the pig project

if you like pigs you may also like chickens!

2008-02-01T17:00:00.000Z

I've just done my bti to help Hughs chicken Out campaign, by sending off my snap of an empty free-range chicken shelf to the chicken-out office.
More details over on my other blog here...

the bacons gone - time for some easy eco-action!

2008-01-25T17:18:00.000Z

Well, we are now pretty much through our supply of porky delights, just a few packs of streaky bacon left.

This blog was all about the pigs, and as we're not getting any more for a while, I've started a new blog - its all about saving the planet one click at a time. If you've got a pc, you too can be an eco-activist!
There's loads you can do, emails, petitions, boycotts, donations, and it does make a difference.
So, grab your mouse, get out there, hug trees and save whales.

finally, the butcher day photos!

2007-06-21T14:52:00.000Z

Yes we did actully do it ... the pigs disappeard and we then went to pick them up as 4 x half sides of pork. Picking them up on the friday night was very very weird - huge friges with more beef, pork and lamb than i've ever seen - and this was a tiny family run place!
We kept the boys in a just-turned-off freezer over night, to keep them chilled out, and then had an early start on a bright saturday morning for butching.
My main job was to keep running between my laptop, to play, pause and replay bits of the River Cottage 'Pig in a day' DVD, which was our butchering guide throughout, we couldn't have done it without Hugh and Rays calm advice and demonstrations! If you have pigs for the first time - you need this DVD.
I won't comment on all the pics below as they are mostly self-evident, and i've tired to get them in time order.

This is what we did to our pigs:

We bought a big bit of plywood, which put onto the greenhouse decking made a great butchers table.

Ben and Sam insisted that the flat caps were essential butcher's clothing!?!

I now know how to tie proper butcher's knots - a life skill worth having for anyone!

Making bacon....
we used all of the belly pork from both boys, and the back loin from Minty to make streaky and back bacon, very easy, just a box, a bunch of salt and a few aromatics like pepper, juniper and bay leaves.

and we also made up a brine of water, salt, apple juice, cider, bay leaves, juniper and a bunch of other lovely smelly bits, into which went 2 of the legs to make hams. It smelt a lot better than it looked, honest.

Making sausages...
we did this the next morning, started by mincing all the diced pork which we'd made from the shoulders and other off-cuts, then into the real hog casings!

until we ran out of that sausage mix!
Hugh says that only a few people understand the way to tie sausages in the traditional 3 sausage loops, and if you can do it first time off you are a 'sausage twisting genius'. I am that genius! We felt that living in Cumbria we had to do a Cumberland ring too, not as much fun.

after 3 recipes of breakfast bangers, we moved onto salamis and chorizos - really easy to do, just pork, salt, garlic and pepper (salami) or three types of paprika (chorizo). Will definatly do some more of these again! (we ended up moving them into the potting shed as there were too many flies outside, but they look better in this photo!)

Making bacon - part 2
after about 4 - 5 days the bacon gets all the salt cure washed off, and then sliced (with sams' fantastic ebay purchase slicing machine) and packed in greeseproof paper for a freezer load of bacon

some of our steaky bacon
and most (but not all!) of the packs of the bacon.

Then the really good bit - the eating!
This is our first sausage, which was delicious.

and this is the first of the hams, that we glazed with honey and mustard and baked. So far, this has been my absolute favourite, although Sam preferred the spare rib joint that we did 'Donnie Brasco' - so called by Hugh because you put it in a cool oven and then 'forgetta bout it' for 18 hours.

Our total porky output:
Big box of bacon - gave some away to grateful friends, still have lots in freezer
about 8 packs of sausages, got invited to a few BBQs after the first ones were tasted, and they've now all gone!
about 32 burgers - only about 6 left in freezer now
4 salamis and 5 choirtzoz - nearly all gone - fantastic flavours!
2 hams - one eaten, one in freezer
1 leg - in freezer for a big family roast next autumn
4 spare rib joints - very tasty
2 rolled loins - great for a sunday roast, soft meat, easy to carve
4 tenderloins - haven't had any yet but gave one to sams dad who loved it
4 chump ends - in retrospect should have made these into sausages
4 x 4 chops - big, thick and delicate slightly sweet tasting meat
trotters - i'm not a fan but sam likes them as does Bens dad!
spare ribs - nearly all gone now, small and not much meat on them, but very tasty and great at BBQs with homemade marinade on (soy, honey, mustard and Vals plum jar main ingredients)

i think that's everything... oh, kidneys, but no livers or blood so no pate or black puddings.

if we did it again, we'd probably make more bits into sausages, as these are great gifts, you get to make different recipes, great for BBQs, breakfast or an easy dinner. More burgers too, and more salamis. It would have been good to get the livers to make pate as well.

