One Month

Late afternoon on March 28th, Fiona farrowed 8 itty-bitty piglets. Her first litter was only 5, so the prospect of 8 had me a little anxious. Of course, the first litter did not survive (sadness), but this one was successful and all 8 survived the first night. The next night a couple of the piglets were squished by momma and we were left with 6. 

March 28, 2020 - first family foto

Now here we are one month later and those little soda can sized piglets are now the size of a two-liter bottle of some fizzy beverage. Out of the whole bunch we have one female - Little Fiona. She is our keeper along with one of the boys who is a little gimpy.

Over the past month these little dudes have been the best distraction during this COVID19 crisis. The Governor put the two week stay at home order the evening of March 23rd, so to have these littles arrive 5 days later was, and continues to be a welcome distraction. The stay home order until May 4th just extended my stay on the farm with lots of opportunities to play with the piglets.

On the Monday that Tom found that two of the piglets had been squished we had to come up with a new arrangement for the piglets. Fortunately I had been in contact with Farmer Jason at Cascade Meadows Farm and he said that a creep would help to keep the piglets safe at night.

The best thing EVER! It was a quick training period to get them into a routine a day or two. Soon, we would go in and see that they were all sleeping in the creep under the heat lamp.  For the first several days we took turns going out to check on them to make sure they were where they needed to be. Only a couple of times they decided to be with momma.

Actually, there were several mornings after we quit checking on them that a couple of them - and sometimes all of them would be sleeping with Fiona, which is fine, but they needed to stay in the creep while Fiona got out to eat her first breakfast. They would hop over to the creep once I came in and settle down and fall right back to sleep. Perfect!

That routine lasted almost three weeks. Now they are little bruisers and they darn well do what they please. Sleeping while Fiona goes outside - no longer a thing. EVERYONE goes out! It's no use fighting what they want to do. They are getting big enough after all.

Also, over the past couple of weeks they have become very affectionate with us and will come up and rub their little bodies on our ankles and then plop down. Then the belly rubs start and soon they are sleeping. Of course they nap and will hop up as soon as they hear something and then they are all action.

All in all, the piglets have been a blast! Everyday is a new adventure and watching them explore the world around them is priceless. Discovering the ducks and the chickens all the way to a couple of them "meeting" Rex. Earlier today one of them tried to nurse and was nudging Rex in the belly in hopes that there would be milk.

If I knew that piglets would bring so much joy I would have gotten them long ago! Well, maybe not, but still. Maybe we would have had pigs earlier while starting up our farm. The reality is that we got them at just the right time. They make me smile and fill my heart with joy. People are interested in them and we welcome visitors - while still practicing physical distancing. Well, mostly anyway.

What will happen in the next few weeks...we'll see how weaning goes when they are about 8 weeks old. I'll need to contact Farmer Jason to find out how the weaning process is to happen, but that is for another day. Once they are weaned we'll be listing 4 of the boys for sale. I want to enjoy as much time with them as possible which is why being home now has been so good!

Farm Life is the Best Life...

with piglets!