April - We're back and up and running

Gawd! It's been a long time since I last posted on this. But finally a teensy weensy window of time to get back and post a bit about what we have been doing. The Old Piggery is finally finished. Hoorah!!! Such a lot of hard work but it is worth it. We have had our first paying guests and are booked right through now until the beginning of October!! It is really lovely and we are so pleased with how it has turned out. I will post pics in the next blog entry. Hopefully then I can keep up to date a bit more.

And, almost as exciting, is our first litter of pigs! We bought a couple of Tamworth sows from a friend. Both meant to be in pig to an Iron Age boar (Tamworth x Wild boar) but only one was. Never mind. Bertha farrowed back in March and produced 5 piglets - her first time as well as ours so we were all a bit nervous! There was a runt who suffered a few health problems. We nursed her through the first couple of weeks but she didn't make it sadly. However, the other 4 are doing really well. The builders were diverted from the Piggery to make the maternity unit in the end of the horse's stable. He might have something to say about that when he comes home but he is doing ok up the road at the moment. At 5 weeks the babies are already stealing mum's food as well as filling their bellies from the milk bar. In 3 weeks time we will have to get them out on their own in the field then consider the best way of getting the sows in pig again. Do we bring a boar in or do they travel out to one. Or AI? Decisions, decisions!