We're still eating our way through it, and its all marked up with an M or a G so we know which of our boys it came from. I know some people find that odd, but I actully prefer to eat Minty, who I know had a great life, good food, was happy and lived like a pig should live - outside and rummaging around, rather than a lump of pork from a supermarket that leaves me wondering if anyone ever fed it an acorn or scratched it behind its ears?
We'd definatly do it again - our only problem is that Val and Abi want their garden space back, so we need to find a new place with room for some pigs!

limbo - the 'no pig' part of the project

2007-03-22T14:52:00.000Z

Well, b-day has been and gone. We currently don't have any pigs.

It actaully wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The boys were exemplary behaved, trotted out of the trailer, followed Sam and I down the path to their holding pen, and then just stood there sniffing about at all the new smells and looking up at with a 'where's breakfast then?' look on their faces. They weren't stressed at all, which is a good thing. We said our goodbyes and left them being looked over by a lady in Wellies from Defra.

I went off to work, and Sam went back to disinfect the trailer and then remove all the fences and generally tidy-up the garden a bit.

I did feel a bit sad, in fact a bit guilty would be a better description. They were so trusting, so friendly to us, so well behaved on their last day. But I know they had a great life with loads of room to run around and dig in, good food and lots of attention and fuss, which is a lot more than most pigs you see as packs of bacon get.

We now wait for the weekend when we go and pick up 2 x halves of Gary and 2x halves of Minty and the big butchering weekend starts!

last day for our pigs - mixed feelings all round

2007-03-19T12:20:00.000Z

We're finally here. The last day of the 'live pig' part of the pig project.

Sam and I spent yesterday 'pig-proofing' our trailer for the boys trip to our local abbatoir/butcher tomorrow. As our trailer is an open one with sides that are mostly mesh wire and no roof, we've had to tie cardboard up against all the open sides to make it windproof and then secure plastic tarpaulin over the top and sides to make it rain proof. We've put down a load of their normal bedding (easibed woodchips and a pile of fresh straw) to make it warm and cosy. The next bit will be getting them into their luxury transportation.

The plan is to not feed them as normal tomorrow night, but instead rattle their food bowl in front of them all the way down the garden path, round the back of the potting shed which has a nice handy wall next to it, with the only way forward being up into the trailer where food, water and straw awaits them..... sounds like a good plan but we'll let you know if it actully works!

How are we feeling? Well we re-watched Pig in a Day again last night, and also ordered a load of stuff like knives, containers, sausage skins etc which was kind of exciting (if a tad expensive!) and we are looking forward to making sausage recipes and curing our own ham.

But there is a bit of the sentimental part in me that keeps thinking things like - i wish it wasn't windy and cold today, because the boys are in bed and they don't know that this is their last chance to dig and sniff and run about..... and that's because I'm taking them to be killed tomorrow.

But then there's another bit of me that is looking forward to not having to feed them, clean them, worry about them escaping etc, and having more time to focus on the DIY at our house, which has been noticably put back because of the pigs.

So, its mixed feelings. I'm glad that tomorrow its an early start. There won't be time to get sad, we just need to be practical. Quick, efficent, painless is the order of the day - for me and the pigs!

bacon day is set

2007-03-14T15:20:00.000Z

We're getting very near to the end of this part of the pig project... the date has been set to say goodbye to our two boys, and hello to an awful lot of pork.

Tuesday is offically Bacon Day.

Up until today they have actully been making it easier for us to send them away to the big bacon factory. Sam and I were arms deep into some DIY on our new house on Sunday, and had to down tools and rush back home to deal with a mass breakout. When we arrived the boys had been sucessfully tempted back into their run with buckets of food, but the garden was slighlty worse for wear. Not only were there perfectly formed trotter prints across the lawn and flowerbeds, but the orchard had three or four Minty-nose-sized holes in it from some moss digging attempts.

