Here be a faery spring

I was reliably informed by an elderly gentleman native to these parts that a faery spring once rose just below the western boundary of our croft.

Unfortunately, the spring appeared to have vanished beneath a bitumen road surface but while clearing the outfall for our septic tank I discovered  water bubbling up on the other side of the burn.

The burn itself is in a sorry state, both above and below the spring, alternating between muddy, rubbish filled gutter and burbling but still grotty streamlet.

More happy pigginess

While working outside the byre, I heard the deep rumbling purr that our pigs make when they’re very, very contented. Wondering what was making Doris, who’s just gone into one of the pens for farrowing, so happy I went in and found the Big Lad giving her a rub with an old curry comb. He knows not to go in with the pigs without adult approval and supervision, but he just couldn’t resist trying to bend the rules a little to give one of his friends some attention.

Hmmmm…

The challenge for today is… Daisy, our new Berkshire sow, went out into one of the fields today to join the other “girls”. When she wasn’t trying to escape Dolores, who was very pleased to discover she was no longer the bottom pig in the herd, Daisy spent a lot of time examining the temporary electric fence that keeps her out of the potatoes.

How to make your pigs happy

The weather is growing colder, the frosts are hardening and the winds have a chill feel to them, so that means a change in feeding for the pigs.

Instead of a dry mix of rolled barley, raw vegetables, apples and sow rolls they move onto a warm porridge of potatoes, barley, vegetables and apples with a scoop or two of sow rolls thrown in (depending on need).

The potatoes are boiled up for 20 minutes until they start falling apart and are then tipped, water and all, into large buckets.