Piggie, sit!

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can sure teach a young pig.  Teresa's been working with the pigs to have better manners when receiving food.  While a piglet lunging at you for food is rather cute, a 300lb pig is NOT cute when it lunges at you. "Piggie, sit!"

 

Never too old to be a kid.

Everyone loves a good leaf pile!!

 

The Spice Swines

The piglets are settling in nicely now.  They've quickly learned at we typically come bearing gifts of tomatoes, cucumbers and the occasional vanilla cupcake.  They're venturing out into the yard more now and we often find them bedded down in the weeds, napping.

They are named from left to right as follows:

Peppercorn, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Rosemary.

Peppercorn is our sweet gentle boy. Nutmeg a typical nutty energetic pig.  Cinnamon is the smallest by far, but he holds his own at the food bowl, acting as one of the food bullies. He will "sit" for food treats, which cracks us up.  Rosemary is our only girl.  She's very brave and social.

 

Speechless

Sadly yesterday we lost our little Harriet.  She developed scour, which seemed to slowly cause her decline.  It took us both by surprise how suddenly her body stopped compensating.  While we knew that orphaned piglets don't always survive, after 3 good days with her, it started to feel safe, like she would overcome.  

Her little 1.5 pound body fought so hard and we dearly miss her.  While farm life brings about lots of new adventures, it's the losses like this that rip at your heart.    

  

We placed her outside the window in the wildflower garden so she can stay close by, as she dearly loved to snuggle. She would constantly crawl into our laps, especially at night when she was supposed to be going back to sleep.  She was amazing at stalling for bedtime.  She'd nuzzle her soft, pink nose into your body with her little tail wagging with delight.

She slept like a log in the dog crate, even with the vacuum cleaner running right next to her.  She would wake up, use her "toilet box", then you'd hear "click, click, click" as she ran around the wood floors, searching for you.  Our favorite was when she turned into a little shark and would "chomp, chomp, chomp" everything from the dog's paws to your face. 

For such a tiny creature, she certainly brought an incredible amount of joy to our home.  Words can't quite express the impact that she had on us in the short amount of time that we had her.  She was such an unexpected blessing, arriving into our lives and then so quickly departing that it hardly seems fair.

Rest peacefully our dear, sweet Harriet.

  

 

Saturday surprise.

 Today started out normal as we drove to the farm to pick up 4 piglets.  The farmer's son was holding a teeny newborn when we arrived.  We coddled over her a little, before the farmer asked us if we wanted to keep her?  Apparently her entire litter had already died, as the mother wasn't making milk.  She was planning to stick the piglet into the pen with another litter to see if there would be any luck the mom would adopt the lone piglet, but she wasn't very hopeful.  She asked if we would want to take her home with us.

Of course we said, "YES!"

So here we are now with our 4 new Fall piglets in the barn and little baby Harriet in the kitchen.  Hopefully the goat's milk will sustain her and she'll pull through. She's taking the bottle well, which is reassuring.

Piper is already "helping" and very excited about having a new baby in the house.

Harvey's New Jungle Gym

Hurricane Isaias came through last night and while the rain was greatly appreciated, the wind took a toll on the trees.  The only damage occurred to our buckwheat when the ancient maple fell.  While we weren't sad about the damage done to the cover crop, we were sad to lose this Old Giant.

Harvey on the other hand greatly enjoys his new jungle gym and the goats are benefiting from all the fresh leaves.

Why are all our posts about rodents lately!?!

 It was about 2:30am...

The typical "pitter-patter-pounce" noise started, alerting us to the fact that Harvey had caught a mouse.  Teresa flipped on the lights and jumped out of bed to see Harvey holding a baby mouse.  This being our first baby mouse we've caught, we were amazed how much easier it was to catch than the adult mice we've been known to chase around the bedroom for eternity.  The mouse was put into the bathroom garbage can, as normal, and the top covered.  We laid back down and went to sleep.

About 2:50am...

 From the other bedroom we hear, "pitter-patter-pounce-SQUEEK!" Well this is now getting interesting!  The light once again flies on and Teresa goes running to once again find Harvey with yet another baby mouse in his mouth.  This mouse joins the other in the can and they immediately snuggle in together.  We lay back down to sleep and now the adrenaline is pumping.  Teresa gets back up and goes downstairs to get the baby mice a watermelon snack from the fridge (in case they are hungry or thirsty of course).  

3:15am...

Another episode of "pitter-patter-pounce-squeek!" has Teresa once again jolting up in bed.  By this time Eric remains in bed, bored from the monotony of the evening or perhaps just growing more and more sleep deprived. Teresa collects a third baby mouse from Harvey and adds him to the ever growing mouse collection in the bathroom.  Well, now the adrenaline is just pumping fully and so at every little noise, Teresa is acting like a crazed lunatic: she continually jumps in and out of bed, turns the lights on and off, and runs around from room to room. By about 4am, she decides perhaps there are no more mice after all and some sleep will do the body good.  

So this morning 3 baby mice were released into the meadow, hopefully to find some shelter before the night.  Even more hopeful is that Harvey caught all of the baby mice last night and that we don't have to replay the madness again tonight!