We spent over an hour trying to reinforce the fences. Desparation has set in with trying to contain the pigs, and our ramshakle defences now include large rocks, breeze blocks, tree stumps, branches and even holly clippings in a bid to stop the pigs getting close enough to the fence to dig under it. It looks a bit like Steptoe's yard, but fingers crossed it seems to be working!

Other than the containment 'issues', the whole pig run is a huge wet, stinky, clayey mud bath. It looks bad, it smells worse and the thought of it ever being a prize winning vegetable patch seem a long way off.

However today the sun has come out, and the boys are playing the 'cute' card. No escaping, just lying next to each other sunbathing. Maybe they realise that next Tuesday is planned as Bacon day....

I thought I would feel sadder and more emotional this close to the big day, but there is actully a big part of me that is relieved. We'll be able to really get on with our DIY without having to feed them twice a day, the house can be left with no worries that there will be Pigs wandering through the village on our return, and we'll finally be able to pay back all our friends with fantastic tasting bacon, sausages and joints!

We are currently watching the River Cottage 'pig in a day' DVD over and over, ordering supplies - sausage casings, knives, mixing boxes, salt etc and planning the who, how and when of the big butchering event. We'll take pics of the whole thing from carcass to eating the final bangers and let you see the results!

the bacon day dilemma

2007-03-05T14:45:00.000Z

We weighed the pigs last weekend (movie of pigs, buckets of food, upside down garden table and industrial scales comming soon...). Minty is an impressive 86kg, but little Gary is a 'must try harder' 64kg.

I'm very keen that we only go through the whole experience once. Not only to minimise the detress to one pig left on its ownsome, but also to minimise the stress to us with the trip to the abbatoir, the butchering session, getting all our kitchin equipment out etc etc. But Sam is keen to do Minty now and keep Gary for a few more weeks to get him up to a decent size. He figures that any distress to Gary being on his own will be outweighed by the joy of getting the food bowl all to himself, as Minty does bully Gary and ends up with more than his fair share of the grub.

We've asked our favourite forums and although a lot of people agree with me, they also agree that Gary is a tad too tiny to send to the bacon factory now.

I don't think there is a right answer....

big pig photos

2007-02-24T15:13:00.000Z

Ok, so as promised here are a few recent images, showing just how big the boys have got!

and here's one with Sam in his attractive pig-farmer overalls, just to give a bit of scale...

and this one is very overdue - this is our newest arrival, Ivy, who hatched on Christmas day - ahhh.

I did a bit of pig care this morning, which is normally sam's job during the week as I have to head off to the office. It was all going ok (depsite nearly get stuck in the mud and loosing a welly at one point), and I was doing a pretty good job of redoing the bedding. Then it started to rain. The boys don't like rain. They like to go to bed when it rains. I was trying to make thier bed ... with them in it.

They are so big now that with two of them in there, there's not a lot of room left, so I'm trying to stuff the fresh new straw past two big, curious, playful pigs, without getting too deep into the bed myself as they think that's really fun and a good excuse to scratch against my wellies and nibble my jumper which makes me nearly fall over into the straw with them!

We got there in the end, and as I left with the empty wheelbarrow to go back to the house to dry off, Minty was already lying snuggled in the straw, and Gary was snuffling and moving the last bit of straw just to his liking. They did look cute.

long time, big pigs, hard work!

2007-02-23T15:56:00.000Z

I know, i know, its been ages since I last posted! (i've given up trying to get Sam or Val to do any posts!). The pigs had a great xmas, and really got into the swing of the season....

They have been on a healthy new year diet of as much extra raw veg peelings and scraps as they can eat. Now they are bigger they seem to be less fussy, and happily munch down leek leaves, potato peelings, carrot peelings and our neighbours over-sporouted cabbages which were generously donated to the bacon cause!

We didn't get any snow up here when the rest of the country was happily having snowball fights and sledging on tea trays, it did get very frosty though which was good as all the mud froze and went hard which made it easier to walk in the pig area. Unfortunatly the hose-pipe also froze, so we had to carry buckets of water down by hand.

