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Here's the thing.
Tonight I came home from work, it had just got dark, and got the dogs their christmas pork roasts. I was home a little later than expected because I'd got to chatting in the grocery store with some folks, then I had to bring in some packages (my first firearm which has been gifted to me, a grain mill, a (dead) turkey, cream for baking, some clothes). While I was hauling everything in and then making sure the dogs got their food far enough apart from each other that they wouldn't fight, I heard the sound.
That's the point where I put on my farm boots and coat instead of my work shoes, grabbed the flashlight, and went out to the secondary pig structure: the A-frame Tucker and I had made, and which had just had the tarp ripped off it a day or two ago so it was just a skeleton. Sure enough, there's Rapunzel with some babies inside the non-sheltering shelter, and all the other pigs in the normal pig barn. A quick weather check assured me that yes, even though it was only -5 today it was supposed to get down to "-12 (feels like -15)" tonight. Two nights of that and then it'll be above freezing (!!) for a bit.
Of course it's Christmas eve, everything is closed, my spare plywood (which there isn't much of) is buried somewhere out in the back field, and I don't have much lumber wrap left. And of course-- when I disturbed Penny she lay on a whole bunch of babies and crushed them. So.
I had two more pieces of weird 70s siding in the collapsing shed, so I went in there and got that. Putting that at the base of the A frame, I could use the very last of the lumber wrap to bridge over the top. The back end was still mostly on, and I used cardboard at the very top, at least tonight. Rapunzel was a little disturbed to have me working out there with power tools (!) and the headlamp (I guess they were acclimatized to this because I use it to feed them) and huge sheets of crackling-loud lumber wrap and weird-shaped wood. She lay on her teats a little bit didn't get up and circle and crush anyone.
Two hours of hunting down materials, assembling them very quietly around mama pig, carefully bringing an extra bale of hay and placing it next to her (its been a bad straw year) and pulling a metal sliver from the screws out of my finger, I was headed back in to the house. None of the piglets seemed to be shivering. Thea was proudly guarding her pig leg, the geese were ruffling their heads under their feathers for the night, the ducks all came out hoping for a drink (which I gave them), and I just remembered to pull some bean seeds someone had mailed me in from the car. In the sky, just below casseopeia, there was an arrow of stars with the bottom corner star(planet? object?) bright orange-red.
I came in gave the cats pig-skin treats, seared a tuna loin Josh had given me and drizzled it with some soy and sesame oil. Put water on for tea, pulled out some sprouts and gave half of them to June and sat down to nibble sprouts and tuna and write while the tea steeped.
This night? This evening? It makes me happy. Baby pigs and last minute rigging shelters with a headlamp and noticing the demanding expanse of the sky and giving everyone pork for christmas and eating something given to me by the person who caught it, with love, and having space to write about it. Coming in to feed the fire and relax, knowing I'll go out again to check on everyone, having the back of my brain spinning to try and think of ways to keep the babies warmer while I write...
I don't know. This is my life. I like it pretty well.
I belong here.
Tonight I came home from work, it had just got dark, and got the dogs their christmas pork roasts. I was home a little later than expected because I'd got to chatting in the grocery store with some folks, then I had to bring in some packages (my first firearm which has been gifted to me, a grain mill, a (dead) turkey, cream for baking, some clothes). While I was hauling everything in and then making sure the dogs got their food far enough apart from each other that they wouldn't fight, I heard the sound.
That's the point where I put on my farm boots and coat instead of my work shoes, grabbed the flashlight, and went out to the secondary pig structure: the A-frame Tucker and I had made, and which had just had the tarp ripped off it a day or two ago so it was just a skeleton. Sure enough, there's Rapunzel with some babies inside the non-sheltering shelter, and all the other pigs in the normal pig barn. A quick weather check assured me that yes, even though it was only -5 today it was supposed to get down to "-12 (feels like -15)" tonight. Two nights of that and then it'll be above freezing (!!) for a bit.
Of course it's Christmas eve, everything is closed, my spare plywood (which there isn't much of) is buried somewhere out in the back field, and I don't have much lumber wrap left. And of course-- when I disturbed Penny she lay on a whole bunch of babies and crushed them. So.
I had two more pieces of weird 70s siding in the collapsing shed, so I went in there and got that. Putting that at the base of the A frame, I could use the very last of the lumber wrap to bridge over the top. The back end was still mostly on, and I used cardboard at the very top, at least tonight. Rapunzel was a little disturbed to have me working out there with power tools (!) and the headlamp (I guess they were acclimatized to this because I use it to feed them) and huge sheets of crackling-loud lumber wrap and weird-shaped wood. She lay on her teats a little bit didn't get up and circle and crush anyone.
Two hours of hunting down materials, assembling them very quietly around mama pig, carefully bringing an extra bale of hay and placing it next to her (its been a bad straw year) and pulling a metal sliver from the screws out of my finger, I was headed back in to the house. None of the piglets seemed to be shivering. Thea was proudly guarding her pig leg, the geese were ruffling their heads under their feathers for the night, the ducks all came out hoping for a drink (which I gave them), and I just remembered to pull some bean seeds someone had mailed me in from the car. In the sky, just below casseopeia, there was an arrow of stars with the bottom corner star(planet? object?) bright orange-red.
I came in gave the cats pig-skin treats, seared a tuna loin Josh had given me and drizzled it with some soy and sesame oil. Put water on for tea, pulled out some sprouts and gave half of them to June and sat down to nibble sprouts and tuna and write while the tea steeped.
This night? This evening? It makes me happy. Baby pigs and last minute rigging shelters with a headlamp and noticing the demanding expanse of the sky and giving everyone pork for christmas and eating something given to me by the person who caught it, with love, and having space to write about it. Coming in to feed the fire and relax, knowing I'll go out again to check on everyone, having the back of my brain spinning to try and think of ways to keep the babies warmer while I write...
I don't know. This is my life. I like it pretty well.
I belong here.
