High Tunnel

After months of work, Eric finally completed the high tunnel!

Happy Halloween

  Last night, on Halloween, during the full Blue moon, two surprise kids were born, but let me start from the beginning....

This summer, Ned and Oscar became ridiculous in their behavior, seemingly starting into a rut in the middle of the summer. This was an odd behavior, as both Lola and Lucy were nursing their kids still (Winnie was 5 months old and Sherman and Zeek were 2 months old).  Since Ned was now related to most of the females in the barn (both Lucy and Winnie being his daughters), we decided it was time to sell him and let Oscar take over the herd as the primary buck. 

On June 7th, exit Ned.

The next few months were unremarkable and the barn once again became peaceful and quiet.  Winnie started to get a wee bit tubby, but she was also still readily nursing from Lola.  We joked about her little pudgy belly as watching her nurse became more and more ridiculous.  We were shocked that Lola wasn't cutting off this 10 month old "baby."  

It wasn't until the end of September, that we began to wonder if Winnie was pregnant. It seemed hard to imagine that Ned happened to breed his own daughter days before he was sold, but as her udder enlarged, we became a bit more suspicious.

Yesterday we took the goats for a walk and Winnie's udder looked like Lucy's udder...it was HUGE!  We were now fairly certain kids were coming any day now.  Eric closed down the barn at 9pm and no signs of labor were noted.  Teresa planned to wake at 4am to check in on Winnie again, but Eric awoke around midnight and was unable to fall back asleep.  Around 1:00am he meandered out to the barn to find a surprise, Winnie had already delivered the kids!

Pumpkin (little girl) and "Jack"-o-lantern (little boy) are both doing well.  Winnie is having a little edema of her udder, but being a champ at nursing.  She even managed to sneak in a quick nursing herself off of Lola this afternoon!  It was a "nursing train" of three generations.

And if anyone has any doubts...they're definitely Ned's:)

Pumpkin

Jack

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.