Laertes, son of Polonius

Allow me to introduce Laertes. He is the son of Oldefarm's Polonius. He is a gentle giant. I also had his brother who was black with thin brown stripes. I actually preferred the colouring of his brother but he was a cranky character. Laertes is the exact opposite. We realised that once he was separated from his brother that he had been bullied by him. He now has the luxury of leaving his food until later. He never had that opportunity before.

When the day came for them both to go to the abattoir we loaded his brother relatively easily.  But Laertes was cute and evaded loading. Because of this he got a reprieve. My son convinced me it was an omen and anyway he had "Lestat" eyes. He was full of reasons as to why we should not kill him. I was between two minds but, having already killed a sow I wished I hadn't, I was dithering. Later that day I got him into the horse box but something stopped me from closing the ramp and rather sheepishly I walked back up the field.

Now we have decided to keep him as a breeding boar. He has a lovely gentle nature and even as he gets fully grown I can't see this changing. And although he was not unduly lonely I decided to get him a companion. Mini me arrived and he was so gentle with her it was really heart warming.

She is the boss. She learned the routine so quickly. The only time I have seen him get mad at her is when she tries to eat his veg. Today he head butted her through the electric fencing because she tried to steal something he was eating. I don't think he intended to do this but he is so much bigger than her she's easy to send far.

She's a real squealer. She never stops and sometimes I think he looks at me as if to say "can you take her away before she wrecks my head?"

But I think in spite of himself he is happy with her company.

Laertes, son of Polonius. You were lucky.

Rusty and The Bandit

Sadly Mrs Pig hurt her back and had to go to the Abba concert (abattoir) so we are now the new residents.

Herself has named us Rusty and The Bandit. We are a Saddleback/Duroc cross. We are growing very fast. We love all the space in the big sunny field. We also love our little house. It gets really warm when the sun shines into it in the morning and we like to go back for a snooze after breakfast. It doesn't leak even in the heaviest rain.

The pesky dogs are really scared of the hurty white stuff so they leave us alone although one decided that she liked the look of some of our food so she jumped through it. You should have heard her squeal. We laughed our heads off at her.

There's a big fella that calls into see us. He can speak pig language. It's really confusing because it sounds just like us but it really makes no sense. We come out every time to see him though because he gives us a rub on the belly or behind the ears and we love that.

It's getting very cold at night now but we just bury down into all the straw and snuggle very close together so we are quite comfortable.

Life is good.

I'm All Alone

This is Harry the pig, he left a few weeks ago in a horse box. Herself tempted us all up the ramp with a bucket. She pushed me out the jockey door and I thought she was going to push the boys out as well, but she didn't.

I haven't seen them since and I presume they have gone to that "Abba" concert Rasher was on about before she left to go to it herself.

I sulked for days and refused to get up. I pretended to starve myself but it's all being in vain. Herself has still not got me any new friends.

She says she's trying. I kind of believe her because she is out every day muttering about "no pigs".

 She decided to send Harry to Abba when she took this picture of him and saw his big ham!

I'm trying to hide mine but every now and again I catch her checking it out.  She says if I don't smarten up she's getting that horse box again next week.

She used to call us the runts but Hock never really grew. That's him beside me on the right. I'm not much better because Harry bullied us both and ate the most.

She said the butcher said he was only fit to make sausages with. Herself says he'll make the most expensive sausages on the planet because he was fed so well. 

This is me now. Herself said I was so fat I had to be pregnant but I'm not.

I wish she would get me some friends but I'm very worried she's booking that Abba concert again.