Yesterday afternoon I saw (with a certain amount of alarm) that Sheila my big fat old pig was building her winter bed, for hours in the afternoon she went about the barn stealing hay and straw and sticks and anything she could gather into her mouth lumbering back to her new corner out of the drafts to build her two story bed. Her winter bed is always high up off the floor. But I watched with gathering alarm as she began a winter bed. It is after all ONLY October!
So sighing myself, I gathered up my army of help and we carried out extra straw and old hay as bedding for all the other pigs on the farm. Sheila has a built in barometer and it must have been dropping. She feels the cold coming.
We attached the half door to Manu’s house, stuffed it full of straw, added more straw to the Plonkers hut, pushed all the dry bedding into a corner of the gilts pen, and gave Tima and Tane some extra warm bedding.
When I went out in the night to check them: both the little gilts (Molly and Tahiti) had quite disappeared into their hill of straw, Sheila and Poppy were cuddled up in Sheila’s new bed and Tima and Tane as usual had their heads covered in straw and their big fat bums out in the air like babies sleeping on their faces. Manu had said thank you very much and was curled up in the back of his hut, snoring gently. The Plonkers had thrown themselves on top of their straw and were fast asleep.
Sheila grunted a good night as I left the barn. She is such a doll. I love that big fat pig.
Why is it a surprise to me that winter is, once again, on its way.
The lovely thing about this shot is the two calves, Little and Difficult, who both recovered from deeply grave states with scours and pneumonia, and here they are drinking their warm evening milk with gusto, after a day out in the fields grazing like real little cows.Their bellies dropping into a perfect pear shape. And look at those lovely clean bottoms.
I hope you have a lovely day. This is my hope for you every day. that you find some loveliness.
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
58 responses to “Listen to Sheila”
I am not ready for this cold!
Nor am I connie – maybe we will get a touch of indian summer? sometime?
If anyone else but you told me to look at lovely clean bottoms, I might be a little shocked!
You are lucky that Sheila is an in-house forecaster, but in any case you are always prevoyant and well prepared.
Lots of love,
ViV
And it was cold and then it rained last night – I must have missed the forecast on that one.. this morning sheila stood up to have a little breakfast then lay back down again – this kind of weather upsets her arthritis – an aspirin in an apple for her later I think.. c
Poor clever old Sheila – I know how she feels!
You sound just like a mother, delighted to find the nappy clean for the first time!
If it came to a contest between Sheila and the meteorologists, I’d back Sheila for a nose for the weather. Please may we have a photo of Tima and Tane sleeping with their heads in and bottoms out?
I will go out tonight specially, though it is very dark but I can use a flash as they have their heads so far into the hay they will not even see the flash!! c
Can’t wait. Those two have such endearing round bottoms..
My personal loveliness today was having my girls and husband greet me (still in one piece) on the other side of the ocean. Sheila is a beautiful barometer. And the cow bottoms are very sweet.
Wonderful. And you got back there so fast! c
Yes, a bit faster than when you go to NZ. , thanks the gods, as you say.
how is it that we can feel so excited and chuffed about calves clean bums..yet we are , because youfought so hard for theor survival so no wonder we feel elated at clean bottoms.
Ah now Sheila. she is a scream! beautiful lovely fat pig, with personality and charm all of her own…and a weather forecaster to boot!
its great to hear that the barn animals and grunters are all happily esconced ready for the chilly nights
Take car Miss C…love you all lots and lots
Perhaps Sheila would consider a part-time job with the local TV news forecasting the weather…a smidge of extra income might entice her to take her show on the road so to speak…
I can just see her strolling across the studio floor, dainty feet avoiding all the taped cables.
