Sheila my big fat Pig

I realised yesterday that we have started our annual fundraising for Sheila and yet some of our newer readers will  not know why.

Sheila is a very special pig.  I have collected some older photos of her for you to show you how special.

Sheila is a Hereford Pig. The Hereford swine are still listed as a rare pig. The more commercial breeds have very quickly pushed out the older heritage slower growing breeds of pigs.  Heritage is to meat what heirloom is to vegetables.  And the Herefords are one of the more unusual heritage breed .

Sheila came here with her sister Charlotte as piglets.

Charlotte got pregnant first but  during her pregnancy and after farrowing she became fierce with us and with Sheila. She became a dangerous pig to have on such a little property. And Sheila started choosing not to sleep in the same space as her. So she had to leave. After Charlotte left Sheila lived on her own in the sun room of the barn with a nice little field and spent most of her time tottering around after me as I did my chores.

We thought she would be lonely but she had cats who slept with her, Ton was always by her side  because she is always so gentle and kind.   And of course she had me. I can lie down next to Sheila and sleep – she doesn’t mind. She used to  carry her food bowl to the fence, then stand back for me to fill it.  (Now Poppy does all the carrying) but Sheila still waits quietly until her bowl is filled, watching my face, and when I step back she will eat.

It was indicative of Sheila that she would adopt Poppy, a runt piglet who was very ill when she came.  It is unusual for an older pig like Sheila to adopt a piglet but she did and it has worked out well for both of them.  So now she is not alone. And they are the best of friends, though Poppy is still literally running rings around us.

She spends time every evening carrying loose straw and any uneaten hay across to her bed  then rucks it up with her feet until it is nice and deep and soft. She lies down in her bed every night and lets me cover her up with more straw and a blanket when it is cold.  Only when I am done and she gets her last pat and Ni Ni Sheila does she grunt. She grunts in two descending syllables. Once.   I swear she says Ni Ni back. She only makes that sound at night time. Every time. She will follow me anywhere and never runs away.  She has a different greeting for each of her human friends, different sounds completely. 

She never came into heat and has never bred.  We took her to a boar once and she attacked the Boar. he of course launchedd his tusks at her and she ended up with a baadly gored thigh. She had a long recovery in the worst winter I have ever seen.Do you remember this one .  And we tried everything we collectively knew to bring her in but she never did.  And the people who know about these things say it is unlikely that she will ever come into heat now.

Well, this is a farm. It is not a zoo.  Every animal and bird has a reason on a farm.  It is expensive both in space, feed and vet bills to keep an animal who does not perform.  Usually they are sold off the farm for the farms sake. The bottom line is very thin some years.

But The Fellowship and I decided that we would keep Sheila as a pet.  And she would be the poster pig for our calender and I would make a T shirt to pay for her feed. She is a special kind of pig. Albeit a very large pet.  She is a good girl.

In the summer she lives on pasture and garden scraps with a little grain once a week or so,  so she is cheap to run in the summer. But in the winter she eats hay, fruit and vegetables and a little more grain. And all the grazing and all the gardens are under a sheet of ice so we have to buy her food.  She is on a strict vegetarian diet, that I can track,  getting all her protein from eggs that I pop into her mouth one after the other and milk.  So she needs a very good diet that will not make her fat so she lives a long time.  In the winter I buy apple, carrots and pumpkins and potatoes, and piles of fruit and green vegetables – and collect old vegetables from stores which Sheila can eat and restaurants (which she usually cannot eat) and  believe it or not Sheila LOVES kale but is not allowed deep fried anything.

The people that know such things tell me she is about 600 pounds now.  She stands as high as my waist and is about 6 feet long and is almost 3 years old.  This is not a little pig. And pigs keep growing until they die. So we need to make sure she is well nourished but not OVER fed.

And that is why Sheila gets to work, at this time of year, posing for her photos, so I can make the calenders and T shirts. The calenders and the Tshirt are her contribution to the farm. And I hope with this special lean high vegetable diet she will live a long, long time. I ask many pig farmers how long a pig can live and they shrug their shoulders.  We will just have to wait and see they say. And so we will.

Above you will see a new page called Calendars.. if you would like one.. (they will be  around 22 dollars each plus postage – this depends on the number ordered.) Please leave your name and how many you want  in the page above (under menu). The pictures are not only of Sheila they cover almost every animal and bird from  the farm in 2014.  So I am sure your favourites will be there. I am very pleased with it.

Here is the link to the T shirt

http://teespring.com/mybigfatpig .

I hope you have a lovely day,

Sheila will! I love my big fat pig.

Lots of love to you from Sheila and

celi