The English Paysanne

It has been a wonderful sunny day today, and a productive one at that. Two cows inseminated a visit from the vet to clean an abscess under a young cows tail, cows hanger cleaned out and two pigs moved to a new enclosure. After lunch I had a cross country trip to meet Pepper the dog for a play date for part of my dog course, only my cars exhaust exhausted itself and fell off mid way. Saved by farmer J he took my car back home while I carried on cross country in the Land Rover. Now need to get a new exhaust before the control technique (MOT) as in its presently state it really is going to fail.

A moment the week at La Singlarie My tomato plants got rot on the bottoms of the tomatoes. The old sows tomatoes are doing really well in her enclosure - I cant believe a pig can grow better tomatoes, she doesn't even do anything to them or eat them. May have to give the veg patch over to her next year!

Yesterday we moved 3 pigs that had been in an enclosure half way up the hill. They have now moved down to the bottom which only means one thing. They have had a far longer and happier life than many pigs in France but soon their time will be up. Before then they have an area of weeds to eat down and enjoy. Their excitement of being moved showed in the speed they left their old enclosure and the grunting that was heard for the rest of the afternoon. If only they would stop tipping their water trough over as soon as it is filled farmer J would be happy too.

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Pig week. Sorrel may well be the best fed dog in Najac with home cooked pork wobbly bits, off cuts, brown organic rice and vegetables. At least it wont matter if Farmer J opens up the wrong frozen container for his lunch!

Snuffling through the cereal Has it got bits in? Are you eating it? No it really is bad Our pigs are driving us mad at the moment, well for about a fortnight now since they started to have a new batch of mixed cereals. They just wont eat it. Is it only our pigs that are fussy? Out of all of them there are three who will eat it no problem but the rest just turn there snouts up. Gorgon and the girls have no problem with it or the sheep but the chickens and ducks don't think much of it either. So what is different about it? It can't be that inedible if some will eat it. It must be the taste. This is new mixed grain cereal from this year, a mixture of wheat, oats,barley and peas, a lot more peas than last year so it can only be the taste of the peas that is putting them off. When the cereal is changed the old lot is milled with the new lot half and half so there is a gradual change, the same done this time. We have a lot of this unpalatable cereal...

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Pig moving with Miss F

Oh it's been a tad hot here with no rain predicted and fields looking a lot less green than in June it may mean grass will be running out and the cows will be munching hay. If this dry spell carries on our cows at La Contie will be heading home as although the grass seems very nutritious it is a lot sparser than here. The pigs are feeling the heat. It is a constant job of filling their water troughs for them to tip over or lie in straight away. Even though they have been given water in their wallows and either hosed down or a bucket or two thrown over them it does get a little tiring. Were on mains water now our source has run dry for the moment until the next rain.Two lots of pigs are suppose to be moving to new enclosures, we tried so hard to move them to but no amount of bread or coaxing would they budge, I think its just to hot they cant be bothered. We just got very hot and bothered trying to move them. Rob's ewe has also been shorn, she's beginning ...

 Now we are in February the weather has started to change into mid winter weather, a flurry of snow, sleet, rain, wind and damp weather has made everywhere look a bit drab. Mud is everywhere, the cows are grounded to a small bit of the field and hanger as there big hoofed would rip the fields up making them no good for grass this year. Pigs keep digging, hiding their troughs under mud, four were moved after there was nowhere left to put there food troughs or for them to stand. I keep getting stuck, a small group of four managed to push me over in  their eagerness for food tonight. mud managed to get through my overalls, in my boots, inside my rubber gloves and up my sleeve. Then it started to snow, thankfully by the time we had got back to the house it had stopped. Franklin was back at the vets for a check on his stitches, a couple were removed for his leg to drain. it has had to be manipulated and sprayed with blue antiseptic spray twice a day thankf...

A moment from the week at La Singlarie some days you just have to go back to bed after breakfast.

There's a lot of legs on the farm here, some two legged who are finding it increasingly harder to push themselves up the pig hill and then working there way through thick mud, they slip and slide and sometimes get stuck but overall keep going. Sometimes the animals have problems with their legs too. At the moment the only female Perking duck has had a limp for a few days, she has tried to keep up with the gang as they cover a grand distance in their morning and afternoon trip around the farm. I cant see anything wrong, it may be a strain from over amorous male Pekings or the only male Khaki Campbell, who although smaller its a feisty little male with a strong sex drive. She has now realised, thankfully that it is better to rest for a few days in the hope it will recover. So she sits in the pigs hay as they sleep the sheep eat hay on the other of the field shelter, sometimes with the old mulard male who also may be finding lots of waddling a thing of the past. One of t...

These pigs were moved on Tuesday. The ones on the right were moved last week, already a muddy enclosure. today's move  Were getting the hang of this pig moving lark. It takes lots of bread, freshly cooked this morning still warm when it was tempting a group of five piggies out. Also helps to have lots of patience and be calm. I must of oozed calmness this morning as it only took me and a couple of minutes to move the five after place a bread trial to a new enclosure, didn't even have time to take a photo. It's been damp and foggy here today, the new enclosure is firm with a bit of grass growing through at the moment - it will not last long. A few days and it will be turned into squelchy, wellie hugging mud with hungry piggies trying to get to their bucket of food before it gets in the troughs, overalls are a necessity (and a reliable washing machine)

Today has been the first day where when outside for a while feeding animals you think "oh its a bit chilly today" still not wearing a coat* cold hands and other extremities were felt this morning. It was a dampish, fogyish kind of day, a day for moving pigs. The five pigs in questions time is up, time to come down from the hill to the bottom enclosure where one by one they will leave this life for cuts of pork with crispy crackling, sausages and bacon. It always takes a little time to move a pig from their enclosure, trained to stay in electric fencing the pigs find it very difficult to go past the line where the gate once was. Being intelligent animals once zapped by the fence they learn to stay away from it (most of the time) so trying to get them to walk through the space that once had electricity running through it can take a little time. Patiences and a lot of bread, once one goes its not long before others follow but then there is always the last one...

A moment from the week at La Singlarie A day of rain made enough chocolate mud for dipping in the wallow.

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Pig moving - again

 With mixed weather of sun and rain mornings have looked like this, normally Autumnal weather leaves beautiful mists in the valley but this year it has been the coolest and wettest summer since we moved here nearly ten years ago.  Wednesday morning when feeding the pigs we only had six in a enclosure when there should be seven, overnight we lost one. Normally there is evidence of an escape - digging under the electric fence, the fence out of its hooks, hoof prints and earth dug up as they forage but there was no signs at all. It's just vanished. To find a black small pig where we are surrounded by woods is a bit like searching for a needle in a hay stack, we are hoping its still near, neighbours heard pig noises yesterday evening so it may find its way back. Empty enclosures have been left open with food and bread ( the bread has gone?). Sandy our sow went missing for four days when we first got her after being scared of the other two sows she came to us with return...