Picking up where we left off last night.
2200
Soooo.... I got caught. While feeding the littles, they got a little noisy. Ranger was not impressed. I did the washing up and prepped more food for later on and he just sat and watched me.
I bribed him off with some extra food. Maybe that will work....
Tuesday, September 7th 0330
In my attempt at sleeping more than 3 hours, I may have waited a bit too long. They were definitely hungry and noisy. Ranger continued to be unimpressed with whatever the heck is making noise on the other side of the door.
When I came back upstairs to sleep on the couch till I had to get up for work, he sat at the basement door and cried until I called him up. Basement door is now shut and cats are upstairs only.
0600
More feeding, more messes. I've washed my hands and arms so many times my skin feels like it's the middle of winter. And, my pants have been wet and dried so many times they're kind of crunchy. #extragross
0930
Meal number... three? I'm losing track. I've never slept well but alarms going off at all sorts of hours is starting to mess with me.
Did I mention I have a full time job that is not being a farmer? I actually requested a meeting time be changed because it aligned with feeding time. (Fortunately, I have awesome coworkers/supervisors and we were able to work it out.)
1200
Decide I really want to set up a camera to peek in on the littles while I'm working. Grab a spare security camera and figure out how to configure it so I can see into the crate.
Seriously, spare lumber and bee equipment is being used in new ways never before seen around here.
Nuc box + lumber + random nail = camera stand #makingitwork
1300
Mum brought me lunch and helped with feeding the littles. Took Wiggles outside for a bit of lawn time. Figured the sun would feel good while she ate her snack.
On today's menu: banana pieces and some plain Greek yoghurt. The verdict: they didn't tell me, but they finished it off.
1500
Called The Barn Store to see if they had stall mats in stock - they did! If you're unfamiliar the stall mats I get are 4'x6' and about 1" thick. They're heavy and awkward to manage. On a normal day it's awkward to load but I can do it. Today, I accepted the offer for help.
Unfortunately they didn't follow me home so unloading was a bit more inelegant but gravity was more on my side.
Checked on the babies, added more food to the pans, and went back up to my home office to get some more work done.
1700
My friends are amazing. I sent out the "any chance you can help?" text on Monday morning. Today, she delivered.
It may not seem impressive but the piglets were running out of space in the transport crate and cleaning it out involved a lot of imagination and hoping nobody figured out that they could probably jump out of the interim boxes.
So while she changed into play clothes, I set up the puppy exercise pen in the yard and brought everyone outside.
For most of them, this was the first time they'd been on grass. And for my amazing friend, it was fantastic. For me, it was even better since she was supervising and I could move some things around and do some cleaning.
We let Wiggles do laps on the outside of the pen while everyone else nosed in the grass for whatever they could find.
When everybody started showing some fatigue, we brought them all back in, set the pen up on the stall mat, repositioned the heat lamp, put in some shavings, and added some littles.
New shavings! New floor! New edges! More space!
Since I don't really need shavings all over the garage and little noses can move things about, I scavenged around and assembled enough odds and ends to line the outside of the pen. It isn't pretty but it works!
They ate some more and then settled down for some sleep.
2000
Topped off feeder pans, added some fruit pieces, and a couple more handfuls of shavings.
Next check will be just before I go to bed and then the alarm will go off at 0230.