Unexpected II: Not an Enterprise Retrospective

So, I was planning to post the rest of the Shackled City recap from yesterday's session, but we have some breaking news from the Sprigg farm. This morning, I went to feed the animals like I do every day. There were 53 chickens, 3 rabbits, and 2 pigs. This afternoon, I went out to feed the animals like I do every day. There were 53 chickens, 3 rabbits, and 8 pigs.

Say what?!

This was Samson and Delilah back in June after we put them outside in their pen. Below we see Samson and Delilah's current situation this afternoon in the barn pen:

Yeah, that's six little piggies cuddling up to Mama. She was expecting, but we weren't. That was a bit of a panic moment, because it's the middle of January. Thankfully, today was a relatively warm day (above zero, at least), which is a relief considering there's a polar vortex going on in the rest of the continent. PEI is always behind the times.

We set up a heat lamp tonight since the temperature is dropping, which is the reason for the odd lighting in this picture and the next one. Assuming the babies all survive the night, we'll be building a mini-wall to keep Mama from crushing them while they can still get the heat.

Sadly, Delilah actually had eight babies, but two of the boys were already dead when I found the new family. I'm told that's pretty normal for a first litter, especially since Delilah is still pretty young; she's not even a year old now. Still, it sucks to lose them.

The toughest part of the day was getting Samson to move outside and then blocking the doorway so he can't put the babies at risk. We'll be doing some more work to separate them more thoroughly going forward, although for now just keeping him outside will have to do until we can get something done in the spring for a more permanent solution.

It's ironic, because we were talking about getting six piglets to raise for meat while we waited for Samson and Delilah to do their business. Well, God has a sense of humor, because there are six piggies sitting in our barn now. It takes about a year for them to grow up to butchering size. We're debating whether to sell some of them young and raise the rest for meat. We'll have to consider it carefully, although we do have some time.

And yes, these are the only pigs we have now; the other three (including Bob) are freezer-bait and have been there since November. It's the circle of life, farm-style.