to be a storm to reckon with…I think I would let Sheila have the next batch! Ha!
Your upcoming holiday in the beautiful Canadian rockies will be just the tonic you need to rest your weary bod and de-stress your frazzled nerves….
When it rains, it pours and in your case lately…..Literally!! Hang in there Cinders!! You will be coasting real soon!! 🙂
Well, that was pretty intense for someone with nothing to say. I just don’t know how you deal with it all. Hope the piglet repairs itself and that the others avoid Charlotte’s killer heels.
So sorry to hear about the higher strung nerves on momma pig, my arge back girl was of course protective of her wee ones but not at all like you are talking about, I had a different set up then most I have heard or seen, I had my big pig pen for mom, and then we built a average but good size pen beside her’s and we fitted a small pilet size opening on the bottom, as a newborn first week, we had astuffed blue 55 water drum on the other side, the piglets could choose between feeding or snuggling by mom. or burrowing under and into the bedding, most of the time they were in their bedding and she could get up and down and around with no worries in this way, then at a week, we took away the barrel, and did huge amounts of dry bedding for them, we adjusted the cut gap as well, by week three, they were getting fresh food daily on their pen with mom being feed on her pen.. when it came time to wean, we just took off the board with hole and replaced with solid
wow, didn’t proof read, hope that makes sense when read in context.
Actually that makes incredibly good sense, And i think i can do this right now, in the area they are in now, replacing a door with a board.. Hmm, I am going to have a think, just like a creep really, we can jump straight to the barrel free stage, but i shall do that next time for sure…Thank you.. very good idea.. c
In this time of the year, I am not sure if the barrel would be need but I had mine in a cooler part of the year for me, and so I needed to make sure they had a totally draft free sleeping area, it was inside the barn itself but I had the windows open for fresh air and it was a bit chilly in the morning.
Glad you could understand that mishmash of words and make sense of it LOL
It really did work very well for us, let me know how it goes for you!
I went out to the barn and cut a hole in their hog panel and made a safe environment in the next pen, surrounded in bales, I scooped ALL the hay out of the big areas and put enough in the new creep for them to burrow under safely. Nowhere else to hide themselves.. So your idea has been put into immediate action..I now know to have the creep set up from the get go.. many many thanks.. c
You’re heading to Canada? Have a great trip. I’ll be on the lookout for you…
Good luck with the little piglet – at least he’s not new born, so is probably more robust than No. 9.
I too feel sorry for Sheila, she must miss Charlotte 🙂
She gets more to eat with Charlotte away, not long now though and they will be back together.. c
Charlotte went from single girl to mother of nine. I’d be high-strung, too! Glad Sheila behaved herself while you were away. Those little piggies need to grow in a hurry so Mama isn’t tripping over them.
So glad Queenie is finding company for herself… In Sweden I read that it’s the law for a pig to have company , and illegal to keep one on its own ! Good to know they have some sense in some places… it’s also illegal there to leave a dog alone in the house for more than four hours !!!
Hope you have a wonderfully relaxing holiday in Canada…
Pretty borage, the bees must be enjoying it.
Oh I am so sorry all of what you have been going through and because of it you had a very sad dream.. Farming is not easy it is a very hard way of life in so many ways. Many think it is very romantic to grow your own and raise little animals up till they have their own. It is hard and one suffers you will too sending you hugs as you need more than just one.
OH and I LOVE SWEDEN! 🙂
I so admire your grit Cecilia! No you are not a Pollyanna, you are a Realist. I identify so strongly with your because you always manage to find the good in a situation and by the power of your words and pictures, you lift us up alongside you. There are many lessons for us to learn in this life, some of them really hard to face. But face them we must! What helps is that we are stronger when we know we have each other for support. That’s where The Fellowship comes in. Summertime on the farm is hard on bodies, often chaotic, and there are hard choices. But I can’t contemplate wanting to be doing anything else! Sounds like little ripped piggy is going to live with an interesting scar. Fingers crossed for that one. Can’t wait to hear more about Canada. Give yourself a break, you’ve been working hard!
Fingers very crossed, poor fella, I have done all I can.. c
Celi: yes we do come every day to have that cup of tea with you, BUT there have to be days when it simply is not convenient for you: so you put a note on the door saying you’ll see us tomorrow! And we’ll look forward to that 🙂 ! Surely you do not have to sit in the morning gloom with all work waiting trying to be witty and wise every day!!! But now you have given us homework: was it the staff of Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard who cut down the trees: methinks poor Anne for sure!! And then back to politics: huge leadership changes in the Federal Labour Caucus here overnight are promising a very exciting election campaign! Involved: heck yes!!!!!
I have always thought it was Anne, poor anne, but now we need to know for sure.. if you find out first let me know! i cannot remember where I read that! c
You have so many plates to keep in the air, It’s incredible that it’s only words you struggle for. I’m guessing it’s the “Sheila” attitude that gets you there – you put in the groundwork and then have faith to carry through when it’s tested. “…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” 🙂
and all manner of things shall be well.. I like this! thank you honey.. c
Well, this is why modern farm raise their pigs the way they do. Even most free-range farmers pen mom away from the babies in some way or another. Admirable that you are trying different, though! I hope it works out and this isn’t another Nine incident!
Many people do it this way as well, even around here. But Charlotte gets wild any time someone is close and whether in a cage or not there is always a chance that there is a piglet under her. But I have opened up their creep area, which I should have done from the beginning, this might make a difference. I am afraid that this IS another number Nine incident and my fault too. c