The Empress...

The Empress is our little saddleback piglet. A gilt (female), she was orhpaned when her mother died during labour, and she was the only piglet to survive. She is named after the character out of PG Wodehouse's Blandings. We took her home and with a lot of help from friends who have hand reared her, she has grown nice and strong...

She goes almost everywhere with Peter, and I am sure she thinks she's a dog, having been reared by friends who had two small dogs.

Here she is in the back of the ute going to the orchard to collect apples for the rest of the pigs...

Here she is when she was smaller and being bottle fed...

And yet further evidence she has learnt from the dogs...

There has been lots of interest in having her to stay, with many friends loving the novelty of having a pet pig for the weekend (something which their grandchildren love as well). She really has been living the life of Riley...

I am not sure what she will do when she goes back to the paddock with the rest of the drift. There will be some harsh acclimatization having to eat from the trough and sleep in the sty with the rest of them. She has perfect saddleback markings too, so will make a wonderful breeding sow.

Above and Below: The Empress in Blandings.

Down on the farm...

It has been a while since we posted anything about the animals down on the farm. They are still multiplying and doing their thing. Since Edward and Bella we are on our 3rd pair of Hereford calves (all the others having gone on holiday to a cooler clime). Peter has our latest ones wrapped around his little finger - literally...

We are also on our second calving of Highland Cattle since we bought the herd. The bull is good at doing his thing and the calves are all very healthy. You can see how we are strip grazing them (below) to ensure we manage the pasture well over the wetter winter months. There is still plenty of hay should we run out of grass.

The Dorset Horns are doing very well. They now regularly lamb twice a year, which means that we may get as many as four lambs per ewe each year. Here they are frolicking about...

And the pigs are doing well well. We have 3 sows and 1 boar (who is regularly 'pimped' out to other farms). I managed to catch Caramel, one of our Ginger Saddlebacks, giving birth the other morning. Here are some pictures and some videos (videos not for the faint-hearted)...

Above: Caramel resting in the sun after her efforts.

Below: The rooster 'Madison' would not leave her throughout the whole event.

Little Acres Sanctuary...

This post is a shout out to the lovely and irrepressible Jacqui Emmett, of Little Acres.

Peter and I first met Jacqui when she purchased some of our Wessex Saddleback pigs for Little Acres Cottage. 

Since then we have watched her blog and her farm project take off. And this has not gone unnoticed by others either. In fact, she has been chosen for a pay it forward award, and in the new year a whole team of philanthropic lovelies (overseen by the press) are going to help her transform her land into a realised dream of the perfect animal sanctuary for lifestyle animals.

She has been working hard at taking on injured and unloved animals and nursing them back to health, as well as rearing her own lifestyle animals. As you can see, she already has a wide variety...

So, congratulations Jacqui and family. All the best with this. Alas, I regret to say that due to a previous engagement I will not be able to join the festivities, but Peter will be there to help out, and here's hoping that plenty of others will too. Any dear readers who want to be a part of that special weekend should contact Jacqui through her blog.

Fondest Regards,

David.

Pig Hilton Mark 2...

After 2 years of breeding Wessex Saddlebacks, we were in need of a larger pig sty. Pig 'Hilton' mark one was a rectangular ark made of plywood, open at one end - functional but not pretty. I did some research into traditional pig stys, ones that would look at home on an English-styled farm. There were several which caught my attention...

Above: A Traditional Welsh Pig Sty

I like the look of the old traditional pig stys, but they are impractical, non-transportable, and designed for non free-range pigs.

Having seen some of the shelters on the market...

And some old stone huts...

...I struck upon the idea of making a stone-look sty out of wood. So, my grandfather and I set about building Pig Hilton mark 2 - out of completely recycled materials. 

We had some timber from previous projects lying around, and we pulled the plywood lining off the inside of the current barn (knowing that it is going to be demolished to make way for the driveway next year). One of our neighbours gave us a whole lot of spare roofing iron, and so we were set to start building.

Above: Old Timber which we used to create the floor (below)

The floor size was 7'x10'. 

Above: Putting the framing for the walls up

Below: Starting to make the trusses for the roof

The finished roof framing

Below: Cutting the roofing iron

Putting on the roof...

All the way through my grandfather taught me heaps of helpful hints and tips that I will be able to apply to any other buildings in the future.

Almost completed project - structurally finished with gate latched back against wall. Now we just need to find some stone coloured paint and set about adding the finishing touches.

Below: The old pig sty, with the brook swollen with water due to all the rain we have had.

I'll post an update once we've painted it. Now I've learnt how to build a gabled animal shelter, my next project is going to be a potting shed for the middle of the potager garden.