There was rain, snow, frost, sun, wind … we had it all in January. So … at least we weren’t bored! The run-up to Christmas was a bit frenetic – but that’s not a complaint, just a comment!
So, January is a delightful calm after the storm and we try to make the most of it – there is a LONG list of things to do but also a chance for a bit of downtime for us. Thanks to some very able pig sitters, we escaped for a couple of days R&R – wonderful to recharge the batteries with some long lie-ins!
The pigs cope far better with this weather than I do – their trotters are designed to work efficiently in the mud, whereas my wellies are not and risk of walking out of the wellies is a daily occurrence.
The absolute HIGHLIGHT at the beginning of the month was the arrival – at long last – of a decent internet connection. The BT vans have been around the village on and off for about 6 months stringing new fibre from post to post and finally, on the 5th, it was our turn. We have gone from less than 1mb/sec to over 50mb/sec – hard to explain the amount of time we used to waste waiting for things to happen or doing them over and over again because connections had timed out! Now we can waste it watching daft videos of pigs and dogs etc instead 🙂
The weather has been erratic – from some of the wettest weather we have had in years through to crisp, sunny and frosty mornings. No doubt in my mind which I prefer.
We have moved a few of the pigs around – we know which fields suffer the most with the heavy rain so try to keep them empty if we can. Our Tamworths moved to their new field and are setting about excavating it very efficiently! Nice for them not to be up to their knees in mud.
On January 24th, we launched a new website – focussed on our luxury holiday cottage – and coinciding with us being awarded a ‘SUPERHOST’ designation from AirBnB – all 5* reviews from our guests. If you haven’t seen it yet, do check it out. And if you find anything wrong/missing/not working, please do let me know asap.
Sadly, we have not seen the arrival of new piglets this month – both our Oxford Sandy & Black sows were running with Bertie the boar last Autumn and while we saw him ‘paying them some attention’, it seems his efforts were in vain – whilst they look well rounded, unless it is the longest pregnancy in pig history, neither of them fell to his charms. Ah well, the joy of farming where nothing is guaranteed!