Pigs # 13 - Pigs Departure Part Two!

Richard from Morris Free Range Meats & Horticulture was due to arrive at 7AM, so I was outside at 6:15, with my bucket of feed and fingers, toes etc. crossed.  First I walked the route from the mouth of the 'exit pathway' to the Alpaca shed, propping open gates, moving the cars to try to create a bit of a barrier and generally fretting.  At about 6:30 I checked all my paperwork (movements of pigs have to be 'booked' and registered via [ http://www.eaml2.org.uk/ami/home.eb] which actually seems to work fairly well, albeit a bit 'clunkily' as is the case with all 'big company' IT systems in my experience!), took a deep breath and opened the gate to the pigs enclosure.

"Pigs! Pigs!  I've got your breakfast here!  Follow me for your breakfast!" I called.  They followed me really well up the 'exit pathway', Big Pig with her nose actually in the bucket, and Small Pig trying her best to get her nose in too!  The next part went surprisingly well too, being a sharp right turn and into the garden via a narrow gate.  Once we were in the garden however, the pigs started to find everything extremely interesting and galloped about exploring the new area.  Lots of bucket banging and calling later, I'd persuaded them into the Alpaca shed and poured a pan of food onto the floor which they happily tucked into.  At this point Richard arrived and started to back the trailer towards the shed door.  He then pointed out that we would need to keep the pigs away from the shed-gate while we opened it (of course, I'd poured their food right next to the shed-gate!).  So more bucket banging, calling and persuading saw the pigs tucking into another pan of food, behind a hurdle, away from the shed-gate.  We got the trailer backed up and led them into it with more food.  We quickly shut the trailer, I passed Richard the paperwork and we said goodbye.

I rushed off to work, and soon got consumed in the day to day rush, not thinking about the journey the pigs were taking, just trusting Richard and www.NSJames.co.uk to look after them and treat them kindly and with respect.

How I wish that I could do this 'smallholding' business properly and not cram it into my 'spare time'!