Pigs, poults, and a yarn sale

Yes, more animal pictures. It's all I've got these days.

More spring excitement on the homefront. The piglets finally got to hang out with their dad:

who seemed quite comfortable with them:

In fact, he slept through most of the fun.

I wonder what this piglet's so happy about:

Here, two of them sample the trough:

This one likes rubber shoes:

This same afternoon, my husband and brother-in-law made a temporary fenced-in area for them all to go outside. One piglet contemplates the great world beyond the barn:

So tempted...

Mom?

Eventually, Sassy did take them all out to the wallow:

A mother who's been cooped up with six little ones for several weeks might understandably want a "Calgon-take-me-away" bath:

But any mom will tell you that once you have kids, privacy and quiet, reflective moments come rarely and briefly.

On the same day, we managed to get an asparagus bed and three blueberry bushes planted. And the peas are up... We also got our fire pit set up and had a cookout and an evening around the campfire after dinner. Life still doesn't suck around here.

Meanwhile, inside the house, a slightly unexpected thing happened. Saturday night, some of the turkey eggs we had been incubating started to peep. We really didn't think they'd hatch. By Sunday morning, there was one poult staggering around among the 7 remaining eggs. It wasn't easy to get pictures through the window, but I tried. Here's another egg about to hatch:

Minutes later, a very tired poult emerged:

Two poults:

Over the course of the day, all but 2 of the eggs hatched. The last (sixth) one to show signs of life struggled all day long to break through the shell. Although it had gaps all the way around the egg, the inner membrane started to dry and no matter how hard the poult wobbled and pushed, it couldn't break through.

Moral dilemma.

Some people say you should never help a bird hatch. If it can't do it on its own, it isn't meant to live. Others warn that if you do help, you risk hurting the chick or causing it to hemorrhage. Others say you should do what you can. My husband decided to snip some of the dried membrane and see what happened.

Within minutes, a very loud and lively poult popped out!

Here they are in the brooder box Sunday night:

If you recall, we incubated four eggs from each of our two hens. Three of each hatched out. Rose, like last year, did not sit on her nest so we knew she'd never hatch her own. Trixie, being less than a year old, was an unknown quantity. But she did set, and her poults hatched over the weekend. My husband caught sight of a couple of them peeking out from under her.

As of this morning, Trixie was still nesting up on a pile of lumber. We had to move her and the poults down to a safer, lower nest before they started wandering around and fallilng. We expected a beak thrashing from Trixie. Instead, when my husband reached under her, she stood aside. We found five happy little poults and several unhatched eggs. We moved them all down to a hay-lined dog crate on the floor and in minutes Trixie joined them, rearranged her eggs and settled in.

Since she only had five poults (the other eggs are not likely to hatch after all this time), we decided to give her the six poults we had in the house. This was a tough decision as, unlike baby chickens, the poults are much mellower and more curious and seem to like to be held. My daughter, rarely moved by small animals, has been cuddling them for two days.

We set them out in front of Trixie. It took about five minutes (I think the poults felt we were putting them up for adoption, because they kept turning to us and trying to get out of the crate!) but one by one they slipped under her. So now she's got her three indoor babies back, plus three of Rose's, plus her five, so 11 in all.  We will miss them, but it's easier for us and better for them this way.

My daughter came home from school, learned what we had done, burst into tears, and is no longer speaking to us. Still, Trixie will make a better mother than we will.

In celebration of all the new babies around here (and because I'm too busy to dye up more yarn this week), I've got a two-day sale going on at A Piece of Vermont Yarn and Fiber (like the new name?). Both the Panda Superwash and Colonial Superwash sock yarns are 10 percent off now through Thursday! Enter the coupon code SPRING at checkout to receive your discount. The sale has already been advertised to people on the mailing list so inventory is down a little bit. But there's still plenty there.

Spinners: I have bamboo/merino top cooling right now, and a freshly scoured pile of fluffy white Romney waiting for something, I don't know what yet.

