Three inches of rain this weekend turned the packed dirt near the sows’ whey trough into a pig’s paradise. A sound everyone should hear is that satisfying plop-splat as a 600 pound sow flops into perfectly gooey mud. Just be sure to stand back when she stands up and starts shaking it off!
5 thoughts on “Living la vida lodosa”
Lovely sow you got there, Dave! By the way, I finally managed to have piglets after the last traumatic experience! I have a question, wonder if you have experience with this, is it OK to mate a boar with its auntie? Hubby and I are having a bit of a struggle with this! Anyway, Im just happy enough having piglets to manage to comment on your blog again, I’ve been very miserable, not good!
I’m glad to hear about the piglets.
Regarding the mating with close relatives, it generally is fine to do that. Inbreeding is pretty normal in nature. The Philippines would be a great place to study the effects of animal inbreeding, since there are so many small islands the animals on those islands would eventually all be closely related. And all the livestock breeds were created by inbreeding. Unless you are looking to become a livestock breeder, I’d recommend not to continue the inbreeding for several consecutive generations, but many people who can’t afford to change boars every year have done some inbreeding.
So I finally had a chance to look up “winter chanterelle,” which as it turns out is what I’ve always called “yellowfoot chanterelle” and eat in profusion. What you pictured above is definitely a good ole common chanterelle. So tasty. It’s getting near the end of the season for commons, and near the beginning of the season for winter/yellowfoot.
I’m not familiar with winter chanterelles, but I can say that it looks like what I’ve always heard called a “common chanterelle,” and that here in northern VT, they’re still all over the place. So I don’t think you’re past the prime season over there.
Yes, a few other people messaged stating that the mushrooms are likely chanterelles. I ate one without mishap. I think the cattle must have eaten the others because they were all gone a day after turning the herd into the woods to clear the brushy undergrowth. Other mushrooms are untouched, but apparently beef cattle like chanterelles. Who knew? Maybe fungus fed beef can be the next big thing…