Animals coming and going....

We had to laugh when we saw the photos of the titchy piglets on the last post - they are now 3 months old and HUGE and weigh at least 30kg.

Photos below are the piglets at a week old;

And below at 3 months in the pigsty......

Bit of a weird camera angle! The spotty female is on the left and the red & white male is on the right. The other male was traded with friends for a few hundred roof tiles and the 4th unfortunately didn't make it. The 2 males were castrated by the vet at 3 weeks old to avoid "boar taint". Al didn't faint when he assisted with the procedure but both he and vet had their legs crossed at the crucial moment.....

It was very hard trying to separate Rosie the sow from the piglets as she went from being a very docile pig to 250kg of protective angry Mum. We are considering retiring Rosie to chops and bacon and simply fattening up a couple of weaners each year as the reproduction side of things is complicated - we have to take Rosie to the boar and get the male piglets castrated. It isn't cost effective especially if there are only a few piglets. They also eat a lot!

The 2 piglets are currently in the pigsty as their potential buyers didn't turn up - having been separated from Rosie for sale she then wouldn't accept them back into the pig park and we had a near disaster as she turned on them. Lesson learnt - only sell to friends whom we know will definitely turn up!

Geese......

 

We adopted the beautiful couple Horace and Doris (?!) in November; they arrived unceremoniously in the boot of the car but soon made their presence known. They approach you with a menacing hiss and a honk but are not so tough - they waddle off flapping and squawking when they realise they are fairly low down on the food chain. We hasten to add these 2 aren't for the pot but we hope to have goslings in the spring. They are an excellent doorbell  - the postman looked relieved when he saw them in an enclosure.

Lambs....

2 out of 7 lambs born at the start of the year were ram lambs. They went in the freezer a few weeks back producing a whopping 25kg of meat each which is delicious. They represent a great return on a bit of grass and hay. After butchering 2 lambs we were finished though - we have a new-found respect for butchers! 

Rabbits.....

We swapped a cockerel for a rabbit recently and added Thumper to the menagerie  - a "Tete de Lion" crossbreed. The idea being we get a couple of does and start producing rabbit meat. Thumper is a keeper though - just look at that fluffiness!  He lives in a semi-open hutch within the chicken/geese enclosure. Those ears are just made for stroking....

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Goodbye Cooper...

What can we say? After a crazy 11 years of border collie madness, Cooper had to be put down in October after 2 operations. She had a kidney removed then a hind leg amputated. There was not much left of her by the time she succumbed to the inevitable. We planted a cherry tree on the driveway to remember her by and attached her medallion to it. Now she can survey the arrival of visitors just as she always did.

Welcome to the new canine adoptees....

It was far too quiet round here without a dog. After a few weeks of the cats thinking they were finally home free we went down towards to the Pyrenees to a dog refuge we had been in touch with to adopt a puppy. As with most of our past trips to animal refuges we returned with more than 1...

The fluffy and very naughty Iago is a 3 month old, Australian shepherd cross.  He will chew pretty much everything he isn't suppose to but is easily forgiven.  He looks a bit dim in this photo but has been busy honing his skills sliding across the kitchen floor and squaring up to the sheep beyond the garden fence (but running back between our legs when they stamp their feet at him).

 

Isa is a 10 month old Brittany spaniel who was living at the refuge manager's home (the refuge overspill). Al mentioned he was looking for a gun dog to train and we were taken straight to meet her.

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She had been rescued at the opening of the hunting season (either she got lost whilst hunting or was abandoned). The refuge manager told us she hopes she is rubbish at hunting but that we keep her anyway (the anti-hunt brigade!) So far she has chased the free-range chickens into the canal (we discovered chickens can swim) so it looks like she will be a hunter. In the meantime she is a foster-Mum to Iago and desperate to please us. She needn't worry - they are going to be spending their 1st of many Christmases with us very soon!

 

 

 

 

They do have their own beds but Iago is getting in practise for the day we get them bunkbeds...

 

Animal round-up complete!