They are getting incredibly big boys now - I'll post up some recent photos movies this weekend. Looking at Minty's back leg, its exactly the same shape and size as a whole parma ham (which is what one of them will become!). We have to keep thinking of them like this - as joints of pork, sausages, bacon etc, so that we are prepared for the next phase. We are getting a bit concerned over the exact timing of P-day, so we're posting on some of our favourite forums for advice - too big and their hormones might taint the meat, too small and we're doing ourselves out of an extra sausage or two...

More soon!

the great gary escape day....

2006-12-18T16:42:00.000Z

Oh dear.... it was always going to happen, we've had a proper pig escape.

Gary, who learnt to jump up at the fence to get as close as possible to incomming food, now has the strength to push against the fence and then just jump over it into the garden (posssibly with a plan to raid the shed where we're keeping two huge boxes of windfall apples donated by a friend whos a garden designer!).

Sam managed to get him back into the pig run, by distracting him from the joys of the garden with a bowl of pig nuts, which he followed all the way home..... only to jump out again 2 mintues later. He's now 'confined' back in the original pig run area, which seems really small now that the pigs are so much bigger and used to so much more space to trot (or rather squelch) around in.

Not sure what the plan is now, but I think we might need to write to Father Xmas and see if we can get 'electric fence' put at the top of our list this year!

3 months to go before pigs become bacon - yes it will be hard saying goodbye, but already I can see that a load of bacon and pork joints will be a lot less hassle to deal with!

laundry day for the pigs bedding!

2006-11-21T13:01:00.000Z

This weekend Sam and I decided we needed to spend some quality time with our boys and give the pig run a good going over. So along with the usual morning feed they had a lot of scratching and play time with us, we cleaned out all the food bowls, cleaned and refilled the water trough, cleared away yet more pig poo and then decided it was time for new bedding.

The old bedding has been in place since we first got the piglets, its been topped up with fresh straw on a few occasions but pretty much looks after itself. The pigs have squashed it to suit where they like lying best and as they never ever go for a wee or a poo anywhere near their house, it doesn't smell or even look dirty. We use some great stuff called easibed on the bottom that helps soak up moisture and has some antibacterial properties, and then cover that with chunks of the massive straw bale we got from our local farmer. But the vast vats of mud around at the moment have made the bedding get a little dusty as the dried mud falls of the pigs as they sleep, so it was time for a clean sweep.

With everything being so wet and muddy, we decided the best place for all the old straw was in the corner of the pig run, where it should mulch down and provide a bit of fibre in the soil. So we started by raking it all out and dragging it to the edge of the run.

Minty thought this was a hilarious game. He was in the house, he was treading on the rake, he was out the house, he was running around full pelt as only an overexcited pig can do, he was back in the house looking at us like we were mad then back out again to the growing pile of old straw, chucking it in the air with a quick flick of his head.... Not very helpful but very amusing!

He was even more intrigued as we put the new easibed back in, he stood in the house trying to eat the woodchips with a look on his face that clearly questioned where all the nice straw had gone and what was this rubbish in its place.

Meanwhile Gary was trying to eat the plastic food sacks we'd used to bring some of the straw down with, and was spilling the straw all over the place.

Eventually we managed to move the pigs out of the way for long enough to get all the new clean straw into the house, and all the bags and rakes etc back out of the pig run.

As we left to go back to the shed, the pigs were both in the house, scraping the straw about with their little trotters, Minty was lying on it to flatten it to his liking, and you couldn't even see little Gary who we presume was somewhere in the mound of straw at the back.

And I thought putting a new duvet cover on was tricky.

new tricks

2006-11-16T14:17:00.000Z

Sam and I have just got back from a weeks holiday, we were very good and only txted home a few times to enquire how our boys were doing and if they missed us. They didn't. They were more than happy with Val's discovery of free windfall apples from a nearby field and are now eating them pretty much whole, so no food processer mess required.

Not only have they grown lots during our time away, but Gary (smallest pig thank goodness) has learnt a new trick. Now when you approach the pig run with the potential of having food for them, not only do they rush over to the fence to squeal at you, but Gary jumps up and puts his two front trotters over the top wire!

It can't be long before another 'escaped pigs' post appears here...

an apple a day

2006-10-31T14:50:00.000Z

We've got two hungry pigs. (Practically starving if you believed them by the amount they squeal at dinner time!). We also have 7 or 8 apple trees with a bumper crop of apples this year.

A perfect match! Pigs and apples. Only our boys aren't very keen on getting one portion of fruit and veg a day, let alone 5.

