Our New Life in the Country: A Pig Free Zone

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

A Pig Free Zone

Last night we delivered (in two journeys) the last pigs on the farm to their new home.

Feeling so guilty as they all rushed to the fence to see Mum, and her tomatoes, I was at least pleased that we have found them a good home. Yes, they will be turned into sausages etc, but not for a few months and in the meantime they will be well looked after by our friends Charles and Sue who have Sandy Lane Farm just a couple of miles from us.

It was Sue who taught me how much pigs love their backs rubbed and their ears tickled. They helped us out with straw when we ran out, and we have both been there for each other when pig feed deliveries have been slow in delivering on time. They run an organic farm with all the animals benefiting from all the excess veggies that don't get sold at the Farmers Markets they run and attend. So my lovely little boys and girls will at least spend the rest of their lives with people that care, eating food that is good and mixing with lots of other pigs on the lovely Oxfordshire countryside. I couldn't have asked for much more.

Now their arks have been swept out (backbreaking work) and are ready for us to sell at the Thame Smallholders Sale in a couple of weeks. Three of them left the farm on Saturday and we have 5 more to sell, the end of our little pig empire.

Back tomorrow with news on the chicken front!!

Sue xx

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This was my Blog, just me writing about our day to day life learning all about and then living the smallholding life. First we started on a farm in Oxfordshire, then we moved to a smaller place in Berkshire (both in England) and then we found a place of our very own at the bottom of a hillside in North Wales. Along for the ride were all our various animals, and we ended up with just our dogs, Suky and Mavis, our cat Ginger .... who secretly thinks he's one of the canine gang, a sheep called Ethel who wandered in off the road and stayed... and a roving band of egg laying chickens that live cheek by jowl with the local wildlife.

We grow our own fruit and vegetables, selling surplus plants and edibles at the gate. We sell the eggs the chickens lay, we reuse, recycle and rethink ... and life ticks over at a pace that suits us.

It was simply the wild and wacky ramblings of a 50 something townie turned country girl called Sue, who lost her heart to a sailor and started a new life in the country .... many years ago. On a path that took us from Cumbria to Oxfordshire, to Berkshire and then we found our home at the bottom of a wet and windy Welsh hillside by a busy main road.

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee and relax into a world of dogs, cats, chickens, polytunnels and veggies with the occasional grass munching sheep thrown in for good measure.

Sue xx

Disclaimer

Our New Life in the Country is my blog.

I use it to chart the day by day, week by week, year by year goings on in mine and Lovely Hubby's life. In it I also express my views and opinions, and say what I do and occasionally how I do it. I am hoping that this will prove to be a useful reminder for myself of how we did things, as we continue in our learning process.

If you chose to follow my practices it is assumed that you will do so with care and consideration, and question where necessary any methods or techniques I use to your own satisfaction and match them to your own circumstances.

The pictures in each blog post are taken by me unless otherwise credited, and as such should not be borrowed and used elsewhere without my consent.