We did fencing yesterday. The middle sized pigs are pushing their fence outwards as they race up and down chasing cars in a mad kiind of gaggle. My UPS man – who visits almost every farm and house in the area -said he has never seen such hilarious pigs. They will knock each other sprawling to race the cars up and down. Anyway yesterday, in the heaving sodden pig trampled mud, that squirted water up at every step, our boots sticking in it, then sliding in it, we put up an electric fence rope alone the fence line.
The sticking and sliding is an interesting one. So your boots get stuck in the mud then slide sideways slightly as they go deeper but enough to unbalance you. You catch your body in the fall but your feet stay in the boots that are by then way stuck IN the mud. So you do this kind of jolly jumper kind of sway back and forth on your concrete feet. There is immediate panic of course as hitting the deck with mud and pigs below is NOT an option and moving forward has some planning involved.
Then once you have righted yourself you face the problem of pulling your feet AND the boots up and out of the mud for another step. Pulling the foot up without the boot is quite another thing altogether and to be avoided at all costs.
There are squelchy sounds too which I will not describe it was all too horrible.
Pigs love it of course. 
Although they are only in there another couple of weeks we were going to have pigs chasing cars all the way home if we did not fix that s the mud had to be dealt with.
After we finished that job we did the chores, feeding all the animals, bringing Molly in from the field, transferring plants into the glasshouse out of the blowing chill forecast, feeding out hay, etc and it began to pour down. Really pour. A face washing rain.
To work in the mud I had put on my clown pants and jacket and Alex was wearing a navy jump suit under his jacket and soon all these layers were soaked. I had not bothered going back to change into wet weather gear. We were already too wet.
So as the weather worsened we quickly because heavier and bulkier as our cold weather gear soaked in all the rain. It’s funny how being soaked standing up and walking is just wet. When we climbed into the truck to go and feed out at the West side we discovered that soaked and sitting down is much nastier. Very shortly the pressure of my seat had drawn the wet right through to my skin. I was even wetter. And it was cold.
I discovered yesterday that my miss-spent New Zealand youth hanging out with the fishermen (my Dad repaired many of their trawlers) was well spent, because I tie better knots than the Navy man! I did not scoff of course but I felt quietly smug. Though I guess knots on a nuclear submarine would not be useful.
Maybe I should do a class in knot tying for the kids. Tying a knot that creates tension in the rope or fence is very useful. My Dad taught me that one.
Here is the site I have filed for when I need to refer a kid to a knot.
The winds are coming now. But they are good for one thing. We need the wind to dry up some of this mud. Though warm wind would be nicer. We are going down to below freezing with this wind tonight.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
Weather Forecast
Cloudy and windy. Periods of light rain this morning. High around 50F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Winds will occasionally gust over 40 mph.
The Kitchen's Garden 
56 responses to “Knots Up”
You sent you wet and wind on to us. Tonight is going to freezing and snow flurries tomorrow. We are under a high wind advisory right now and east of the mountains is under tornado watch. The temperature has fallen 6 degrees in the past couple of hours, our high was early this morning. The Boy Scout leader in me loves knots, which one do you use for tensioning. Sorry you got soaked, that is a miserable feeling and your mud fun sounds like anything but fun.
I do not remember its name – I will look it up for you when I get a chance..
We are cold here also…below freezing for two nights straight. BUT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>they say we are heading for a warm up! YAY!
Ridiculous weather!! c
I second the motion of a video of the piggies chasing the cars. Your piggies really are such characters!
I will see what I can do
Pigs chasing cars like dogs, oh my!!!. I’ll third that video.
I’ve dealt with that kind of sticky, sucking mud, mixed with manure (horse) when I worked a summer at a livery stable. It rained for days and going out to feed and check the water trough was a balancing act at best and, no, you really didn’t want to lose your boots. The dog yard at the house would get pretty muddy too when it rained or thawed, but never that bad.
I’m not all that good with knots, but the spouse is. Seems that I end up using surgeon’s knots most of all.
Warmer weather coming, if the forecast is to be believed.
I choose to believe that forecast!!
Sounds like the perfect weather for hot soup and some of that good bread you made!
Chicken soup! Good thinking.. c
I need that knot, I’m forever extending the electric fences and end up with slack when adding wire, time to follow that link 🙂
There is also a small device that will wind your string tighter. Though sometimes i think my electric fences are all smoke and mirrors..
I know what you mean, mine are invariably turned off, I even found the goats chewing it the other day, and still they wont cross the line 🙂
Big Man is the knotter in our house, lashing things together and tying things to the roof racks of cars. Unfortunately he also does this with supermarket shopping bag handles and I can never get them undone!
I’m really good at untangling them however I’m not a knotter, being all thumbs, it seems but it’s one of those skills I never tire of admiring.
Oh I know that kind of mud, had it at my first house. I often felt like one of those wobbly punching clowns with the weighted bottoms except they always come back upright! Here the mud doesn’t tend to get as deep, lots of sand and gravel. It does, however, tend to get slimy and I’ve done some interesting dance steps complete with wild arm movements trying to keep my feet under me!
WE ARE EXPERIENCING TORRENTIAL RAIN AND HIGH WINDS:
The weather report is: High Wind Warning
Central Siskiyou County, California
3 hours ago – National Weather Service
remains in effect until 11 … Winds: south 40 to 50 with gusts to 65 mph …
Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage …
May your days be calmer and less muddy!
Getting stuck in the mud one foot either side of an electric fence is tricky. In less extreme circumstances I have learnt to take my foot out of the stuck boot and balance it on my other leg whilst bending down and pulling the other boot out of the mud. I can only do this on one side though, if I tried on the other side/foot I would fall over for sure. Im pretty sure I would not be attempting this in your temps though, if I fall over here i just get wet, not wet and chilled to the bone. Molly’s udder has not filled out much, do you think she might have a bit longer to go or is she one of those whose milk rushes in at the last minute?
She has the udder but the teats have not filled down yet -no starfish yet – plus she is still very active – I agree – a few more days.
Huh. I hadn’t considered that the modern navy has very little need for knots. A private boat has more need for knots. Particularly a sailboat. My dad taught me knots on our sailboat, and somehow I always thought it was his time in the navy that taught him, but probably not. Destroyers don’t really need them either.
My dad taught me knots too, and I’ve always been grateful for that.