For the first few days, when everything was new and exciting, they did eat a few bits of chopped up apples and they chewed around the stones of some plums and damsons too. But since they've got used to a twice daily delivery of pig pellets and acorns, they've gone off the fruit. We didn't understand this, as our pig book says to 'give your pig a treat, like a nice apple'. They wouldn't eat them, let alone see it as a treat!

So our collection of windfalls was set to sit in the shed, ready to be made into yet more apple sauce. (Which we will be needing lots of, once the pigs become pork joints!). Until we found a solution to our pig-apple problem!

Thanks to the lovely people at our favourite piggy online forums - River Cottage and Its not easy being green, we came across the idea of apple-mush. Its basically like making babyfood, for pigs.

Take a small box load of apples, or damsons, pears or any other free fruit you have lying around in your (or your neighbours) gardens.
Take a food mixer and pulp fruit into a surprisingly appetising and sweet smelling mush.
Add a handfull of mixed grain - chicken food is ideal, pig pellets work too - to give it a little substance.
Add mixture to food trough attended by two hungry pigs.
Watch as snouts get covered in apple goo and the rest of the mixture disappears!

An apple a day ..... keeps the pigs happy and healthy (and makes pork nice and sweet tasting!).

Tags:

more land, more moss, more digging!

2006-10-19T15:22:00.000Z

Our boys have done a great job digging up their run. Too good a job, and the clay soil mixed with a good lashing of Cumbrian rain has made a really good mud bath, complete with slippery slopes for skidding on in wellies.

So, we decided that expansion was the only plan. We are very lucky that the garden next to ours is large, overgrown with scrub and brambles and in need of rotavating. And our boys are the best rotavators ever.

Sam and Ben spent a day fencing off part of the new area and laying logs around the bottom of the fence to ward off any more escape attempts.

Then we opened up a gate from their run into the new undug area. They were a bit hesitant at first, and surprisingly it was little Gary who made the first moves to explore.

They are now enjoying their new 'day centre' - we feed them back in their run every evening and then shut the gate, just to minimise escape risks! - and are doing really well with their rotavating task. They seem to be concentrating on the mossy areas first, I'm not sure what they find or eat down there, but they will quite happily stick their whole head under a carpet of moss, before jerking upwards to send moss, roots, leaves etc flying.

On their first evening in 'pig dig heaven' I went down after work to see how they were getting on, and was rather disappointed when I was greeting only briefly by Gary and pretty much completely ignored by Minty. But the low level grunting noises and the continuous digging gives an impression of very happy pigs, I'm sure they'll get back to biting my wellies and snout-butting me for food once they've got over the excitment.

bedding - and why farmers have landrovers

2006-10-14T13:59:00.000Z

We needed to get the boys more bedding which meant a few bales of straw were in order. We could have gone to a pet shop or farm supply shop to buy bags of the stuff, but thats really meant for people who keep tiny guinea pigs or a few rabbits, not two cheeky piglets, so we figured we'd be better going direct to a farmer and buying in bulk. Even though pigs only need their bedding changing every 3 to 4 weeks, they're still going to get through it.

Using our local contacts we got the name of a farmer who's just outside our village and pitched up on a saturday afternooon with some cash in hand having no idea what the going rate for straw is these days.

Our farmer was so friendly and helpful! He was interested to hear about our home pig experiment and showed us his shed full of young calves who licked our hands and generally looked very cute. He explained that the modern havesters don't produce the small straw bales anymore, they produce really big ones - like about 4m long! But he was more than happy to saw off a small piece from the end for us, and only charge us £5 for it.

It looked pretty small as this pile of straw fell to the ground amongst the towering bales in the barn - with the farmers young daughter climbing all over them! Didn't look so small when it came to stuffing it into the back of our rather small hatchback. We just manged to get the boot shut but the car still has bits of straw dangling from the roof and covering the floor a week later.

This is why proper farmers and smallholders have proper vehicals, like landrovers, which look like they are meant to be covered in straw. Here's Sam with the biggest bit of the straw ready to go down to the shed, we also filled up a large crate with all the straggly bits that had come loose!

the great escape - pig style

2006-10-08T21:13:00.000Z

Well so much for our digging day on Friday... Sunday 9am, Val goes down the garden to feed the chickens and the two piglies are the wrong side of the chicken / pig dividing line!

