It's always hard being the new pigs on the block, everyone seems very friendly but it takes a while to work out who's who, who doesn't get on with who and who are the real decision makers. But we're getting the feel of the place now. We've met the sows, two lovely Old Spots both of whom have had several litters of piglets. Unfortunately the farm is "between boars" at the moment so we'll just have to wait a while before we can start producing.
Valentine and Doris have spent a lot of time explaining that they are "orchard" pigs and their natural habitat is under fruit trees clearing up windfalls. However we noticed that they weren't allowed anywhere near an orchard this autumn, the children harvested the fruit and in fact they held a whole day celebrating the various apples and pears found here.
Other new arrivals are two Cotswold ewes who are grazing happily in full view of their native Cotswold Hills. They have the most ridiculous haircuts I've ever seen, how they find their way about behind those fringes I don't know, mind you I guess you don't have to look too carefully to find the next blade of grass.
For the last few months we lived across the moat from a flock of turkeys, they were living in the shed and they made the wierdest noise, until someone let them out I thought we had a shed full of puppies in there. Every morning and evening the children walked the turkeys out to graze then back to bed. It's lucky the children are so patient, those birds are so slow and not one of them can walk in a straight line. Anyway it's all gone very quiet now, just before Christmas the numbers seemed to go right down and now it's just a pair who stroll in and out.
We were just starting to feel really at home and fit in with all the routines when suddenly it all changed. We'd always lived in nice, warm pens and then suddenly we were posted out to the riverside paddock. It was lovely in the autumn sunshine, fantastic views and a really good spot to listen out for the approach of those magic buckets. And then the big freeze happened......the ground went rock hard overnight, all our water supplies froze solid and you could see your breath hanging in the air. Fortunately our shed had been well strawed out and by keeping together we could get warm, but out and about in the field trying to keep the circulation going in your trotters was almost impossible.
One morning the children read minus 10 degrees off the thermometer and bless them, they did look cold. But boy did they work, the only way to cope was to keep moving and move they did. Buckets and buckets of water were ferried to every corner of the farm. fresh warm straw beds were distributed and everyone was fed and watered on time. The cattle finally came into the barn for the winter and I have to say they looked very relieved to be inside and with a plentiful supply of hay.
The sheep are still out but they do have their woollen coats to help them cope. Even they had to have hay taken out each morning when they woke up to find their breakfast deep frozen.
However, despite the difficulties, we have woken up to some stunningly beautiful sights as each day a new layer of frost settled on the old ones. A very seasonal, winter wonderland......
And now it's all change again, the thaw has brought mud - plenty of mud. The birds have decided it's spring and have started thinking about nesting, finally the grass has started to grow again and there's plentiful water in every drinker - in fact in every hole and rut in the field. And I think you can even notice the days getting longer. Me and Virginia were getting quite excited by it all until someone reminded us that we haven't even had Wassail yet and there's plenty of winter still to come. Best way to wait for spring - a hearty breakfast then snooze under a warm layer of straw......
