Grim weather and Great Escapes
Yesterday began cold and blustery. Sprinkles of rain but nothing to write home about. This morning is more of the same.
I hate to say it but winter is coming. Yesterday I miserably hunted out my winter jacket shook the spiders out of it and put it in the washing machine. John has sown the new fall grass seed in the fields but I am yet to get the ground cover oats onto the big gardens so I hope I still do have a month before the bad frosts come. I am about a month late because of rain and poggy fields and now here is more. Loud SIGH.
Poppy’s udder continues to drop but her belly really is not large, I am re-guessing that she may have a smaller litter. Let’s hope so. She had a small litter last time (five) .. but a small litter can mean big babies and big babies can be hard to give birth to so I am encouraging her to walk lots and eat more grass and people food rather than grain.
Molly is back in the barn.
Sheila just will not let Molly settle, still attacking her at every chance and Molly is losing weight and carries small wounds from Sheila, superficial but enough that I have decided to part them. So Molly is in the barn now the pen with the small outside run but lots of inside space, one pen across from Poppy and with lots of people company. Molly has a sweet nature and I want to keep her sweet. She will go back to live with Manu at the end of November. Sheila really does not like other pigs and is only happy alone. Cantankerous old pig!
I took my Pig Lady into the fields to see the piglets and could only find three because the piglets had executed their first great escape, streamed out through a hole and into the asparagus then off into the wild grass down by the Creek that is really a Ditch and right into coyote country. They all ran back in, then back out again honking with delight when I calledd, So my friend was abandoned and Nick and I quickly electric fenced their field then buckets in hand gently called them all back in again and put on the power. So now they are locked in until they work out their next escape. Luckily they are all trained to their call.
Good morning. It looked to me like Aunty Del was coming into heat last night so this evening the Lady Vet will come out to breed her. Let’s hope it works as it is getting late in the summer for breeding. The later she calves next summer the longer I have to milk into the winter. While she is here we will take blood from Lady – hopefully she is pregnant.
OK! I had better get up and get going. Time to milk the cows.
Have a lovely day
celi
20 Comments on “Grim weather and Great Escapes”
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Busy busy. Naughty Sheila! Naughty Escape Artists! Naughty dark sky. But you have it all well in hand, as usual. xx
You’ll have to name the ring leader Steve McQueen! …if it’s a boy. It sounds hilarious, but I bet you were stressed at the time. I do love the naughty pigs 🙂
those piggies alone could get everybody on the farmy superfit 🙂 We had 10 drops of rain last night, hopefully theres more coming. Laura
Is everyone on your farm either coming into season,getting pregnant, already pregnant oor giving birth.. Hope.for your sake that it is not catching. ha ha
I used to come home from work and find out 4 Large Black feeder pigs waiting for me by the back door, looking for handouts and whey. Thankfully they were good humored and followed me pretty well. Good luck with the cow breeding!
There is so much to keep track of. Do you use pen and paper or electronics?
You could write a book about the escaping piglets. 😀 How is Ton ton?
shockingly 30 C here, what? Coats washed, electric blankets ready … just finding my shorts and tank-top. crazy. not complaining. … of course it will be equally lovely when you visit France. Zat eeze wat we do, mon cheri.
I was wondering the same thing as Nadia about how you keep track of everything. We used to have a big wall calendar with a different colour for each person, but you would be using the whole Crayola box! The geese are gathering and creating a lot of commotion. Winter is coming. Keep warm and have a good day.
My mother was so funny, even in her eighties she would chase my brother’s sheep when they were on the loose. Your piggies are having fun running around.
Yes I think we are all wondering how in the world you keep track of everyone. This is major!! I thought Poppy wasSheila!! That’s how well I’d keep track–even though Sheila has never had a litter I’d just assume she had prominent ,umm, breasts.
What a tremendous juggling job the Farmy is, and how well you keep all the balls in the air – mid air recovery and all. Bad, wicked piglets, but it’s what they do and are, isn’t it?
Oh, Sheila. I understand. I don’t like sharing the best of the treats or the bed with anyone, either.
All of us longtimers have made ‘guesses’ as to litters time and again: well, I’ll go for 9 for Poppy [or are they not allowed to be born in uneven numbers 🙂 !] And Sheila: ‘cantankerous’ is not a description I have seen attached to your name . . . ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds ye’ !!!!
Same here. After weeks and weeks of no rain, now it won’t stop. I’m debating whether to keep waiting (until it’s possibly too late) or just till up the mud and sow the cover crops.
I am thinking I might sow the oats by hand, it would be better than nothing anyway?
We just got back from Europe but I’ve been reading your posts. Too back the piggies fight like that. The little one’s seem quite clever to figure out a way to escape, it’s good that they come back when called. I heard that winter will be brutal this year, I sure hope not.
Welcome home! Lets hope you heard wrong abut the weather!
Pig honking… that was meditative music to my ears this morning. Wise woman to get the cool weather threads out now. I did the same last week. It feels wonderful to be prepared!!
Your pigs are hilarious! Such distinct personalities! Have a lovely day too!