They had opened the gate and were happily digging about in chickenville and snuffling up acorns. Unfortunatly there were no witnesses with video cameras around, but Val says she had a fun old time trying to get them back in. I think it went something like: One pig in through gate, chase other pig, get second pig in as first pig comes out again through fence. First pig runs to be with second pig but gets confused by the fence in between them. Much oinking and squealing later (yes, and that was just Val) two pigs safely back in pig run.

When we first made the pig run, by putting up a wire fence across the chicken area, we didn't realise it had a 'right way up'. The holes at the bottom are smaller than the holes at the top, more by luck than judgement Sam and Ben got it the right way up for most of it.... but not the bit to the right-hand side of the gate. The holes aren't big but just big enough for a small wriggly piglet to get through.

So, this morning was spent putting small chicken wire all along the big holed wire fence and putting a wooden baton across the gate with a bit metal bolt. I still think it will need more reinforcement as the pigs get bigger, and heavier, and more adventurous and I'm sure this won't be the last post with the word 'escape' in the title!

Digging - them and us

2006-10-06T19:44:00.000Z

The pigs have started digging. A lot. Very near the fence. We're slightly worried about calls from the neighbours reporting two strippy runaways devastating a prize-winning turnip patch at 6 in the morning.

So we're digging back.

Sam started by reinforcing the fence by hammering in more stakes (made of bent wire that's a bit thicker than coathangers)...

...and then we decided to tackle the back fence where the pigs have been getting pretty close to digging under. We live in a old Edwardian house, and lying in the garden scrub were some old cast iron pipes. We dug out a trench all along the fence line to get the wire in as deep as possible. It took two of us to lift the pipes and lay them on top of the fence wire, but we're hoping the weight of them will keep the wire down and stop the pigs being able to dig out underneth them.

Then we did some digging to keep the pigs happy. We found a great old log with quite rough bark about 1m long which we thought would make a great scratching post. We dug a big hole - little Gary came along to see what we were doing, tried to help with the digging, fell in the hole. After removing the pig from the hole, we put the log in and firmed it down. A perfectly scratchy log just at pig height for hours of happy scratching.

Have the pigs scratched since we put it in? Oh yes, on the fence, the gate, inside their ark, against my wellies - on the post . . . . not a chance.

Here they are being completely underwhelmed by it.

food - likes and dislikes

2006-10-06T18:21:00.000Z

"Oh the pigs'll eat that". They will, will they? Not quite.

We thought that our pigs would straight away be munching on anything that came out of the kitchin prep area. But they seem to have definite likes and dislikes, though this may change as they get older. So far we have:

Likes:
plums
damsons
apples
pears
pig pellets (favourite!)
acorns (they live under a large oak tree)
roots they dig up
(All the fruit is windfall from the garden and they can only manage the apples if chopped up, they also prefer the soft fruit cut up a little bit.)

Dislikes:
potato peelings
carrot peelings
raw brocoli

We'll add more food-fad updates as we try them on more things and their appetites change!

A Very Wet Day

2006-10-05T16:57:00.000Z

It has poured with rain for the whole day, quite torrentially! Although Gary and Minty have seen rain, it has been intermittent and they have still been able to have lots of play time. Today they have been awash, even their water bowl is overflowing. They clearly don't like wet weather as they have spent practically all day snuggled up in the straw in their cosy house. The path down to the pig enclosure is a river of mud, caused by our wellies and numerous forays by ducks and chickens. Of course the ducks love the rain but the dozy chickens hate it but still go out in it! Tigger was so wet, he looked like a punk with his feathers sticking out all over.

pig meets cat

2006-10-04T09:52:00.000Z

I had a great time with the boys last night. I spent about an hour with them after work, giving them their second feeding and generally playing. They love comming over to sniff my hands, rub against and chew at my wellies, pull at my trousers with their mouths, try and push me over with their snouts - all of which I think is to try and get me to give them a good scratching on their heads, necks and shoulders - piggy bliss.

They were happily snuffling up their pig pellets when our cat, Tisa, climbed through the wire fence to come and investigate what the strange noises were.
Minty was the first to spot her, head up, he eyed her up and then went trotting over to say hello, after all the dogs had been friendly so why not make another pal?