I actually took a few minutes to spin today because I have desperately wanted to make a Clapotis out of handspun bamboo/merino. Knowing I wouldn't have the time to spin, I eventually decided I'd just dye up some yarn and knit it from that. But I didn't have any suitable yarn on hand. So yesterday, I confess, I went to the LYS and almost bought yarn for this project. At the last minute, I stopped myself, curbed my impulses, and remembered the original goal: Use my own handspun.

I will have a handspun Clapotis. Someday.

Remember, the coupon code at checkout is SPRING!!!!

Comments

[stephanie]

Good thinking on Hubby's part helping the chick to hatch. That seems like the right amount of intervention. Now that turkey mom sure has her work cut out for her!

[Carol]

They're sooo cute! And the gray piggies, are they striped? So cool! I think it's hilarious that YOU would buy yarn at a LYS! ~snort~

[Sara]

The piglets are getting to be so cute! Dad sure is laid back!!!

How wonderful that the poulets have a new mom and that they are going to be one big happy family!

Going over to check out your shop...

[Elisabeth]

I think you made the right decision helping the poult hatch. It seems like the more dangerous thing is to crack the egg when you hear them peeping in there.

Maybe next time you can keep one poult for your daughter to cuddle? My grandmother says that ducks make the best pets, though. Maybe you should get some ducklings?

Listen to me, trying to get you to take on more animals! Like you don't have enough already! :)

[sappmama]

Oh man. This post is sooo good.

I'd only come back as a pig or a turkey if I could belong to you guys. I know I'd be for eating (we all have to go some way), but what a fine time I'd have while alive.

[Norma]

You have chicks, I have embryonic pears. But remind me -- you have a rooster? I didn't remember that.

[Helen]

Now I've got a piggy desktop again.

The sight of Sassy escaping to the wallow made me think of this book http://tinyurl.com/53zat7 Humans, elephants or pigs, we're all the same :)

[Bea]

Those little piggy tails! And the turkey poults, good job, I've heard it's not an easy thing, getting turkey babies!

I have been spinning away on Rambo, he's lovely, but when I opened up my package of alpaca/silk, it took my breath away. It is so beautiful and soft! Robby threw a fit because I only let him hug it for a minute :)

[Laura]

Jessie I could cry from the overwhelming sweetness of this post!! I love it. The pigs are just Too Much.

Girl. I just bought a drum carder. I Can Not WAIT to create the most perfect silk blend for a handspun Clapotis. It's what I've been waiting for since the first time I saw the pattern over three years ago! Oh my word, in the beginning it was "I can't afford the pattern yarn." Then it was "I want to hand paint it." Then it was... no... handpainted handspun - yes - that will be my Dream Clapotis.

But. What. Color? lol

[Sheila]

Thanks for the super post. I told you once that I want to live at your house, and now I do even more. When I saw the picture of Sassy taking her babies out, I had to check my mirror. I swear, she and I have the same backside! I think I really would fit in at your house, but I do not want to share a bed with Sassy.

[lynne s of oz]

Wow - your farm is really coming along! Wish I could try some of your homegrown meat (but not yet - it's all a little small ;-).
Odd thing about the chickens with their overgrown breastmeat - I much prefer thigh meat.

[JessaLu]

Wow you guys have quite the animal collection going! ;o)

btw, your garden bed made me a bit lightheaded...my grandmother used to garden on that scale (she had six kids and was a 'war bride' so it was a victory garden to begin with) and frankly it intimidates the hell out of me.

[Teyani]

am laughing hysterically at the 'calgon take me away' thought and photo..
You're such a hoot. :-)
great piggy photos.
Not to worry about your daughter not speaking to you over the poults, (I'm sure that you weren't anyway) She'll soon forgive you (smile)

[Robin]

You have the best pictures!!! Don't know where to start other than to say you all have been BUSY up there in Vermont! Enjoyed catching up with your posts.

[MJ]

Piggies! They remind me of Babe... and Charlotte's Web...

Uh, you sound busy. How do you have time to post?!? :-)