Ginger almost drowned

Ginger our tamworth boar is such a gentle chap and although we’ve only had him for a year he’s really part of the family.

A couple of weeks ago, just before christmas I was down on the Clyde with the ferry and the dude was at a panto with his grandparents. Ginger who was suffering from one of his bouts of depression (despite having 2 young girls for company) chose this moment to get stuck in a ditch. Now bear in mind that we live 10 miles from anywhere or anyone and mrs C is only wee then this was quite a disaster. The first I knew about it was when mrs C phones me up hysterical telling me that Ginger is stuck in a drain with just his snout sticking out of the water! Apparantly his ears and eyes were submerged and just his 2 nostrils were sticking out of the water. Luckily she managed  to wedge his head up with a shovel and get the water flowing round him. As I said we are miles from anywhere I’m 200 miles away and mrs C is all on her own with 2 0r 300k of boar in a ditch! the mobile don’t work and it’s a sunday, luckily there are 2 strong heroes staying about a mile away at ‘the old schoolhouse’ and one of them has his phone switched on. I can’t thank these 2 guys enough for dropping everything to go and help mrs C and Ginger.  The 2 knights in question dropped everything and went to gingers rescue,  they managed to get him turned so he was well clear of the water and got some blankets and hot water bottles round him. At this point Ginger was pretty hyperthermic and exteremly stressed but after about an hours warmth and rest he still could not get out under his own steam. So the two shinning Knights managed to get a towel underneath him and with brute force lifted him out of the ditch. This was further complicated by one of the gilts coming in heat and wanting to get intimate with him!!! Ginger at this point was pure wrecked and was almost put back in the ditch by his amorous girl friend. Me I’m 200 miles away and feeling pretty useless but somehow it all worked out and after a wee spell of recuperation Ginger is back to his old self.

I do like sundays

I love sundays when I’m working as we only have 2 sailings and the first is at 10:00 so it gives me chance to see the piggies.During the week I usually leave round 6:30 and don’t return until 13 hours later so it’s always dark this time of year. I let mrs C have a wee lie in on sunday and go and do the feeding before i go to work, I’ve not seen them since tuesday and it never ceases to amaze me how much the piglets have grown in 5 days. I was slightly concerned that Ginger our tamworth boar was not waiting to be fed as he has a habit of falling in ditches ( I really must post that story in my disasters category ) so I went to check on him. The lazy chap was still in his bed and after coming out to see me and having a wee grunt and a pet he went straight back to it. I think with any other pig this would be a sign of illness but Ginger is a bit emotional and often has wee bouts of depression, either that or the two young old spot gilts that he’s sleeping with have worn him out! Anyway after a quick look round for stray eggs

I set off down ‘Calums rd’ for work. We don’t have any predators (for hens anyway) so our chooks very free range and don’t get shut in at night, the up side of this is they lay all year round, the down side is that occasionally they lay in strange places! one of ours has been laying in this washing machine drum for days now and I’m determined to get a pic of her but for now this will have to do. We had a pretty quiet day on the ferry and as it was a bonny day i went up the mast to secure one of the aerials that had come loose on the trip up from the Clyde.