This is why I think Alex is pregnant.
Sheila was shifted down into the back paddock for two reasons . One: she is still fighting Molly through the gates and will cause a problem when the piglets start to arrive. Two: she is getting fat lounging around in the barn. I cannot take her to the bank for her walks anymore because of the toxic mud, all she wants to do is roll in it so she needs a field.
So she and I walked down the back to the recently vacated root cellar field. She was very happy about this – she has spent many happy summers down here but usually she has an above ground house and this year she has to sleep IN the root cellar.
And this was not a popular choice.
She was loud in her protests as I tried to call her down.
There are monsters in there, she called. Get out, she said. I am not going down there. The stairs are slippery. It smells funny. It is too early for bed.
Come back up here with me, she says.
Alright – but you are on your own down there, she told me.
I am off out into the garden to eat worms.
Later in the evening I enticed her down for a look using food. She is a pig after all. I sat down with her for a while – her breath already smelt like garlic chives from the fields. It was kind of a nice smell.
There is a lot of mud. Everything is just mud.
I used to look good in gray. With my blue eyes. But by the end of the day yesterday, after shifting all the cows around and dealing with pigs in mud and chickens in mud. Even the sky is the colour of mud. And this wind will not GIVE UP! Well. Grey. I am over it. There is a certain amount of knuckling down and getting on with it this month.
Sitting with Sheila is her nice dry shelter was a nice time though.
Lady Astor is back at the home farm and giving me the stink eye for send her away in the first place. She was dropping mucousy strands from her rear the other day- she always does this in late pregnancy. Still no sign of an udder forming.
I just spent 15 minutes looking through old posts trying to find a picture of Lady Astor six weeks before her last calf, (she is due May 11) for a comparison but I cannot find one and have run out of time. I will look again later.
Molly the sow is very close now. Her lights are on at night now so she gets used to that and if anything happens I can see. Now that Sheila is out of the barn she slept quietly yesterday afternoon.
We will see – could be any day – but hopefully not tonight as it is forecast to drop below freezing tonight.
I hope you have a good day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
30 responses to “Pigs and Mud”
Sheila looks just like my chickens this morning, after I released them onto the mud flats left behind from receding flood waters…..’what, you want us to put our dainty claws into that smelly mess’? Yes, chickens, because I’m sick of you pooping on my verandah, upsetting the cats and dog trying to steal their food, and stressing Mirrhi who is frantically trying to keep you out of the house. Oh and the mud, yes, sick of that too!
Mud is the name of the game here in Noo Zeellund at the moment, so much rain for so long, and every road in here at Coromandel is constantly being cut off with huge mud slips as the cliffs subside waterlogged and filled with clay and trees across the roads… detours the other night meant an extra two hours to get home…
I hope your mud dries out soon…
Not hardly any mud here, lots of water though. Flowing down the cement alley, down the asphalt and gravel driveway, down the front sidewalk, down the buildings then collecting in lakes on the street to where it’s flooded and almost impassible. Smoky is glad we don’t have to wipe his paws now since we don’t have the mud from the dog yard. All the water is doing damage under all that pavement, it comes to the surface for days after a rain and flows downhill. I remember my father saying that the people who did the construction on these buildings didn’t properly prepare the hill, didn’t sink the right kind of foundations to handle the future drainage, he was right. I think I would rather deal with the mud. My uncle who had the hatchery used to keep old 2″ x 12″ boards and would lay them down from the gates to the feeders and waterers for when it was muddy. I suppose the pigs wouldn’t leave the boards alone though. Sheila is such a lovely character.
I was told that chewing a bit of parsley will cut the garlic breath. You could pass that on to Sheila, in case in the airless dungeon at night her own breathing induces dreams of garlic monsters.
my goodness what a rascal that Sheila! and your photos with comments were hysterically funny! Have a lessmuddy day!
Sitting with your garlic chive munching pig would be heaven .. 😃
Garlic Chive!