Post by Mitra on Oct 24, 2007 9:02:53 GMT -5
Things have been hoppin' around here since I got my little red piglets, Charlotte and Sophie. We are absolutely and positively in love with these little girls. Max is not feeling the love so much (yet) but he will ;D
On Friday afternoon, my DD Roshan and I set off on our trip to Lubec, ME to Jessika's (eastcoastfarmer) Olde Sow Farm. According to mapquest it was going to take 4.5 hours to get there. There was a good-sized storm forecast so we hoped to get to Lubec before it got too ugly. A bobble and wrong turn 1.5 hrs into the trip added an extra 2 hours to the drive and right into the storm. Oh well. It was a dark and stormy night by the time we arrived at the motel. Jessika had graciously invited us to dinner but it was WAY late by the time we got there. I let her know we'd arrived and we made plans to go to her farm the following morning and "help" with some pig chores.
The following morning, Roshan and I found a nice place to have breakfast and checked out the quaint town of Lubec. We must go back so that we can do more extensive exploring of the area including Quoddy State park (remember the pbs program Colonial House? That's where we were.)
We headed to Jessika's. As soon as we turned into into their driveway, I knew we were in for a treat. A short ways up their 0.25-0.5 mile driveway, I saw cows in the field to my right. "Oh look Roshan, there's Gale and that's Dawn!" A little further up and there was another sight to behold. A pasture dotted not with cattle or sheep, but with beautiful red pigs. Wow!
When we got up to the house and barn things were already in full swing with Jessika and her amazing 8-year old daughter Zoie. The truck and trailer were backed up to their fabulous barn and they were unloading two Berkshire soon-to-be mom's. They are sisters. Prudence unloaded nicely and followed the feed bucket all the way into her designated stall. Her sister Talulah (sp?) was not as interested in dis-embarking because of the step down she had to make. It took almost an hour of coaxing and a lot of standing around patiently and chatting (Jessika and I), before she finally decided to "take the leap". During this time, Jessika also built up a step with hay and a handy pallet. She also noted that Talulah was even closer to pigging than she'd thought, with milk coming out those line of teats. The step did the trick and Talulah finally lumbered down out of the trailer and followed Jessika into her birthing stall.
Meanwhile Roshan and Zoie had hit it off big - apparently long lost soul mates. On our way home Roshan said, "Zoie is soooo cool Mom. When we were playing in the barn I said, "Zoie, I think you got chicken poop on your pants", and she just shrugged and said "No, it's probably pig poop". Isn't that cool that she's not all freaked out?" Yes, pretty cool Roshan
Another amazing sight in Jessika's barn was the stall that held a huge Berkshire sow, Junie B., and her dozen or so two-day old piglets. OMG - so little and so perfect.
The next chore, after unloading Talulah was to load two sows (Tamworths) from yet another stall into the trailer (did I mention fabulous barn?). They each had a litter of piglets (including the two we would take) in there with them. Jessika explained that the Mom's were done with these babes, now 7 weeks old. The sows were being moved to next year's garden spot where they would also winter.
Also in the trailer, waiting very patiently the whole time we were there was Boris the boar. He had hopped into the trailer because he likes to ride around with the ladies. He had a panel preventing him from exiting the trailer. He seemed very pleased when the two new ladies hopped into the trailer. They came right out of their stalls and practically ran and jumped into the trailer! I was amazed. They seemed quite done with those babies and eager to go on vacation "without the kids" and with this handsome guy Boris.
