It wasnt a simple birth! We knew Tilly was in labour and had been checking her every half an hour on the cow cam. However in between checks Tulip had popped out no trouble at all. Although Tilly wasn't that keen on her, she was rather rough and flipped the poor baby across the barn with her horns. She also wouldn't let her feed. With the help of great friends and family, time and persistence all is now well. I checked the cow cam at 1.30am this morning and Tulip was feeding, followed by a playful whoop whoop session around the barn. We are thrilled.
I think Tulip will be staying, although our friend Nigel says she should be steak and chips!! We aren't sure.
Now for all our other news:
Dennis left us on Friday, all went well he loaded well and had a stress free journey. I do feel awful about it, especially when I returned to the abbatoir to collect the offal. I just keep reminding myself why we raise our animals, what a wonderful life they have had and how we are eating such great meat that has been raised with love, without the added medicines that commercial meat has. Never the less it was still very hard. The carcass hasn't come home this time, he has gone to our friends butchers shop to hang until 16th April when we shall butcher the carcass with the help of Darren the butcher.
I decided that I was going to give it a go, cooking the tongue, last years went straight in the freezer and that's where it has stayed. I boiled it 4 hours with garlic, black pepper, carrots and onions. It was really nice. I won't be so scared next time. The lungs have been boiled up for the dogs to supplement their food over the next week.
Grandad and I collected the new pigs at 7am on Saturday morning, no weekend lay in for us. The pigs were rather large, they have had plenty of food, Gareth has called one of them Hector, he has massive shoulders! We now have ten oxford sandy and black piggies. So if anyone is looking to purchase free range rare breed pork, we have plenty!
Well I'm sitting drinking tea, watching lambing live, I can't wait until lambing!
I hope to check in over the weekend, with more news of how our little tulip is getting on!