He stopped about 50cm away from her, at which point I've never seen the cat look so scared! She lowered herself on all fours and stared at Minty, in a typical 'fight or flee' pose. I'm sure Minty sensed that she wasn't going to sign up to the pig fan club, and after a couple of seconds of this stalemate, he turned 180 degrees and ran, full pelt, back to my side. He looked up at me with what I'm sure was a confused look. I couldn't explain to him why the cat didn't want to be friends.

She meanwhile had pegged it back out of the run into the garden. I don't she'll be back anytime soon.

lost tags... first one and now two!

2006-10-02T22:45:00.000Z

Slightly alarming discovery yesterday, Gary our littlest of the piglets has a hole and a rip in his ear where his ear tag used to be. There was a bit of blood splattered on the roof of the pig house and his little ear did look a bit sore. We'd sprayed it with some iodine, which he didn't seem to mind at all and puzzled over what could have wrenched the tag out with such force.

Take two - now Minty's lost his ear tag as well. Great going guys, you've been here two days and your already tagless. Although Minty just has a clean hole where the tag was, no rip. Minty also did a great demonstration today of potential ear-tag removing behaviour - a lot of scratching! He leans himself up against whatever he can find, (the fence, the edge of his house, Bryan's wellies...) and scratches his back like mad. So we're guessing they both caught their ears against a fence whilst doing some serious back scratching.
More iodine, no more tags left to loose, we think they'll be ok.

the great pig naming debate!

2006-10-02T15:15:00.000Z

Today is a big step forward - our two pigs finally have names! Everyone has been putting down suggestions of what to call our pair of oinkers for a few days, but there were no clear favourites. After canvassing opinions (its family so we have no compuction in telling each other our suggestions are rubbish!) we managed to get a short list of ten pairs of names. Sam, Val, Bryan, Abi, Ben and I all had to vote by giving points to each suggested pair. My favourite was Bert and Ernie, but that came second.
The winning names are: Gary and Minty.
What can I say - we're a strange lot who watch too much Eastenders! Anyway, Gary is the smaller chap and Minty is his bigger brother. We did inform the pigs of their new names, but they seemed more interested in the windfall apples.

First get your pig home

2006-10-02T12:02:00.000Z

We are lucky enough to have Ben and Abi's landrover, which unlike the cardboard box we took, is big enough to put pigs in. The floor was covered in a good layer of sawdust and hay. The pigs took full advantage of this to poo, wee and throw up on it. They ignored the apples we'd put in for them, but did have a nice munch on Abi's jeans.

Once back home we needed a method of transporting the pigs from the landrover to their new home at the end of the garden. Sam started trying to lead the pig with a dog lead, but the high pitched squealing and non-movement of pig made him give up and instead go for the 'most uncomfortable way to hold a pig' technique you see here. by the look on his face, it was more upsetting for sam than the pig!

I went for the much easier 'cuddle your pig' carrying technique. Ok, so he still squealed and wriggled a lot, but we did manage to pose for a piccie!

just two things worry me...

2006-09-30T07:21:00.000Z

My boyfriend Sam has always wanted pigs. He's not a mad animal lover, but is he very keen on a good joint of pork with perfect crackling, and he's not adverse to a bacon sandwich with a smattering of English mustard either. You already get the idea where our pig project is heading, and I have to admit there's a lot more in it for us than for the pigs.

The whole family is very committed to good food, and that means good produce as well as a good cooking. I think it was when Sam's sister Abi bought him the River Cottage Meat Book that it really got serious. For starters, night time cuddling and canoodling was out - Sam was engrossed learning about the 'half hour sizzle' and resting times, along with different cooking techniques for different cuts of meat.

When we moved up to Cumbria, Sam started measuring up his mum's chicken area in the garden and working out how much of it he would need to fence off for two pigs. A bit of persuading everyone that pig keeping would be a doddle and some internet research to find local pig suppliers, and here we are - pig owners.

So far only two things have worrying me;
1 - the size of the mummy pigs at the farm where we picked up our weeners from - I know it sounds daft, but I'd kinda forgotten how big pigs can get. Our farmer did show us pigs at the age that ours will reach, and they weren't so bad.... but its not like a little cat or a rabbit, these are big beasts.

2 - the 'guide to pig keeping' book doesn't arrive till next week.