March2007

Most of the month has been devoted to decorating and freshening up the house and gardens whilst making preparations for the growing season ahead. First job was to re fence the entire vegetable growing area as the poultry had managed to break in and decimate all the winter crops whilst I was concentrating on game keeping. I am starting to get tired of saying this year is the year but here I am saying the same thing yet again!
Things have gone quite well though and all the seeds have been planted for the first crops. I have decided to keep the carrots in the polytonal as it is clear to me from last years experience that it is possible for them to grow all year round with some planning. The first brassicas will be planted in the polytunnel as well to produce early crops and the rest of the outside area will be devoted to brassicas and leeks. Overall from the experiences we have had it should be possible to keep crops growing throughout the winter so this year is a very important one in that respect where I must concentrate on planting and planning ahead to ensure this. It is no good me complaining about paying for expensive veg over winter when I know I could have them growing in my own garden!

Brice with the new piglets

In the new arrivals stakes Bonnie won by a few days. On 22nd of March Debbie noticed her building a huge nest at about 10am. At around 1pm whilst passing between jobs the unmistakable squeal greeted my ears. I went around with Debbie expecting to find the first or perhaps second piglet born but no, Bonnie had delivered all her piglets in text book fashion, all 11 of them.

Amber with the new born piglets

I keep saying to people that we have such a special girl here. She performs so well and takes to motherhood so easily and has never really caused us any concern, indeed it was the way she handled her first litter that made us believe that keeping breeding pigs was something we could do after disastrous experiences with Tamworth’s. Her temperament is so good and she has never shown any aggression to us even when we check her piglets over. Obviously we can never trust any animal 100% but I don’t think we could trust any animal more than we trust Bonnie.
Sassy with her new born pups

Sassy had her litter a few days later and ended up with 12 pups competing for her 7 teats, unfortunately one of the pups died later. You can read more about the experience here. Both Bonnie and Sassy have settled down to their mothering duties and their young are all doing very well. In the coming months it will mean that we have a good few piglets and puppies to sell before I run out of money to feed them all!