I know people have posts called Wordless Wednesday, and really it is Saturday though we are commenting on Friday, and I am never short of words but sometimes short of photos so it is Photo-less Friday on a Saturday. It all gets so confusing. Poor us living in the past with our pleasantly addled brains.
But Friday was grim. Dark gray all day. Heavy frosted clouds. Cold. Windy. Flurries of snow that went nowhere, not settling, or floating, just falling. I don’t know why it is called a flurry, because there is no flurry of activity at all, just the little snow, like icy air, flying at your face. It is so dry that I am getting electric shocks off everything. Even people. Today there is meant to be more snow, we will see.
But I must rush. Sheila has a date TODAY! With a lovely Berkshire Boar.
The Berkshire breeder is going to put her in a pen in his warm barn between two boars and this should bring her into heat, it will take a few days though, maybe even a week or so, then he will open her gate and let her into the corridor and when she looks like she wants to fraternise he will let the boar out behind her. Then you and I are going to close our eyes and give them some privacy. But he does this often and has a good system. So I am expecting that Sheila will do well. Plus it is only 10 minutes away. And her temporary bedroom will be heated!
And if all goes well we should be able to raise a bunch of Hereford/Berkshire plonkers next summer. They are not an uncommon cross so I have read.
So now, I must go and see if I can get Sheila to go into the trailer. And all the gates are either frozen shut or have snow in the wrong places for the trailer so I am going to have to lead her through the barn and out the feed room door and into the trailer that way. She often follows me about but not through the feed room and never into the trailer, so it should be an interesting exercise! First I will restack the hay to make a corridor for her. If she cannot see anything tempting she will walk past nicely I hope.
She is going to be mad at me!
Have you remembered that Daisy is due to calve in the middle of March? Under two months now. I need to start looking about for a new milking pump.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
56 responses to “Photo-less friday and Sheila has a date.”
Good luck to Sheila!
It sounds like a lot of work. But so romantic for your sow. I do hope she will conceive- with pilglets that is. Your weather sounds dreadful.
A heated room is a nice, but I don’t think it makes up for Shelia finding herself far from home & penned between two strange man-pig . She might think she’s been piggynapped & being held for ransom at the strange farmy. Maybe you could send her a care package with a nice blanket that she can shred,just in case she gets nervous & perhaps a treat. There must be some sort of piggy-equivalent of chocolate she’d like that might calm her jittery virgin nerves until she comes back home.
The stars are aligned for mix-breed plonkers. It’s gonna happen. Can’t wait to hear how the mystery date unfolds.
Oooooh! I can’t wait to read about Sheila’s sojourn and how you fare steering her into the trailer. Wish I was there – “a fly on the wall.”
I imagine she’ll like that heated barn.
Oh my – Sheila has *that* kind of date. :O I’m off to inquire of mom if I will ever get that kind of date. I’ll keep you posted my friend. XOXO – Bacon
You might have to get a bigger bed!.. c
Looks at toddler bed. Hhmm – maybe I’ll go double. XOXO – Bacon
might be wise bacon, especially if that picky Miss Piggy succumbs to your charms..
On it then. Squeals. Snorts. XOXO – Bacon