It all sounds so simple…

The task for Friday and today was to move two pig huts (from the yellow-circled areas to the red), move Doris—one of our Berkshire sows—away from her piglets, move two older growers in with Doris, move Doris’s piglets in where the weaners were, and move Delilah and Graham to make way for Doris and the growers.

Easy peasy in summer on hard, dry ground with a tractor and front loader with forks, with the Land Rover, or even with four strong people.

It’s another matter in winter, when a succession of frost, thaw, rain and another frost have left the ground part-mud, part-ice.At the same time, the neighbours with tractors were out working, the only people doing the job yesterday were myself and the Other Half (and I was on my own this morning), and the Land Rover was away with the Other Half today.

First, the Other Half and I moved Graham and Delilah down the hill into the pen in which I was standing when I took this photo.

Then we had to move the furthest hut to the fence on the left, lift it over the fence, slide it along the hill, down the hill and then bring it into the pen.

The hut is one of the smaller lighter ones—8ft x 6ft with no floor or insulation—or we’d never have lifted it over the fence.

As it was, it was a major struggle to keep our footing in the mud, to turn and lift the arc five feet in the air, and then to coordinate our lifting and pushing.

The Other Half seems to particularly enjoy not being able to push at the right time, then finding the energy to push at the wrong time. (I am tempted to draw an analogy here, but…)

A few bruised ribs, a mud bath or two, and a lot of sweat later, we did get the hut into place.

Graham and Delilah were keen to help us when we brought the hut through into their new pen, even more so when we brought out the straw for their bedding.

With them happily esconced, we had to move the gates around prior to moving the other pigs.

Again it sounds easy, but 12ft galvanised steel gates are satisfyingly heavy, which makes carrying them through mud and over slippery grass an amusing way to spend half an hour.

Then the pig dance began.

First, Doris had to be separated from her piglets and brought along the run, up the hill and into the big field.

Then the piglets had to be caught and lifted into the weaner pen, which involved a lot of wrestling in icy mud and pig manure.

Finally, the weaners had to be herded out and up the hill to join Doris, again with a couple of rugby tackles into the mud and manure when they attempted to escape. (And yes, it has to be done in a particular order or the dance doesn’t work.)

By then, it was well after dark so we had to leave the second part of the job until today – moving the big pig hut, which Doris and the growers now occupy, into the other half of their field and then redividing the field with temporary fencing.

With my shoulder well and truly aggravated, plus a bad case of pins and needles in my right arm, I retired inside wafting a rich miasma woven from pig manure, stale urine, festering mud, rotting vegetation and a dash of sweat.

The Other Half continued with pig feeding and watering, where her audience of pigs was more appreciative of her smells than the boys were of mine.

Now, before everyone sympathises with the OH, there’s a lot of cunning going on there.

She may have remained outside for an extra 40 minutes of cold, wet and ick but when the OH came in, it was to a hot bath–a rare treat when you’re trying to conserve water, a mug of hot milk, brandy and honey, a chocolate bar cadged off one of the boys, a warm bathroom, a good book, a scented candle and clean clothes.

While the OH was enjoying that, I was doing the washing, the washing up and starting on dinner while preventing the boys from rioting.

I think I should have stayed outside…

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Details of today’s work later as it’s time to make dinner again. Also, those photos were not taken while we were working yesterday - the first two are from the preceding week, the third is from this morning.