Yes, that is all that is in my head. Today, I am going to clean out Poppy’s bedroom and put in the clean pine shavings. Maybe spend some time on the piglet creep. She is bellying down, her first date is June 10 th or something like that.
This will be my last farrowing. I cannot work off-site and be breeding pigs at the same time. But mostly it is the anxiety and the climate changes so fast now from hot to cold I have to be ready for anything. I feel I am fighting rather than flowing.
Poppy and Sheila will continue to hang out as pets. Sheila needs someone to keep her warm in the winters. Manu has gone to his new harem. Molly has been sold. I feel sad that all the knowledge I strove for will no longer be used. Breaking up the family. But I can buy Manu’s piglets – he is just down the road with his new girls. So I will still raise a few plonkers each year.
There is so much I do instinctively when I am raising piglets, it cannot be taught. Too much is missed when I am not here. And that lack of observing time ultimately costs lives.
Plus every year I have a period of too many animals and that is no good in the warm constantly wet environment which will overnight turn into a hot dry climate then hurl itself into a frozen tundra. I am fighting to keep everything warm/cool and dry.
It is a good decision. Not all good decisions are easy. I feel comfortable with that – but still a bit sad.
Farming is all about adapting and changing. Doing the same thing every year does not work. Rotating crops has to happen for healthy soil. Moving animals often encourages good feeding habits. Changing ones systems to beat pathogens and bacteria’s from bedding down in the corners is logical. Resting areas gives nature tine to help out. Pasture raised anything is very hard in such inclement weather.
I will miss those tiny piglets though!!
But I am thinking about sheep again. Just a thought at this point.
Our whole lives seem to be a constant battle for tidiness and order when our natural environment constantly strives for clutter and chaos and overgrowth and filth. Just stop tending one corner of your yard or your room and watch it quickly revert to type. Just ask a spider.
Ok!
Time to get up.
Celi
Ps yesterday it did not rain very much at all!
The Kitchen's Garden 
46 responses to “TIME TO GET UP”
very wise decisions…not easy to make, but smart. We will miss those little wee piglets for sure!
The universes are in constant change, as is our world, both with the nature aspect and our knowledge of how, why, and when things work. Celia, you are one of the few people I know of who can adapt so readily and rationally to change – or even change them at will to suit your needs at the time. This takes courage, imagination, instinct, and persistence and you have it all in spades! Heh! You’re great at keeping the spiders and webs out of you mind and thought processes! Best to you! – Sunny
Sunny, what a wonderful and really kind comment. Thank you!
It makes sense to work with new situations rather than not deal with changing circumstances simply to resist change when eventually that change becomes the new norm.
I completely understand.
Seems like not that long ago you said you would not be milking anymore. Did I dream that? Lol. Even so, we will adjust to your decisions as you make the ones that are best for you. We will enjoy what you give us. Went to a Tecumseh Bread and Pastry last Saturday. I could not pass along your greeting because they were SO BUSY! I did not distract. Just purchased and quickly got out of the way. We will be going again, though.
You didn’t dream that – and If poor Del had not lost her calf I would not be milking either- I would have left it to the baby. But there you are- I am milking again.
Am glad working off-farm is proving satisfactory. Different stimuli, dealing with other people and some cash at the end of the week., Am going way back remembering . . . did you not give up the sheep because they got some foot disease because of the oft damp soil . . . ? Am ‘travelling’ way back . . .
No not a foot disease. I gave up because my ewes were succumbing due to prolapses- nasty.
That last paragraph does strike home. For a little more than a year I have been trying to catch up, clean up and streamline the day to day doings here so I can continue on by myself. I’ve been up to my ears in a couple of big projects and it came to me this afternoon that if I don’t take tomorrow and tidy everything up it’ll make me crazy! So that’s the plan, I’ll pick up and stow and organize tomorrow so that I can go back to making a mess the next day! Good luck to you on your future plans.
My Godmother once told me that everything needs to belong somewhere so it can be tidied away. Anything that has no home in your house needs to leave. Easier said than done!! But kind of logical really.
That’s sad, but you have to do what you feel is right.
If pigs are the smartest animal in the barnyard, as I’ve heard, maybe in the house spiders are. But I don’t care to find out.. P.S., I’m going to think about this one for quite some time: “Resting areas gives nature tine to help out..” It’s great how living close to the land can offer insights about how to manage in a fast-paced city environment.
Also points out spelling mistakes at 5 am in the morning.
Thanks for this post .. you have helped me make up my mind
About what were you making your mind up? Not something dire I hope.
No nothing dire Celi .. I have a sheep that isn’t fitting in and needs to go back to my neighbour 😊
That’s ok. There is always a watershed moment when a woman loses her beloved dog.