Sarah Stays for a Couple of Nights

19 February 2009 Little sis Sarah arrived last week for a visit and a break from Auckland. Having just been knocked back for a job she desperately wanted and back living at home until she can find a job she’s feeling just a little frustrated. She stayed for 2 nights and cooked our dinners and did our dishes. It’s such a wonderful feeling to be able to just relax in the evening and be looked after. I think maybe I’m starting to get a little bit too used to guests looking after me. Sarah left on Thursday. Who knows when we will see each other again. She has plans to go back overseas in a couple of months and it is unlikely she’ll be back anytime soon. The New Orchard Paddock Awaits With Phyllis due to give birth on the 20th we needed to move Joy and the piglets up to the orchard. The intention is to turn the big pig shed into a maternity suite as there is less chance of piglets being rolled on. Wednesday afternoon Aaron attempted the move alone. Joy followed him up the drive no problem but the piglets were too scared to leave. When I got home it was raining and after an hour alone in her new paddock Joy was clearly not very happy. Aaron and I took the car down the hill. The plan was I would catch the piglets and hand them to Aaron through the gate. I tried over and over but kept letting the squealing, wriggling, slippery piglets go. Finally I managed to catch one and hand him to Aaron through the gate but his ear-piercing squeals over excited Coppa and he raced up to the gate and lunged forward as though to grab it. I was horrified. Aaron dropped the piglet, yelled in fury at Coppa and aimed a boot at the backside of a quickly fleeing dog. I called a halt to the proceedings. I was literally covered in mud, the piglets were running scared and I was not prepared to risk Coppa biting a piglet. We returned back up the drive. I suspected Joy had heard the piglets squealing as she was doing her best to rip up the sheep netting. The fence wasn’t designed for a full on pig attack. We let her out and she raced back down the drive. We opened the gate to the paddock and the piglets ran out and raced towards the front gate. Unbelievably I’d shut the gate when I got home (not my usual practice) and the piglets came to a halt. I couldn’t believe my luck. I herded them back the other way but then Joy had her own plans to go exploring and a good 10 minutes was spent trying to encourage mother and children back into the paddock. We’d had enough. We trudged back up the hill and collapsed on the sofa. Sarah had dinner waiting for us. Bliss! More CouchSurfers Kate and Rhiannon arrived Friday afternoon. From England and Wales they have just started a year’s O.E. in New Zealand. They’re a lovely couple with an interest in tattoos, piercings and rugby. I think Aaron was the perfect host for them to pick in that respect. They were only staying the night, with an early start the next morning but as so often happens their morning drifted by and they left closer to lunchtime. We enjoyed their company and there’s a possibility they may come back up for a visit at the end of their tour. It would be good but such is the nature of travel that I suspect they will probably have other places to check out. The New Orchard Paddock Awaits Saturday morning arrived and it was Aaron’s turn for a sleep in. I had other plans. The piglets needed moving and I wasn’t doing it alone. Breakfast time was the perfect opportunity. I made Aaron get up and promised him we would both sleep in on Sunday. The animals would cope with a late breakfast for one day. We got up and fed Stanley and then we took Phyllis and Arthur’s troughs and breakfast into the bottom paddock so they wouldn’t be a distraction to the piglets. We then opened the gate to Joy’s paddock and out they all ran, bar 1 piglet who was back up by the wallow. It didn’t take him long to sprint around and through the gate though. With breakfast in a bucket by my side the pigs trotted at a very fast pace up the drive and into their new paddock. It was as easy as that. What can I say? A pig struggles to focus on anything but food at mealtimes. The pigs ate breakfast in their new home and then all piglet attention was focused on Stanley who watched excitedly from the other side of the fence. They were fascinated and the feeling was mutual. With so much excited grunting Joy stepped in and she and Stanley had a long conversation involving a lot of grunting, snout touching and high pitched squeals. Goodness knows what was said but perhaps as they have met before it was a catch up on what had happened in the last 5 months. More Guests Aaron’s cousin Tracey arrived with 3 kids in tow on Saturday afternoon. The kids spent much of their time entertaining themselves, which is always a good thing. It was a rainy afternoon so they all ended up getting a bit wet when we went and fed out the pigs and ducks and Josh required a change of clothes. We hung his wet ones on the clothes drying rack and they hang there still. I’m not sure when they’ll be collected. It’s a common theme. I swear nearly all our guests leave stuff behind! Saturday evening was pleasant enough and we did end up going to be a bit late. No worries, Aaron and I would both get a sleep in on Sunday morning. It was not to be though. Marty sat outside the bedroom door at 6:30 and crowed and crowed and not long after that we could hear Josh racing up and down the hall. We gave up on sleep and got up. Phyllis Moves to the Maternity Ward Sunday afternoon we moved Phyllis into Joy’s old paddock. She wasn’t entirely happy though. We hadn’t yet managed to get hold of new woodchip for the shed and she didn’t seem to like the smells in there. For 3 nights she slept outside. In the meantime I kept spraying the old chip with white vinegar with a few drops of eucalyptus oil added. Eventually it seemed to do the trick and she moved into the shed. With her due date tomorrow I was more than a little worried that we’d have a repeat of Joy’s outside birth.