Jessika, expertly reattached the trailer to her truck and off they went down the driveway (Roshan and Zoie in the back of the pickup) to the garden spot. I followed on foot. There was a single strand electric fence around the garden spot, a huge 3000 sq ft (at least) rectangle of an area. The fence was solar-powered. The girls and Boris unloaded as beautifully as they had loaded, eager to go check out the new digs and Boris eager to get "acquainted". Jessika left with the trailer and Roshan and Zoie to go down the hill to give the cows some hay and show Roshan, Zoie's pony. I was to go back to the house and move my van to the barn so we could load my piglets. As Jessika's truck and trailer went out of sight around a bend, I noticed one of the sows very close to the fence, next to the electric box. Without skipping a beat, she walked right through/under the fence and started walking up the driveway back toward the barn. I tried to encourage her to go back to the garden plot but she didn't care what I wanted her to do and walked around me and my flailing arms. Meanwhile Boris and the other gal seemed oblivious about her departure. So she and I walked back to the barn together and waited for Jessika to come back. My theory was that the goldenrod draped over part of the fence had caused a short which would explain why she wasn't zapped when she made her exit. It turns out the solar battery was dead. When Jessika came back, I did my best Vanna White when motioning her to look at my walking partner. Jessika did some eye-ball rolling and opened up the back of the trailer for the sow. In she hopped. Jessika was going to keep her there until her DH came back to check out the fence.
Now the moment we'd all been waiting for, loading our new babies into the cat carriers I'd brought. We deferred to Jessika to pick out the two best piglets for us. These just didn't happen to be the ones Roshan thought we should get. Roshan had picked the smallest two ("the cutest ones" according to her) and was a little upset that we were leaving things up to the expert. There were even a few tears as she grappled with the thought that the ones we hadn't chosen would eventually be butchered. That's always a tough one.
Well these little gals were bigger and heavier than the seven week old Yorkshire pigs I've loaded into these same carriers. There was no way they could do a 5 hour drive jammed in these too-small carriers. Jessika saved the day by loaning me a large dog crate/carrier. This worked out beautifully as the two could ride together which I was sure would be less stressful to both.
We said our goodbyes and headed out with our two new little red pigs. We'd been there almost three hours and I forgot to mention that the whole time there, Jessika's youngest child, a little over a year old, had slept in her car seat in the front of the truck. Such a cooperative baby!
The drive home was spectacular. We took the coastal route and it was just incredible. There was still good fall color and the ocean! The piglets were good the whole way. If they made any sound, Roshan would unbuckle and leap to the back of the van to comfort them. In daylight and without any wrong turns, we made it home in 4 hours.
What a great trip and what a great adventure! Thank you Jessika!
Wow, this has gotten so long that I'll have to post the "how we lost them" part in another thread. We did get them back
On Friday afternoon, my DD Roshan and I set off on our trip to Lubec, ME to Jessika's (eastcoastfarmer) Olde Sow Farm. According to mapquest it was going to take 4.5 hours to get there. There was a good-sized storm forecast so we hoped to get to Lubec before it got too ugly. A bobble and wrong turn 1.5 hrs into the trip added an extra 2 hours to the drive and right into the storm. Oh well. It was a dark and stormy night by the time we arrived at the motel. Jessika had graciously invited us to dinner but it was WAY late by the time we got there. I let her know we'd arrived and we made plans to go to her farm the following morning and "help" with some pig chores.
The following morning, Roshan and I found a nice place to have breakfast and checked out the quaint town of Lubec. We must go back so that we can do more extensive exploring of the area including Quoddy State park (remember the pbs program Colonial House? That's where we were.)
We headed to Jessika's. As soon as we turned into into their driveway, I knew we were in for a treat. A short ways up their 0.25-0.5 mile driveway, I saw cows in the field to my right. "Oh look Roshan, there's Gale and that's Dawn!" A little further up and there was another sight to behold. A pasture dotted not with cattle or sheep, but with beautiful red pigs. Wow!
When we got up to the house and barn things were already in full swing with Jessika and her amazing 8-year old daughter Zoie. The truck and trailer were backed up to their fabulous barn and they were unloading two Berkshire soon-to-be mom's. They are sisters. Prudence unloaded nicely and followed the feed bucket all the way into her designated stall. Her sister Talulah (sp?) was not as interested in dis-embarking because of the step down she had to make. It took almost an hour of coaxing and a lot of standing around patiently and chatting (Jessika and I), before she finally decided to "take the leap". During this time, Jessika also built up a step with hay and a handy pallet. She also noted that Talulah was even closer to pigging than she'd thought, with milk coming out those line of teats. The step did the trick and Talulah finally lumbered down out of the trailer and followed Jessika into her birthing stall.
