June is bursting out all over (with piglets)

'Butter wouldnt melt in their mouths!'

I am determined to get this written as it will be soon time to write July's Diary, it does however reflect on how busy these months are for everyone whether its in the garden or tending livestock.

Livestock
Barring an immaculate conception and the odd batch of hatching eggs we have witnessed the last of the births on the holding for this year. I think! Bonnie our Large Black gilt had purposefully been in with Baldrick our Tamworth boar prior to him going to the abattoir. Due to her increasing size and the telltale sign of a ridge appearing along the nipple line we knew that it wouldn't be long before she farrowed. We managed to move her into the bothy, which had proved ideal housing for Baby to farrow in a few months earlier.
The day eventually arrived and it became quite clear that she was imminent by the way she moved all the straw bedding into one massive nest in the corner of the bothy. No.1 came out before we knew things had progressed to the birthing part, we were looking in frequently though so were able to enjoy watching the rest born. Bonnie behaved impeccably allowing us very close with the kids to watch as the piglets were born.
Having had 2 farrowings from the other sows producing 2 live piglets each I was really pleased when she had had 3 live and would have been happy with that but they kept on coming and in all Bonnie gave birth to 9 piglets all very healthy and no sooner born than looking for the milk bar, some indeed hadn't even broken their cord before they were off looking for the good stuff.
This was the first farrowing that we had witnessed were things went very much according to plan following the implementation of things we had learned previously, a real pleasure to witness. A few days later Ginger who had had such a bad farrowing experience in February farrowed by herself in her paddock she had until recently shared with Bonnie. Debbie went to feed her one morning and noticed that she didn't come out to get her feed which when you have kept pigs tells you something isn't right. On closer inspection Debbie found that one piglet had been born alive and Ginger was lying down delivering another. In all Ginger produced 2 live gilts, which again is, a small litter but at least it was uneventful and they were all fine.
Over the past weeks the two mothers have performed their motherly duties well and all the piglets have grown despite me worrying about some of Bonnies 9 being crushed. Gingers 2 have grown that well that each day they now go under the fencing and spend more time exploring around the holding than in the paddock with their mum. They always return though especially when they want a drink!
The first of the batches of the hatching eggs we collected from the New Hampshire trio produced 12 out of 14 chicks which are under lamp at the moment although we shall have to wait and see how many of each sex there are, the second batch will be going in at the end of July once Debbie's friend has incubated some of the eggs for herself. So hopefully a good few hens will be produced for egg laying duties next year and the cockerels should be ready around Christmas time for Sunday roasts!

Gardening
In all honesty the gardening adventure has beaten me again not totally mind, as we will be having some fair crops from both the polytunnel and the veg patches outside. The problem I think is the amount of work you have to put in which ultimately will need redoing again or will require vigorous maintenance.
First lesson being I am never going to kill all the little pests like slugs and caterpillars, but neither do I want to throw chemicals all over the place, other interventions can and are so time consuming, so for next year my plan at the moment is to seek out those advertisements for greenhouses/ polytunnels in the local papers you know the ones free to uplift or buyer dismantles for a small charge. In this way I can get the majority of our veg under cover and control the soil and environment much more.
This should also mean that once dug and raked and hoed to a fine tilth that I shouldn't be bothered by the re-emergence of that tropical rainforest which has presented again down the bottom of the veg patch and in some places in between. I don't seem to have had any problem with slugs in the polytunnel except from my own errors so would hope that these beasties together with caterpillars should be a thing of the past or that's the plan anyway! Moles and mice are a different kettle of fish though and have and still do use the tunnel as a feed station at times.
Looking on the bright side Our pumpkins are doing well along with our squash. Too well infact and a lesson learned for next year they grow big very big! So you don't need to plant a dozen as they take over large areas.
The crop of sweet corn was poor last year but this year we have definitely hit on and are eagerly awaiting them ripening which shouldn't be too long.
The strawberries have responded well and are throwing off runners so much so that I have given up trying to train them to a certain area rather I just keep tucking them in, or popping some into pots to give to friends or sell.
Me and tomatoes I really must take more care next year, some days I get side tracked by other things going on and either forget or am just too tired to water them which they don't care for too much and wilt once this happens it takes ages for them to get that healthy look back and by that time I have missed another watering and so the cycle continues until it becomes obvious that the plants are only going to give in relation to what I have given them not a lot of fruit!
Carrots and parsnip I have planted inside again and boy do they grow no problems with carrot fly so they are flying, a definite plus point for veg over winter and further wine making. Beetroot as well has grown extremely well inside having been eaten by slugs last year whilst being grown outside, certainly a lesson for future years here.
Courgettes have been successful but we haven't taken advantage of this, as there always seems to be such a lot of waste due to the amount of fruit they produce. Again don't plant as many as they are really prolific.
Peas and beans were poor but have been advised to plant these outside next year as although I grew them inside due to mice problems last year this has resulted in a lack of pollination this year. Just cant win sometimes!
So all in all its swings and round abouts but such a lot of lessons learned for next year. Seems strange talking about next year but at least the enthusiasm is there to put plans into practice. Would imagine on a scale of 1-10 we are about 4ish towards our goal at the moment with the fruit and veg, although a lot of the brassica crops are only just coming in to their own so maybe we are not that far away from a set up that suits us.