Sir and Madam have arrived.

Today my brother Scott and I were up before the crack of dawn for the 2 hour drive to Fiona and Nick Chambers property Fernleigh Free Range farm to pick up our new additions to the Greenvale Homestead, Prince and Doreen. Prince and Doreen are Wessex Saddleback pigs, a rare breed that is believed now to be now extinct from England but prior to the Wessex and Essex Saddleback being merged a herd was imported around the early to mid 1900s from the UK. We arrived early to avoid travelling with the pigs during the mid day heat. Doreen is due to give birth around the 14th April is approximately 10 years old and Prince nearly is 2. We were to have taken another sow Betrice however where as we believed she was "in pig" as it turns out it was a false alarm and Fiona has kindly offered to keep here on for a while while she mates again.

Loading the two was an adventure in itself. Im sure they were just playing with us as it took us what seemed forever to load the pigs, Fiona, Scott and I tried Prince then Doreen then Prince and then Doreen, Bernie one of the stockmen from Fernleigh Farm also came to assist and finally with a combination of bits of zucchini torn up as enticements up the ramp and with some prodding, pushing and pressure being applied from the rear we finally got Doreen up there, she had travelled before on a number of occasions but this was all new to Prince as such he took a little longer. As soon as Prince was up in the back of the ute he thrust his nose under the unattached crate dislodging it from its base and we all frantically and manically dove into action to tie the crate to the ute before any more damage could be done. Unfortantely in the disruption Doreen tried to dive under the wire mesh divider and scratched her back.

Nick then showed us how to trim both the razor sharp tusks from Prince and clip the nails after which both Prince and Doreen settled into the shadecloth covered crate for the ride back to Greenvale. After the paper work was filled out and Fiona dumped a mountain of information on us from feeding to, ear clipping to tattooing and the list went on. No doubt some of this went in one ear and out the other but Fiona kindly offered to act as consultant when ever we had questions.

Doreen and Prince travelled well all the way home albeit standing up most of the way and the only incident was Prince getting slightly randy, something I wasnt comfortable with only because with a combined weight of over 400 kg and a lot of jigging about we might find our selves in the ute upside down in a ditch. Fortunately Doreen wasnt having any of it and managed to fend off Prince.

Back at Greenvale the two had only just laid down, something they really should have done the entire trip. We backed the ute up to their new accomodation and put up the bobcat ramps for them to disembark. I had visions of having the same troubles getting them down as we did getting them up however fortunately they were eager to sus out their new surroundings. Once in there new shelter they ventured out the back door which opened to a run to their paddock. The first wander along the run prince dug his nose into the ground digging it up as if it was butter. Both Prince and Doreen then both independantly wandered around the perimeter, Id imaging to check the fencing and as yet there is no electric fence to which they are accustom to having.

The water containers full of water which we provided were tossed in the air like a beach ball so we fetched an unused cement water trough, placed it in the paddock and filled it with water allowing some overflow to be used as a wallowing area which they seemed to really appreciate.

As they dug up the soil I noticed how dark and rich it looked, now Im wondering if I should reneg and take back the paddock for my own and plant some veggies. I think Ill give them time to settle in before thinking about any moves.



While they wallowed about and munched on the green grass I tightened up some fencing an activity Ive only ever observed Scott doing, it took me a while but not a bad job if I do say so myself.

Later in the evening Amanda went to offload some corn on the cob but the two were snuggled up fast asleep like an old married couple.