Another house on the plot

And this is Tess coming to say hi, having had a glorious soak in the wallow, but not much mud adhering to her today as she has been busy in and out of her mud bath. Max, meanwhile, has pole position in the wallow, which he will not give up unless Tess jams herself down beside him with such force that he has to shift over to make room for her. Since she is bigger than him, she will win the day. However, he is likely to try and maintain his position, which will give rise to squeals of outrage from her at his selfishness. I kid you not, when that squeal erupts from her you would think all hell has been let lose.

As I say, not much mud on her today, nor on Max. Normally they are so plastered that they can hardly see from out of their eyes and Hubs /Head Pig Carer, has to clean them up a bit so they can see properly. But they have to do this because of the flies and other insects which frequently bother them. And it has been a tough couple of weeks for the two of them after Tess had her hissy fit with the original pig house. Oh I know that it was not quite big enough to fit the pair of them in it, but Max could have been less protective of his space and let her go in it occasionally. Which he might have done if she had not decided to use the pig arc as a tank to ram the fence on her first full day here. 

 So they have been camping out under the stars. Fortunately the weather has been kind, giving Hubs / Chief Builder, time to get their new house sorted out. 

Bless him, this is first proper build, done without any help from anyone else except Moi / General Go-For.

Max also likes to help. At this particular moment we are trying to get the electric fencing sorted out again, after having to resite elements of it to accomodate the new house. 

Tess also was unable to remain aloof to the electric fence work, by which time Hubs had his own hissy fit at the pair of them. Sometimes, just sometimes, they can be like naughty children.  And the electric wire did get into a hell of a tangle with their efforts at helping us. 

Time to make the bed, with Max helping again.  In goes a bale of straw, nicely fluffed up. 

And in the pair of them go to have an investigation. The first thing they did was to shift the straw so they could have a rummage in the ground below which was bit alarming for Hubs / Chief Site Engineer, because he thought that they were trying to dismantle the fabric of their house. But no. It was just a quick look to see if there were any tasty roots in the ground to nibble on. 

And here is the new house on the plot. Built entirely by Hubs, and looking, quite rightly, proud of himself. By the way, the long bars seeming to sit on top of the the hut are the road bridge railings. And those Tams have so fallen in love with their new house that they are ever hardly out of it. Which is good, since the window of good weather was just sufficient to get the house done. It has been cold and wet ever since, and it would have played on our nerves to think about the two of them without any shelter. 

And do you know that Tams snore? Well they do. They zizz away the same as the rest of us. I often tiptoe over to their place to have a look-see through the air openings, and there they are, having made nests in the straw, snug as anything and snoring away, with their noses in the straw so the flies can't bother them. Aw. 

And here are the two homes, the Tams and ours. Eventually there will be a farmyard effect on this field, with a housing estate of other little homes of various shapes and sizes to house other animals. In the back of our house will be a door leading into the 'Kitchen '/ Builder's Storage Depote so that we can commute more easily to and fro our animals. We have a long way to go. But as the saying goes: A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step!

Things I have learnt: That when trying to re wire an electric fence, it is best to keep the wire the other side of the fence as this is being done. Especially if one has two Tamworths. Who will be only to willing to interfere. And make a tangle. Which will therefore test one's patience no end. 

That other animals snore as well. And need a bed to rest in. 

And a quick note: My blessings to Barry, a fellow blogger, who recently passed away with cancer. May God be with you, my friend, and thankyou for sharing your life travels right up to the very end. x