A Sheep on the Loose (or The Boar who Sat Down)

Friday 19th January 2018
Sheep On The Loose
"JOHN! JOHN!"
Sue's voice woke me up sharply. It had a sense of urgency. Thoughts started to go through my mind of what might be wrong. "One of the sheep is on the drive".

I threw on some clothes and rushed downstairs, still bleary-eyed and trying to get my bearings. Sure enough there was the brown wether lamb confusedly wandering around on the gravel. Panic over. It wouldn't be difficult to drive it round to the other gate where we could let it back in with the others.
With this done I investigated how it had gotten out. The three strands of electric fence were pulled and snapped and the rickety stock fence was pushed aside. The lamb had obviously been trying to reach some out of bounds willow and I guess had got its horns caught in the electric fence. This would have given the poor thing quite a shock and it had obviously blundered its way through the fence and onto the drive. Fortunately the others had not followed.

I had to go to work, but the fence needed mending first. It was just a question of fixing the wire using small metal connectors, but the icy air made this job considerably more tricky than it could have been.

Saturday 20th January 2018
PE One Two Zero launched
Lots of preparation to do to be ready for tonight's meeting, but before all that I had a couple of pigs to pick up. Unfortunately they won't be ending up in my freezer, for they belong to friends of mine. I just pick them up in the trailer and drop them off at the abattoir early in the morning. Although Steve hadn't fed the pigs all day (the standard way to get them to do what you want), they refused to follow a bucket of food up the ramp of the trailer. They got to the bottom of it and then stopped. The boar sat down! After a couple of minutes the young sow decided to take advantage of the food up in the trailer but the boar resisted all efforts to coax him forwards so we decided to gently nudge him in the right direction. But you cannot hurry pigs. They have a sixth sense and their stubbornness automatically kicks in.
In truth, it didn't take too long and experience had taught us to channel the pigs and not give them the option of backtracking, so there was no chasing around in the mud.
I tried the tickling technique but the boar stayed firmly plonked on his bum.
So I informed Steve of the wheelbarrow technique (use your imagination, it speaks for itself). He was dubious that this could work but I assured him I had done it before.
We gave it a few more minutes but there was no change in the situation, so Steve lifted the boar up by the back legs and we both bundled it forwards. Basically the pig goes into forward freefall, a little like the principle of a spacecraft staying in orbit.
Success. We quickly closed the back gate of the trailer just in case the boar decided to reverse and that was it. Job done.

We threw in plenty of straw, for tonight was going to be icy.
When I got home the pigs buried themselves under the straw and went to sleep. Little did they suspect what was in store for them.

PE One Two Zero
At 7pm we were expecting up to 20 people to arrive. I have started a new local group of smallholders and this was to be our first get together. There was no agenda, just to get to know each other, share some good homemade food and good company.

In the end we had sixteen people which was a great turnout. We are all in the Fenland Smallholders Club, but most never go along to the monthly meetings down in Upwell. I figured that if we kept it local people might be more likely to take the time out. More importantly, we could hold the get together in the evening, outside those precious daylight hours when we need to be outside working on our smallholdings. With no-one travelling more than 5 miles on familiar country lanes, there would be no worries about driving in the dark or arriving home too late.

Some of the people I already knew quite well but some I had never even met. It was great to be able to find out more about each other in a relaxed atmosphere. I hope that a good time was had by everybody and that they all come back next time, which will be in about three months.

Sunday 21st January 2018
Snow!
An early start to take the pigs to the abattoir. The drop off went quite smoothly, although the boar sat down again. In the end we had one pulling him from the front and me lifting him from the back - this is easier said than done when you are jammed inside a 4 foot high trailer with two pigs which could quite well squash you!
I had been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, for there was a possibility of snow arriving about 8 in the morning. For the second time in a week the BBC got it disastrously wrong. After failing to mention the mini hurricane that swept through midweek, they now had no mention of snow for this area on their website. Shortly after 8.30 we had a couple of very light flurries, but about an hour later it started coming down with more determination. An icy surface meant that the snow settled quickly.

I spent an hour or so wheel barrowing the straw from the trailer down to the turkey pen to keep the ground from getting too muddy. I resembled a snowman by the end. I retreated into the warm farmhouse, only to discover that the rest of the family had gone back to bed!!!

The snow continued into the early afternoon, leaving us with a covering of about an inch of the white stuff. Nothing compared to further north, but snow is pretty rare here.
I no longer feel the urge to run outside and play in it. In fact I didn't even venture out to take a photo for you. Instead I decided to start my seed audit for the year, digging out my trays of seeds from last year to see what I can get away with not buying this year.

I sat in the conservatory so I could watch the snow falling from a  position of comfort, sipping a nice hot cup of coffee and occasionally glancing up at the garden birds flocking to the feeders. There is still something quite magical about snow. I could just watch it falling for hours.