Ram alang a ding dong ..
October rocks up ,… Read More »Ram alang a ding dong ..
Grobdale of Girthon
Do you need a bit o’ Scotland ?
Imagine this title, in the voice of Joey Tribiani ..
Cos that’s how I heard it, when a very good friend ,said it should be our strap line..
Made me smile and made me think . We have a lot of very welcome visitors to our tiny piece of Scotland and just recently
(I blame current politics.. no I didn’t say the “B” word)
I have had a few friends, say a’ bit of Scotland’ is what they needed to ease stress..
August started with our lovely Helen and Damon adding a few giggles to the day , this is us taste testing gherkins vs cucumber .. does anyone know the difference ?
Ginger the best colour ever..
June is the best month as far as our favourite ginger is concerned as it means all her favourite things .. Cake , friends , presents and chocolate . 
We always celebrate a birthday and it generally lasts more than a day, shame the cake didn’t last as long .
A surprise visit from our besties also went down a treat too.. we love you guys.
June 13th was Nora’s due date , and we had planned for Andy to be home for the early days , we couldn’t have planned it better as he had only been home maybe an hour when Nora
went into labour !
We camped out in lambing shed to be rewarded in the early hours with the birth of
9 healthy happy piglets ..
As first timers we were quite nervous , there was so much that could go wrong however Nora was a true textbook pig and did everything according to what we had read .
Thanks Google
Nora has turned out to be a fabulous mum looking after her litter .. we clearly brought her up well .
Read More »Ginger the best colour ever..
What a fat pig ! how rude ..
Nora was looking fairly pregnant by 
the Beginning of May, she was (if it was a baby bump) in her final trimester and looking pretty
“Nippleicious “
Andy loves his piggy ,so she gets quite pampered and well looked after.. if I’m honest she’s actually a bit spoiled …
I didn’t get breakfast in bed ! just sayin ..
Where socks come to die .
April turned out to be a very varied month, weather was very changeable and certainly lived up to the “April showers” title. 
At the beginning of the month Boaris went back to his farm after hopefully doing the deed with Nora !
We had seen plenty of “pig porn action” whilst he was here.. so are hopeful that in June we will get some mini squeakers running about in the mud ..
Talking of mud ,The builders are making such a lot of it that boots are the footwear of choice for EVERY trip
out the door , hence my socks are getting some hammer and i’ve had to learn how to darn ! I can’t bring myself to give up on my lovely saddleworth wooly knit socks .. good socks are worth fixing I say x
Nipple cream for the pig !
Nora has had an internet acquaintance over 
for a sleepover !
She held out for a week and then had to give in to his charms .. floozy , but hopefully we have piglets on the way , thus..
“Nipple cream for our pig “
Bringing home the bacon !
Apparently it’s the year of the pig ,and February it seems is definitely the month of the pig here at a Grobdale !
We had felt for a while that Nora needed some help on the fertility front,
she wasn’t showing any signs of coming into season so AI (artificial insemination) hasn’t been an option ,
We needed a real man ..
We have found Social media to be a powerful tool and I’ve used it to sell and source all kinds if things including this time ,a loan Tamworth boar .
It took just over a week of messages and phone calls .. on the journey I found her brother and her parents !
Third time lucky I discovered “Boaris “ and no he doesn’t have a blonde unruly mop ..
Dry January my arse !or Bats in the Dairy ?
January it seems is supposed to be when you stop eating and drinking .. kind of detoxing.. well pish to that !
In this house we are still guzzling the Christmas leftovers, the animals get the leftover leftovers and so, nobody is doing without really
.
kind of keeps them happy anyway as we move them about.. We seem to be doing a lot of that this month !
The pigs were first, their pen really was looking a bit bare , and they love to forage; they had even been breaking out every now and then so it was time to move them to pastures new.
When we arrived at Grobdale we inherited a pigloo in one of the smaller paddocks , it seemed the perfect time to give its proper tenants and evict the ram 
lambs Henry and Harry , give them a grassier patch and move the bulldozers in ! Here’s the video Of us moving the lovelies .
How happy are they ..
Finger painting with sheep!
Our second December here at Grobdale, and we feel settled , less fly by the seat of your pants, maybe even comfortable.. dont get me wrong , every day has an out of your comfort zone moment or three but the majority of the time it’s jobs that we’ve done before or at least something similar ..For instance painting 
your loan Tup with raddle !
Surely that’s just finger painting with animals instead of children .
If you’ve followed the link above ( click on the underlined word raddle ) you’ve read that by putting a dye or raddle on Gibbs , 
makes sure that he leaves his mark on any of the girls he’s mounted , so we know who could well be in lamb and who’s due first if she is pregnant. All good information to a good shepherdess (and I am trying to be).
The loan tup Gibbs was turning out to be rather lovely to deal with , hopefully he’ll be as easy to load and return to his owner at the beginning of next month ..
The world according to gin or maybe pigs !
So November’s here and the pigs decided , between themselves one day 
that they needed a change of scenery ..
So one afternoon we decided to take them out down to the loch ,their first walk out was hilarious they were just proper giddy pants.
The freedom caused them to work up a fair old appetite , as if they needed any encouragement and when they’re hungry the noise they generate is rather impressive compared to their size I can only compare it to
A hundred violins being played REALLY badly !