Wednesday 21 April 2010

Piglets, The Loneliness of the Tractor Driver, Transatlantic Flights Visible Once More

KT & Elder Son have acquired two of the naughty Saddleback piglings we met on the road the other evening. They are about the same size as their corgi, Cadi and move like greased lightning. They were very suspicious of the labradors and rushed in to a corner to hide, though their curiosity soon got the better of them and there was a lot of grunting conversation about them. They have been named Pandora & Percy and should prove great fun to have on the yard. They will be allowed to roam around the fenced of area of the yard as soon as they are big enough not to escape through the bars of the gates, which won't be too long. Meanwhile they are in a large airy pen with lots of straw and  spend a lot of time making nests and burrowing.
We have had pigs before though not for a few years now, and they are great entertainment. We never have have more than two or three and they do well having a very easy happy life.
Having visited a commercial pig unit in Brittany and being quite shocked & horrified by it, we would never keep pigs in confined spaces with no access to the outdoors and natural light.

The Farmer has been very busy with field work while this lovely weather continues and has been out till dark these last few evenings rolling the fields preparatory to sowing grass seed which was delivered today.
It is long and lonely work sitting in a tractor for hours on end just driving round and round the fields in ever decreasing circles, but it has to be done. Thank goodness for tractor cabs with radios fitted.
I walked up to see how the job was progressing last night about 7 o'clock and it was a beautiful  but cold evening and the Farmer didn't come back to the house till after 9pm having been in the field since about 5.30pm. It is very tiring work and a degree of precision is needed even when towing a roller as every inch of the field needs to be flattened to make good seed bed.

Well, British airspace is open again and we are back to cross-hatched skies once more. For all those people around the world who are trying to get home and now have to wait for the backlog of passengers to be dealt with it must be nightmare and very worrying having to pay exorbitant prices for accommodation until such time as they can get a flight.
As a result of the flight ban I have an extra booking in the cottage from today by a family who had intended flying off somewhere for afew days but had thier flight cancelled so decided to take a break in the UK instead
I'm sure they are not the only ones to have made a decision to holiday at home which is very good news for the British tourist industry.

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