On Friday, we organised the collection of 150 bales of straw from the other side of the village. As we don’t have our trailer, we borrowed Tassos’ little green one, and set off (having taken the dog to the vet for his anti-itching injection). The first thing I did was put my back out (clever to do it at the beginning of the day, don’t you think?).

When we got back to unload the first 50 bales, we found this waiting for us…

Followed by this:

Then this:

Then this

Dear old Mrs Pig had decided to have her piglets outside, in the full sun, and it was HOT!

We had to urgently rig up some shade for her, whilst catching piglets, and all with me hobbling around bent double after looking at a bale of straw that morning.

The saga continued….

and continued…

All in all, ten piglets (plus one that didn’t make it), who are all happy, suckling and fit. So far. The only issue was how to convince Mrs Snuffles to move into her new, bijou residence, complete with comfy bed and heat-lamp for the piglets. The piglets were fine, but mother was exceptionally hot, and utterly indifferent to the idea of standing up. As she weighs more than 300 kilos, persuasion seemed an unlikely prospect. First I turned the hose on mother (not in the crowd-control, anti-riot sense, but to cool her down. She seemed suitably appreciative, and I got a chance to clean up all the gore so she would look good in the photos

Next, I put all the piglets in a box (that is SO much easier to type than to do, even with fat finger syndrome), and put the piglets in the house. Piglets then left and went back to mother – heat-lamp not appreciated. Plan B – same again, only this time I bothered one of the piglets until it started squealing – I am now holding a litter of irate piglets, with 300 kilos of enraged maternal instinct barrelling down on me, with no back door to the sty. [Note to self – must make second door in pig-sty, for escape and evasion purposes]. All this, and I can hardly walk, let alone run, because of the back/bale thing. I am please to confirm that all went according to plan in the end, and I am still alive, and the piglets are doing well. I did need a change of trousers, however.

At 24 hours, they are already playing the cute-card:

The following afternoon, they made their first foray outside…

….for an al fresco picnic….

The stripes come from their dad, who is half wild boar (wild? he was livid!)

Finally, did I mention that we still collected the other 100 bales? This is how we stacked them –

….well, it had been quite a long day…

and my back hurt…..