Meanwhile Roshan and Zoie had hit it off big - apparently long lost soul mates. On our way home Roshan said, "Zoie is soooo cool Mom. When we were playing in the barn I said, "Zoie, I think you got chicken poop on your pants", and she just shrugged and said "No, it's probably pig poop". Isn't that cool that she's not all freaked out?" Yes, pretty cool Roshan
Another amazing sight in Jessika's barn was the stall that held a huge Berkshire sow, Junie B., and her dozen or so two-day old piglets. OMG - so little and so perfect.
The next chore, after unloading Talulah was to load two sows (Tamworths) from yet another stall into the trailer (did I mention fabulous barn?). They each had a litter of piglets (including the two we would take) in there with them. Jessika explained that the Mom's were done with these babes, now 7 weeks old. The sows were being moved to next year's garden spot where they would also winter.
Also in the trailer, waiting very patiently the whole time we were there was Boris the boar. He had hopped into the trailer because he likes to ride around with the ladies. He had a panel preventing him from exiting the trailer. He seemed very pleased when the two new ladies hopped into the trailer. They came right out of their stalls and practically ran and jumped into the trailer! I was amazed. They seemed quite done with those babies and eager to go on vacation "without the kids" and with this handsome guy Boris.
Jessika, expertly reattached the trailer to her truck and off they went down the driveway (Roshan and Zoie in the back of the pickup) to the garden spot. I followed on foot. There was a single strand electric fence around the garden spot, a huge 3000 sq ft (at least) rectangle of an area. The fence was solar-powered. The girls and Boris unloaded as beautifully as they had loaded, eager to go check out the new digs and Boris eager to get "acquainted". Jessika left with the trailer and Roshan and Zoie to go down the hill to give the cows some hay and show Roshan, Zoie's pony. I was to go back to the house and move my van to the barn so we could load my piglets. As Jessika's truck and trailer went out of sight around a bend, I noticed one of the sows very close to the fence, next to the electric box. Without skipping a beat, she walked right through/under the fence and started walking up the driveway back toward the barn. I tried to encourage her to go back to the garden plot but she didn't care what I wanted her to do and walked around me and my flailing arms. Meanwhile Boris and the other gal seemed oblivious about her departure. So she and I walked back to the barn together and waited for Jessika to come back. My theory was that the goldenrod draped over part of the fence had caused a short which would explain why she wasn't zapped when she made her exit. It turns out the solar battery was dead. When Jessika came back, I did my best Vanna White when motioning her to look at my walking partner. Jessika did some eye-ball rolling and opened up the back of the trailer for the sow. In she hopped. Jessika was going to keep her there until her DH came back to check out the fence.
Now the moment we'd all been waiting for, loading our new babies into the cat carriers I'd brought. We deferred to Jessika to pick out the two best piglets for us. These just didn't happen to be the ones Roshan thought we should get. Roshan had picked the smallest two ("the cutest ones" according to her) and was a little upset that we were leaving things up to the expert. There were even a few tears as she grappled with the thought that the ones we hadn't chosen would eventually be butchered. That's always a tough one.
Well these little gals were bigger and heavier than the seven week old Yorkshire pigs I've loaded into these same carriers. There was no way they could do a 5 hour drive jammed in these too-small carriers. Jessika saved the day by loaning me a large dog crate/carrier. This worked out beautifully as the two could ride together which I was sure would be less stressful to both.
We said our goodbyes and headed out with our two new little red pigs. We'd been there almost three hours and I forgot to mention that the whole time there, Jessika's youngest child, a little over a year old, had slept in her car seat in the front of the truck. Such a cooperative baby!
The drive home was spectacular. We took the coastal route and it was just incredible. There was still good fall color and the ocean! The piglets were good the whole way. If they made any sound, Roshan would unbuckle and leap to the back of the van to comfort them. In daylight and without any wrong turns, we made it home in 4 hours.
What a great trip and what a great adventure! Thank you Jessika!
Wow, this has gotten so long that I'll have to post the "how we lost them" part in another thread. We did get them back
