Run Piggy Run!

Today has been a rather busy one but there have been a load of laughs along the way. This morning I was up bright and early, horses out to graze, washed and dressed myself in decent clothes and off I went with the ladies for our usual Friday morning jaunt to the village centre and a chat over coffee. I also needed to find the guy who turns and bales our hay/lucerne as it had been cut last weekend and is due to come off the field. Unfortunately this time he can only bale it so poor hubby and our friend Jordani have had to go row and turn it all by hand this afternoon.

No sooner did we get settled at the table than the electricity went off, which is not uncommon here (and we don't get any warning either). Luckily we already had our coffees by then, so normal chat resumed with the table filling up fast as other Bulgarian ladies piled in.

I had to nip off during the chat to help an english friend order winter provisions for his donkey and chickens, and that sorted headed back for my coffee. I am getting better at understanding the conversations going on and sometimes even get a joke or 2 in Bulgarian. The ladies gently ribbed me about not charging for translation services but in reality my Bulgarian isn't that good! So off we went to pay bills and bargain hunt, luckily for me there was no water bill this month and the electric isn't due until next week.

10 minutes later and I'm home, still no electric but a few things sorted out and still lots to do. Hubby went off to sort the lucerne, and I went inside to get changed. There was lots of noise coming from the barn/stable yard so I had to go check things were ok, expecting to find Charlotte had decided to remove the sty door again. Nope, but the older piglets had broken through the barn door and were having a great time helping themselves to a 20 kilo bag of feed! Grrrr, no chance of getting them back in the barn since they've broken the bottom half of the door, demolition pigs have been at it again. Oh well at least they were secure in the yard and seemed to be having fun.

Back inside I did some housework, hubby came home, then friends came to collect their 2 pigs. Now in theory the "We'll let them out of the yard and they'll follow food to the trailer" should work, but not when the pigs have been stuffing their faces for the lst couple of hours! So we arranged people at various "Pig stopping" points, backed the trailer right up to the gate and tried to coerce, force, push, chase and generally get the pigs in the right direction.  So after half an hour in 35 degrees C and much amusement we finally had one pig in the trailer - the other had gone off for a trip to the bungalow garden but was swiftly rounded up by me, attempt 2 saw us making slow but sure progress with a fresh cucumber and a feed bucket and after some squealing (by the pig) and a bit of swearing (me) the second pig finally joined number 1 in the trailer for their short trip to their new home. Phew, happy days and filthy legs!