Possibly Poppy.

I have three entries in my diary – all possible farrowing dates for Poppy. They read.

April 04 – Possibly Poppy.

April 25 – Possibly Poppy.

May 17 – Possibly Poppy.

I don’t think it will be April 04.

Poppy and all the other female pigs were extremely agitated and excitable yesterday.  I watched them all closely and could find nothing in common other than the thundery stormy weather. Poppy was actually jumping up on her gate something I have not seen her do for a while.

Tane was out in the field when the weather began to change, and  the thunder and lightening rolled in and he turned and ran  (like a short fat old trotter pulling a sulky) – legs swinging in unison, strong and steady, all the way home. He had to rest all afternoon to get over his fright.

Because of all the rain The Cadet, Inaki and I spent the afternoon working in the barn again.

Observed by cows. The wind as blowing hard and they were locked off the fields die to the  wetness, so they all stood in the barn and watched us work. Cows love to watch.  Inaki was cleaning out the Black Hole of Calcutta, the dark quiet pen that is the best one for calving.  Next it will be scrubbed and limed. When Lady is due to calve clean straw will be put down. The Cadet was trying to make sense of my mess of a workbench and the cats after gathering all the winter eggs of dubious age and disposing of them.

Carlos the Tiny has been adopted as a kind of mascot by the bigger cows. They use him as a warm friendly cushion, resting their heads on him sometimes.

The thing that attracted me to this image is the curve of the cows neck. So languid.

Lady Astor’s udder is definitely dropping.  My diary says she has 31 days to go.  So if all goes well I will soon  be milking.  The milking shed is almost ready but I need to get John to give the pump its check up and make sure I have all the hoses ready to go. Time goes very fast on the farm.  Especially at this time of year. It is best to be ready WAY ahead of time. A pig will usually go to her date (if she has a date that is) but a cow can go two weeks either way without much trouble.

Good morning. Yesterday we got 20 trees and 5 berry bushes planted before the rain. And a whole lot of grass seed sown and a line of carrots  too though technically the ground is way too wet for much seed sowing – I just could not help myself.  But I was pleased with that.  Things are definitely up and running.

Even though I cannot stand on the garden I will sow around the edges today – unless it rains again of course and that is an 80 percent possibility.

I hope you have a lovely day.

celi