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Thursday, April 30, 2009

No chainsaw


It sure is cold down here now. I went into town and collected a big bunch of straw bedding for the pigs yesterday – luckily. It was about minus three when I went out to feed them this morning and they were all snuggled under big piles of the yellow. Tiberius was still sleeping when we put the feeds out and had to be called before he noticed we were there.

Although there was 100% cloud cover we still had a frost. So it’ll just get colder from here on. I’ll probably need to find more fire wood soon as well; I’m not leaving that till the last minute this year.

Rosie had piglets last night. She only had four – which is good. In the torch light I couldn’t see any white on any of the piglets. My first thought was that they had been sired by the wild boar, I was dreading that. But the Cook went out and had a look this morning and luckily they had white stars and feet just like their mum. So I was doubly glad I had packed their beds with straw.

The Cook has gone into town today to pick up some posts for a new weaner enclosure. The weaners need to be kept separate from the new mums, specially this time of year when the piglets need everything they can get.

I adhered to the advice of the women I asked about what to get for the Cook. She seemed very happy with her jewellery and pyjamas. So maybe I can scrape half a brownie point in there – I would still have liked to get her a chainsaw or a new crowbar.

With the cold comes the shorter days, it’s hard getting used to being inside before 6pm, we seem to sit around for hours waiting for dinner. Still gives us all time to catch up on what each other did during the day and homework.

3 comments:

Lindsay said...

I know I live "Down Under" but why do you produce piglets when the weather is turning cold? Surely the spring is the best time of year?

The Duck Herder said...

hee hee, really you can't lose with pjs AND jewelry - you have both bases covered there - yes "I think of you as my beautiful queen and here are some more jewels to adorn your gorgeous face and you are still a hotty after all these years and definitely worth adorning" plus "darling I love you so much I just want you to be warm and comfortable and anyway, you would look dead sexy in a chaff bag and you look sooooooo cute in your flanni pjs and ugg boots"

see, you can't lose. Nice work.

Valley View said...

Hi Lindsay

Producing over winter ensures you have pork to sell in the late summer and early Autumn. Because some people - usually Italians and eastern Europeans want spit roasts or suckling pigs you need to have a spread of sizes to cover all bases.

Because our population isn't as compact as in the UK losing a customer is a big issue. Remeber more people live in London then live in the while of Australia.

Cheers

Martyn