For love nor money

 We are playing the waiting game at Rock HQ, Reba is about to give birth so every time she so much as sighs I'm ready with the wicket keepers gloves to catch a freshly delivered pup. No joy so far and while she is a bit slower she is as mad as a box of frogs still so no real change there then. We took delivery of another batch of feed today, a months supply of nice fresh hayledge for the Anglo Nubians who thought all their Christmas' had come at once when one of the militia dropped a ton in front of their stall rather than take it up onto the runway for the boys.

 Its yet to be moved into storage, that's on tomorrows list but seeing it reminded me of a conversation with a very enthusiastic army officer a while back who was fascinated by the idea of smallholding, I mean it must be so rewarding to put your own food on the table right, and not to mention profitable. Well partly right, it is immensely rewarding in many ways, especially in the taste sensation department, but financially rewarding is not an area we have discovered yet. I hope I didn't put him off the idea by explaining how he could be spoon fed caviar for the rest of his life and still have money left over rather than chuck his pennies into the never ending abyss of feed and vets bills. The rising costs of feed stuffs is putting a lot of people off. Especially pigs.

Case in point. Conversation yesterday with particularly gnarly militia member who opened the discussion with the comment "I been thinking of going over to the market to get me a couple of piglets."
He looked at me over the gate. "You keep pigs then" it wasn't a question.
"Yes"
"Well my mate says they are going for a fiver at market"
"I heard that too"
"Might get some whey from over"points with thumb to local geography "They eat whey?" That was a question "Erm... think so" I look over to the general area of whey donator "How would you get it here?"
"Dunno. Theres always a way. How long would it keep though?" More cheese related questions outside of my expertese.
"No idea."
"Nor me" silence. "Has to be worth it, other wise theres no point" agreed.
"I could give you a couple of piglets if you want some. Free"
Receive look from militia like I had just insulted his grandmother. He took a step back. "You can have them for nothing" I continued. "Free, save you buying them, see how you get on." He nodded and scratched his chin noisily "What sort are they?"
"Free ones"
"I''ll think on it" and off he went.