The wind was fierce, the cold bitter, snow and ice blowing in from the north, and wouldn't you know it, Dottie picks this night to have her piglets. It's the kind of cold where you have to walk backwards into the wind to keep your face from freeze burning and your lips from splittng like so much seasoned wood.
Dottie's ark was well supplied with straw, and from what I could see of the piglets they appeared to be faring well in the frigid weather. I say appeared to be because being the cantankerous old flea bag that she is, Dottie wouldn't let me anywhere near her brood. She had either 13 or 14, but since I don't especially feel like having my arm knawed off, I'll call it 13 and a half. Here's a photo of the battle axe when she was eating this morning:
Jethro, one of our boars, has once again held up his end of the bargain with another fine (and numerous) litter so I might have to give him an apple or banana tomorrow. I took 5 of his pigs to the butcher on Tuesday and those pigs looked awesome and very uniform in size and structure. Here's a photo of some of his pigs that are getting close to market size:
I was able to stick the camera around the corner of Dottie's ark to get this shot of her piglets:
So this is our first litter of the new year, and in Febuary we'll really start putting new pigs on the ground. We have around 70 pigs on the ground now at various ages and should hit the century mark by the end of next month. That's a lot of bacon! Hope you enjoy the pix and we'll get back to posting weekly again before long. I've just had a case of blogitis and needed a break. Take care and thanks for reading!
Pork & Greens