The joy of pigs! eh!
The first thing I thought when I got up this morning was…. “it’s not raining”. That was good, second morning in a row that I’ve got up to a dry start, maybe I thought I could get some time in the garden today! It kind of went down hill from there for the next few hours!
Farmer Alfie was due to take 2 pigs off to the butcher today, and silly me asked if he needed a hand loading them! Off we went to get them into the trailer. Let me tell you at this stage these guys are 70 kg each! And boy are they strong. So we got one guy in…. he wasn’t too impressed about it and was doing his damnedest to get back out… he almost knocked both Farmer Alfie and myself out of the way in his efforts to escape.
Now we are in to the really difficult part. The trailer door is closed with one unhappy, confined pig inside and we need to get another one in there! Farmer Alfie managed to catch victim number two and as he virtually fell into the trailer with her I was being thrown out by number 1, but had at the same time to get the door of the trailer closed! Great fun! And in the midst of all this, Clarence the boar and the 5 remaining boars have escaped from their field and gone walk about!
Clarence being the guy he is headed straight off to the field where the sows were…. well wouldn’t any guy?? Farmer Alfie managed to coax him back to his own place while I went in search of the other 5 – guess where they had gone – straight down the driveway and out onto the road, away off on a big adventure! You wouldn’t believe how pigs can trot and run! I had grabbed a bucket of grain for them and despite my calling and calling (which they would normally respond to… thinking hey food!) they just kept trotting along. So there we are with 5 pigs heading off to the junction. Luckily one of our neighbours was coming along at the t-junction on a tractor and could see me waving frantically at him (I am still a 100 yards behind the pigs). Friendly neighbour realised something was going on, and swung around the corner! You should have seen those five pigs turn and start running for home! Even funnier with me trying to run and keep ahead of them with the bucket of grain!
Got them all back into the field, and Farmer Alfie headed off with 2 in the trailer. You’d think that would be enough activity with pigs for one day! Not a bit of it.
Farmer Alfie decided he had 20 minutes to spare before heading off to the Village Hall to paint the stage, so he might as well take one of the sows over to visit Clarence for a little holiday. So once again the Reluctant Apprentice is roped into duty.
Lucy, the oldest and biggest sow, is the one chosen for the romantic holiday. But she wanted none of it. We got her out of her own place and then she did everything she could to get back in. Meantime, Clarence and his 5 buddies have decided to come and take a look (the turkeys even joined in the fun – they took the prize seats, looking on from their perch on the fence).
It took a lot of persuasion and spilling of mud and sweat to get her over to the other paddock, where, of course, she duly turned up her nose at any advances being made by Clarence!
Let’s see what tomorrow brings……
A Year In Redwood 