Letter from Pat

Today we are back on the road to take Pat to the train. As well  as her calm support, Pat has helped us enormously, firstly being the farmers wife and secondly being the Piglet Mother while I do chores in the morning and afternoons so Lurch will miss her too.

Yesterday was a day with only a little rain, a lot of heat and  lots of good work. The rescue piglets were let out into the barn corridor and this alleviated their cabin fever bickering immediately as they pushed their noses through the planks to sniff at the big group of Molly’s mob who sniffed right back. All are growing faster than I can keep up with.

Lurch is having a growth spurt too and, as well as being unfillable, walked yesterday evening for an even longer time than usual plus (and this is interesting) she has started to get loud and a little bossy!  Her leg (or maybe her hip or back we are not sure) still stops her from getting up once she falls and she always falls onto her right side, but she is definitely falling less which is my goal.  And the last two nights I have stolen six hours sleep and none of the piglets is any worse for wear. They are almost three weeks old and fattening up – so we can go longer without milk now.

For the record Lurch has never peed inside. She waits until she is carried out to the grass then pees immediately. But she is still being carried – this is the problem.

Molly and Tahiti decided to break into Sheila’s field yesterday  (I am not worried as they picked a temporary very weakly constructed fence to go under.) But Sheila smiled her big wide smile and rushed past them into their field and when I could not find her at dinner time I went to Molly and Tahiti’s little tin hut and found Sheila firmly esconced and not giving up her space – so I put her feed in there.  Molly and Tahiti have been sent to the root cellar to sleep!  She is a clever pig.

Some insect has eaten all the leaves off our autumn seedlings – I suspect the huge grasshoppers. Nick tells me that my grasshoppers are so big I could make a mint selling them because they are actually serving grasshoppers in some New York restaurants. I asked him what they taste like . “Grass”, he said “I suppose that is not surprising.” he added.

Terrible to lose a months growing though and you cannot buy seedlings anywhere here – they stopped selling seeds or fresh plants months ago. I have never understood that. No-one is meant to plant past June apparently.  But I will check and see if any punnets of plants have held on through the summer for me.  I will plant the little stalks and cover them and hope  for the best then resow but it is getting late.

Here is Pat’s letter. See you tomorrow.

Thank you Pat.

Dear Fellowship,

It’s the end of another perfect visit filled with chicken feeding, egg collecting, piglet sitting, cooking, eating and visiting with friends.  The time has flown by in a sea mud and incredible humidity (remember I’m from NM & high desert dry).  A lot of work got done despite being more difficult in the mire and a lot of caring has gone into keeping everyone healthy.

My favorite thing?  The cooking!  Even though one person is charged with making dinner, it’s a community effort, a lot of chatter and clatter.  You should see the 8 minute  dishwashing challenge!  Celi is amazing, always doing, thinking and keeping us all straight.  She is the most efficient person I know and gets more done in a day for it. 

So till next year I will say my goodbyes to the Farmy, Celi, Mr C, all the pigs, cows, feathered friends and dogs.

Miss you already. Pat