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| Neil + Little Friend |
After what is a mentally quite exhausting day taking in all the facts and figures about the basics of Pig Keeping we were driving back in the dark plotting how we could make things happen and a few weeks later we made a start. With a lot of help from Tony answering our emails with all our newbie questions we eventually built a Pig house and compound with the muscle and knowse from Alison's husband Paul and their son Charlie.
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| Alison at Pigs Paradise |
Since then we have been trudging down to the bottom of our garden through mud and sun to feed our little darlings and so far have enjoyed pretty much every minute. We have learnt so much about so many things that we feel priviledged to have had the opportunity and look forward to continuing our adventure with our snuffly friends.
We don't claim to be experts, but we are enthusiastic about our animals and do enjoy working with them and watching them snuffle around our pig compounds interacting with each other. Feeding time is always a lively time as they all call for them to be served first, which can make it quite noisy. In passing, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who takes turns in feeding them, especially our darlings at Cleveland House, our children that is! From time to time, especially when it is raining and dark, they do grumble about having to feed the pigs but are really amazing how they generally just get on and do it - thank you girls, we couldn't do it without you ;-)
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| One of our little helpers with proud mum |
One of the many reasons we do make the effort to struggle through mud and the snow even in the harshest days of winter (or British summer!) is because we really do believe that we give our pigs a good life, free to roam around in a great area that gives them plenty to do. We feed and water them well and give them a loving pat or two whenever we can (it's tricky with the piglies, they are sooo skittish they very rarely stay still long enough). When we take them for they final "special day out" we try to make it as stress free as possible and this has been born out by the positive comments we have had from everyone who has had some of our meat.
What's in it for us?
Well, certainly no fortune! From the very start we have not set out to make a living from doing this (which is just as well . . . ) but we have tried to be as professional as we can in our approach to learning what to do and how to go about things. We have read quite a lot to get us up to speed and have been on a number of courses for general pig keeping at Pigs Paradise and also Butchery courses. Whist we have found pigs very simple to deal with and at its most basic, it is pretty straightforward, there is also SO much to know, especially about the cuts of meat and how to cook them. It really has been a fascinating journey over the last few years that we look forward to continuing for a good while yet.
Big pig Luv
Neil + Jessica & Paul + Alison
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