Stone Horse Farm
3869 7th Line L9S 3M4 Innisfil, ON, Canada

This is done more frequently in farming than you might guess. If it’s colder, the flannel pyjama pants come out too. It’s how we pretend we are having a relaxing start to the day while assuring ourselves everything is OK outside.

No good photos in the dark, but we got litter six and five more piglets tonight. Little Pig is a daughter of Mystery, and as Mystery only has a few more years of piglets left, I picked this daughter to keep the line going. And she has more than inherited her mother’s genes. You may recall Mystery foiled me by hiding her September litter way out in the field at the edge of the woods. She finally found a location so insane, I had no way of moving the litter, along with her, so... they enjoyed the wildlife until she was ready to bring them home by herself, 11 days later. Little Pig clearly needed a room for tonight, so I moved her into my coziest stall this morning at feeding time. And she reminded me that the door needed to be repaired by letting herself out. Hoping to get her back and then fix the door, I went after her. She responded by wallowing past me and high tailing it for the bush. Exasperated, I went and recruited Mason to help me herd her back. Luckily she had second thoughts, and was back in the group shed when we arrived. So we drove her into a pen by the barn and went to fix her door. So she figured out how to wiggle out of that pen as well while I obliviously worked away then went to the dentist. By the time I returned to move her into the barn, she had built her nest in front of the group shed and delivered two piglets. Her total tonight is six, a small litter but a good number for her size. Tomorrow I will catch the piglets and get her into the barn. For tonight, it’s good they are surrounded by straw! It will be a cold one, but survivable, and she has no desire to move four feet from her designated nest to a cozier spot inside the shed. These were not the genes I was hoping to carry on from Mystery!

Five fall litters down, two to go! Dot added 11 little bacon bits to the herd last night, bumping out Gert’s 10 for the biggest litter. So I have 27 new arrivals in the past ten days. Little sow Stacy is ready for her first litter, but slipped off to the bush when I was moving young pigs, so my afternoon agenda has been revised.

I am happy to administer this local food program that was born last March with a few farmers throwing their hats into selling together.

It looks like we have it wrapped up with 11 after five hours, and everyone has already figured out the line-up.

The clever pigs figure out there is more milk in the front teats