It is also a surprise to me that winter is on it’s way! Already I’m wearing 3 layers when we go feed! We will have a bit of a warm spell this coming this week, even going into the low 80s, and I’m very, very excited about it!! 🙂
Same AND I have found to my horror that most of my winter layers have come to the end of their lives, the long sleeved T’s were all chopped down into summer T’s, my warm socks have holes in them, and the sweatshirts feel awfully thin from their frequent washings – so my layers may be even more multiple this year! c
Then it’s time to start putting in birthday (maybe early birthday) and Christmas requests to your loved ones! 🙂 I’ve found the same, as today I am exchanging my summer wardrobe for my winter wardrobe. The offseason clothes go under the window seat in the dining room. And so many of my summer clothes are thin and stained and ready for the rag bag! We have lots of thrift stores around here where I do much of my clothes shopping. Do you have those anywhere near you? There are many wonderful deals to be had! For super good prices! You do need to stay warm!!! xoxoxo
The thrift store (one) that I know of is terribly over priced here. I might have to come down to yours!! I say to everyone – send me your hand me downs! I am not proud – i wear them!
Celi, send me your sizes, both for pants and tops, and jackets, and I’ll keep an eye out! Our thrift stores even have half price sales and specials daily. It’s great!
I’m sure that Sheila is noticing how it’s becoming a bit chillier at night. She’ll want her hot water bottle and electric blanket soon 😉
The winter always sneaks up on me too, I can hardly believe it was about a month ago we were melting in the restaurant in Chicago. Actually melting. It’s really cold at the cottage and we’ve had the heat on all weekend. I’m heading back to the city on my own and I’m hoping the house won’t be too chilly. I have four recipes to test tomorrow so it’ll warm the house plenty. Hope you have a lovely day too.
PS, are cow bottoms usually dirty?
These calves had terrible scours on and off then were plagued with lung infections – needing antibiotics which further upset their digestive systems – the joy is having them stable at last and noisy and eating and yes: no mess on their legs from the diarrhea – clean bottoms. Seems like just the other day we were in chicago – time is flying~!
Oh my, that sounds terrible, I’m so glad they are on the mend Celi. Bunnies have very delicate digestive systems too and if ours ever had to go on antibiotics, we would have to force feed them yogurt to get the balance back. Bunnies HATE yogurt.
You are so great helping the pigs to prepare themselves for winter. Oh my, you want to retain the warm season but the pigs seem to know better… We must give in when winter knocks on our doors…
I love that you went out deep in the night to check everything … and just finding them all safe and sleeping heavenly.
Here it’s cold too already, but I refuse to turn up the heating…
Have a nice Sunday, Celi.
you have your own personal weather forecaster! Lovely to see how the calves have progressed! Cheers and get out the long underwear!
What a thought! I was hoping for just a little more summer and here I am telling John it is time to clean the chimney! c
Part of my morning loveliness is being able to drop in to say good morning to the farmie!
Good morning Mouse!! c
My Northern Spider Tortoises are my barometer. When a front is on the way, they bury themselves in the sand, sometimes so deeply that I have to dig to find them. I’ve learned to listen. They are more reliable than a weather reporter.
Hmm, do they live inside? or outside? Do you think it is the pressure dropping that alerts them or sounds or something – what does this? I think for Sheila it is her arthritis.. this triggers her need for a deeper mattress – do you think? c
They are completely indoors this year. I believe it’s the barometric pressure. Even indoors, they are aware of the subtle shifts.They do it in winter, as well. I knew the snows weren’t over this year because the brygooi male was so deeply buried I couldn’t see him.
We are seeing more and more signs of winter approaching. The snakes have holed up, the mice are drifting in (disgusting things) and the flies are desperate. I think fall might be a short— fall this year.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
A Short Fall – oh dear.. no time for my cabbages to get very big then, maybe I will cloche them.. c
I hope I’m wrong. Wrong would be a good thing!
We’ve been talking about this winter thing lately. It seems way too early down here (in southern Missouri) to have temperatures fall into the 40s at night. Most years flowers are still blooming at Thanksgiving. Self-deluded little marigolds and morning glories to be sure, but still blooming. Last year, it never did get seriously cold until February. The old timers around here are talking about a cold, early winter. It seems that Shelia agrees and that worries me more than any meteorologist.